Strava Monthly Climbing Challenge - WTF?
Discussion
This month the challenge is to climb 11000m in September. I join this every month because it is a nice way challenge myself to get out and ride more hills.
What amazes me is the number of people that manage to complete the challenge within the first couple of days or even within a single ride. As this is a personal challenge what is the point in cheating? I don't understand why anyone enters these things then goes off and uploads ridiculous rides - it is not the Krypton Factor to use the elevation correction button if gps has screwed up.
I just had a look at the leader board and some of the rides that have been uploaded are ridiculous...
The guy leading has already climbed 40000m.... Amazingly his last ride was 19km with 12000m of climbing! What was he riding a spaceship?
What amazes me is the number of people that manage to complete the challenge within the first couple of days or even within a single ride. As this is a personal challenge what is the point in cheating? I don't understand why anyone enters these things then goes off and uploads ridiculous rides - it is not the Krypton Factor to use the elevation correction button if gps has screwed up.
I just had a look at the leader board and some of the rides that have been uploaded are ridiculous...
The guy leading has already climbed 40000m.... Amazingly his last ride was 19km with 12000m of climbing! What was he riding a spaceship?
I wouldn't worry about it ...
When I was in Italy a couple of years ago, I rode down the Amalfi coast and used the Strava iPhone app which recorded 24,000ft over 60 ish miles. I then ride it again and it recorded over 22,000ft ... there was a LOT of climbing but not that much. The elevation correction wouldn't work ... must be an app thing?
When I got home I plotted the route on Garmin and it said around 8500ft if I recall which seemed more realistic.
When I was in Italy a couple of years ago, I rode down the Amalfi coast and used the Strava iPhone app which recorded 24,000ft over 60 ish miles. I then ride it again and it recorded over 22,000ft ... there was a LOT of climbing but not that much. The elevation correction wouldn't work ... must be an app thing?
When I got home I plotted the route on Garmin and it said around 8500ft if I recall which seemed more realistic.
Don't sweat it. The strava "Honest Climbers Club" insist on a dedicated barometric GPS device (not a phone app) and forbid the use of the elevation correction feature on Strava.
This is because in many places around the world, correcting the elevation can actually increase the amount of climbing you are credited with. It's our Ordnance Survey accurate mapping that almost universally ensures that you are robbed of elevation if you correct it in UK. I only had one really obvious over-read of elevation with my Edge 500 - that was on a rain soaked nightmare of a ride, and I think water just blocked the pressure sensor vents on the back of the unit? It wasn't going to affect any meaningful leaderboards, nor win me any prizes so I just left it as was. I think I put a note on the ride entry to remind me that I'm no Richard Virenque!
Like the OP, I wonder why people cheat at Strava. No point really. The only truly honest contest on there is the one you have with yourself. My riding changes from one 'favourite' thing to another with some regularity. Earlier this year I was back and forth to the Surrey Hills a lot on a road bike, and finished the challenge early a couple of times, especially on 'out of season' months where the required figure is lower than the summer months. The last month or more has been mostly local MTB rides. The raw elevation data shows less climbing, but it's harder climbing, on loose and often rooty surfaces. In August I achieved only 44% of the 11,000m, and I'd have been over the moon to have got to 50% to be honest.
Some folks do live in hilly areas, or have proper mountains right on their doorstep, but yes, for the most part I'm sceptical about these early finishers, and I suspect that if you drew a graph of their "feet climbed per mile" figures you'd end up with something that looked like Everest in steepness. I love Strava, but it's not perfect. Some users (and they know who they are) though, will stop at very little to nab a KOM or a leaderboard spot on some fairly meaningless (in the grand scheme of things) challenge.
As with all things, direct competition on the same course, on the same day, is the only true arbiter of who is the faster rider, or who climbs best. I used to think (based on Strava KOM times) that I was all kinds of awesome on some of my local off-road segments. Not the fastest, but top ten in many cases, and top 20% in most. Then I entered a race on those very segments, and my illusions where comprehensively shattered, in many cases by 'proper' XC MTB athletes who had no interest at all in Strava. Or Strava athletes who came from outside the area, yet, with a practice lap or two, managed to completely out-ride me on my 'home' trails.
This is because in many places around the world, correcting the elevation can actually increase the amount of climbing you are credited with. It's our Ordnance Survey accurate mapping that almost universally ensures that you are robbed of elevation if you correct it in UK. I only had one really obvious over-read of elevation with my Edge 500 - that was on a rain soaked nightmare of a ride, and I think water just blocked the pressure sensor vents on the back of the unit? It wasn't going to affect any meaningful leaderboards, nor win me any prizes so I just left it as was. I think I put a note on the ride entry to remind me that I'm no Richard Virenque!
Like the OP, I wonder why people cheat at Strava. No point really. The only truly honest contest on there is the one you have with yourself. My riding changes from one 'favourite' thing to another with some regularity. Earlier this year I was back and forth to the Surrey Hills a lot on a road bike, and finished the challenge early a couple of times, especially on 'out of season' months where the required figure is lower than the summer months. The last month or more has been mostly local MTB rides. The raw elevation data shows less climbing, but it's harder climbing, on loose and often rooty surfaces. In August I achieved only 44% of the 11,000m, and I'd have been over the moon to have got to 50% to be honest.
Some folks do live in hilly areas, or have proper mountains right on their doorstep, but yes, for the most part I'm sceptical about these early finishers, and I suspect that if you drew a graph of their "feet climbed per mile" figures you'd end up with something that looked like Everest in steepness. I love Strava, but it's not perfect. Some users (and they know who they are) though, will stop at very little to nab a KOM or a leaderboard spot on some fairly meaningless (in the grand scheme of things) challenge.
As with all things, direct competition on the same course, on the same day, is the only true arbiter of who is the faster rider, or who climbs best. I used to think (based on Strava KOM times) