terrymorse 

Strava's segment leader board has an option to show by age category only. This may be a paid subscription feature, I'm not sure.

I'm in the 65-69 category now, and I'm having some fun trying to get onto that "old folks" leader board. Good motivation.

Is anyone else tracking their performance on the leader board? Maybe we can use this thread to post our accomplishments and give each other virtual pats on the back.

Here's my submission, from today's ride, the Longpeat Workout! segment:




And my results:

• Avg speed: 12.4 mph
• Time: 12:31
• Avg power: 3.42 W/kg
• 65-69 Leaderboard place: 1st (wohoo!)
• 2nd place speed: 12.1 mph

Any way, I'm pretty jazzed about nabbing a local KOM, even if it is only the olds.

How about you? The Strava age categories are 45-54, 55-64, 65-69, 70-74, 75+.

Mtracer

I do occasionally compare my segments to those in my age category 55-64 and also my weight 180-199 lbs. I don't think I have any KOMs in either, at least not for competitive segments. I will sometimes be in the top 10 for age and or weight, and then I'll compare those lists, and sometimes I'll have the KOM for that age AND weight group.

Next is comparing segments ridden on an odd numbered, first Tuesday of the month following a leap year when the moon is in the Seventh House and Jupiter aligns with Mars.

roadcrankr

Sometimes I look at my 65-69 category - mostly after a huge uphill sprint effort that placed me in the high-hundreds overall!
Makes me feel better about a top ten for my age group. Today, I earned an age-category 4th place. Nearly threw up from the 45-second burst.
Took a nice nap after coming home. ha ha

Kai Winters

I'm 68 and generally don't look at that category.
Well done though...only three ish minutes behind the CR all age category is great and 87th overall is nothing to sneeze at...chapeau

canklecat

I used to be somewhat competitive on, and motivated by, Strava, especially following guys my age in friendly rivalry. Even snagged a few all time top tens regardless of age on some tough segments. Never got a KOM on any meaningful segment, but there's no way a 60something year old guy should have a KOM if there are a significant number of fit younger riders on the same routes. I'm surprised I even held any top tens for as long as I did, and I'll attribute those to frisky tail winds. Some of my top tens were eventually lost to younger guys riding pacelines, so I don't feel guilty about taking advantage of tail winds.

And I noticed the local pro team guys rarely, if ever, posted their Strava publicly. I'm absolutely positive they'd have blown away the rest of us, including every over-30 guy with a KOM. I tried to pace behind some of the pro guys on some workout rides and they're on a whole nuther level -- I could barely hang on for a few miles and was dropped on the first series of climbs. I think they kept their Stava private out of courtesy to the older folks who kept the local bike shops in business.

But I never fully recovered from a bout with COVID in late 2021 and my fitness plummeted. I can't even keep up with guys my own age anymore. I canceled my Strava premium subscription last year and just do the best I can now when I can.

This year I'm concentrating more on strength training, hoping it'll eventually help with riding. We'll see.

BTinNYC 

Damn that's awful.

Marvelousmarkie

I just have the free subscription, so I don’t have access to the age or weight leader boards. I’ve only snagged a handful of top tens, but it’s not a goal, and it’s just happened a few times when I’m feeling frisky and want to see if I still have some speed in this old beat up body. For example, I didn’t even know this was a segment until I was notified I made the leader board.

Classtime 

I ride with guys my age and older who drop me at will. I’m motivated by comparing me now to me then.😊

roadcrankr

The Tour of California ran through various routes here in Socal since 2012 or so.
A bunch of the riders used Strava, posting insane segment times on level or upward sections.
Their times cover the top twenty placings, sometimes. Every so often a cyclist climbs in among them and eventually gets flagged. lol

rsbob 

I have been comparing my times to my age bracket - 65-69 for 3 or more years by scrolling down to that bracket from the top. (In Dec I will age out and move to 70+) Is there a way you have found to only display that bracket and no others? If so how?

Yesterday I was surprised to see Strava congratulate me for maintaining 500 Watts for 30 seconds - which was the longest I have maintained that output. Shall see what other surprises it has.

I probably have 30 KOMs for my bracket, but like I said before, big fish/small pond. There are two guys in the bracket that I have stolen a number of KOMs from but they are sitting on an equal number which are untouchable. One is a retired racer and the other must be genetically blessed.

Have managed three trophies for top 10 overall, but the wind and obscure segments helped me.

rsbob 

Today a VO2 Max of a 20 YO. Must be regressing…(no comments from the peanut gallery).

DougG

I've always done that for both running and biking. But now I'm in the top "75 and up" age group and am slipping in my placements since that's when you start slowing down consistently.

rsbob 

Hands over ears while singing, “la la la la”.

davester

Yikes, I just looked at the leaderboard for a significant climb near my house. Who are these other 70 year olds who are putting out over 290 watts on that climb!!!!

rsbob 

Genetic freaks? Former racers? Have their e-bikes tuned up?

terrymorse 

Possibilities:

• you live near Ned Overend
• these are big boys with big Watts, but mediocre W/kg
• the climb is short enough to anaerobically blast it, and these old guys know how to suffer

Gerryattrick

I'm 76 and am leaving it until I get an e-bike before I go for Strava segments.

A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

In reality it's pointless monitoring my performance because from here on it's all downhill...figuratively speaking.

canklecat

Eh, it's not so bad now. The impaired aerobic capacity motivated me to try strength training again, for the first time in decades. My health insurance includes a free Silver Sneakers pass to some gyms (Planet Fitness in my area).

I've done about four sessions and am enjoying the challenge of working muscles that I've mostly ignored for years. My chesticle moobs are beginning to fill out again in the upper region just below the clavicle. I've done pushups for years, but it doesn't work the entire pec region like some of the fancy weight machines. I liked the old Nautilus machines back in the 1970s (never cared for free weights and only use a few dumbbells and light barbells for curls), and the current batch of commercial gym grade weight machine enable a nicely controlled range of motion with less risk of injury.

And on the bike I can still keep up with friends for casual group rides. I haven't done any fast club rides since just before the pandemic and probably won't ever again. Besides the aerobic compromise from the respiratory virus, neck arthritis pain from old injuries makes it tough to ride a drop bar bike in the most aero position for more than a few minutes at a time. Even back in 2019 I was finding myself getting just a wee bit sketchy in some tight pacelines because I couldn't easily keep my head up and quickly peek over my shoulders. I don't want to crash at my age, or be the cause for a crash, so now I confine my hard workout rides to solo rides. If I happen to crash, nobody gets hurt but me. A friend brought over a recumbent trike to try out and it's very comfortable, although heavy at over 35 lbs. It's not intended to be fast, but maybe I'll eventually try a lightweight two wheel recumbent.

canklecat

In the fast club I used to ride with, a 70something y/o member got the first serious ebike carbon fiber road bike I'd seen in person. This was around 2016 or '17. Pedal assist so it was easy to draft him by watching his cadence, same as any other rider. I enjoyed drafting him because he was a very good rider, safe and dependable bike handling skills, and we could get up some serious speed behind him.

canklecat

One 50something y/o guy in the fast club I used to ride with was a top amateur track runner in his prime. Wouldn't know it now to look at him and he struggles on climbs. But on a flat or roller terrain it's hard to keep up with him. Or away from him. I remember a couple of times having him in my mirror after a climb and trying to maintain a break but I'd see him gradually catching up on the flatter terrain. My goal was to make it to the turnoff to my home before he caught and tapped me on the back, laughing. I never managed that. Some physical attributes remain even when we're overweight.

choddo

Don’t those motors top out at 15mph like they do here? I have a friend with the Specialized one and he couldn’t really keep up with us on the flat but it was great on climbs.

I’m almost at the top end of my age cat and it’s the highly competitive 45-54 so it helps me
not at all

canklecat

In the US e-assist bikes can reach over 20 mph. Legally other fully motorized ebikes are supposedly restricted by federal and local laws but nobody pays attention to that. I've seen electric skateboards and scooters reaching 30+ mph in my area. And I'm seeing a lot of gasoline engine motorized bicycles with no restrictions, licenses, etc., being built as substitutes for motorcycles for folks who can't get a driving license or can't afford the skyrocketing costs of conventional motorcycles.

It's not quite a free for all in the US, but some states like Texas are edging pretty close to unregulated motor vehicles. Nobody enforces the display of license plates, even on the rear -- there's been a flood of fake paper dealer tags throughout the state to get around licensing and insurance, or to get away awhile longer with driving stolen cars (law enforcement rarely investigate car theft anymore either). Vehicle safety inspection is being curtailed for many vehicles and drivers.

Jughed

I live in flat land country, and its also windy. Our KOM's are typically dominated by people on TT bikes with a tailwind.

I have a few top 10's overall, local flat farm roads where I can zip out and give it the beans when the winds are right - but I will never catch the TT bikes or group ride numbers.

I've put out 40-50w more than the KOM holder on some dead flat segments - and they outpaced me by 3-4+MPH. TT bike, stronger tailwinds...

PeteHski

The oldies around here appear to be quick. I just checked my local KOM and my best effort of 356W at 75kg was good enough to rank me………..#96 in the 55-64 age cat! I just need to find another 10 kph to win the KOM 😂

Hermes

No KOM's for me. Not even close. My coach has a challenge ongoing where we can win special cups. In general, to win a cup, one has to come within 10% of a record, complete a special structured workout or be in the top 10% for a Zwift verified Strava segment. He acknowledges there is a lot of noise at the top end of the Strava records - wind, inaccurate PM, cheating, ebikes, group rides and etc. My wife age 70-74 has won 4 cups. I have won zero,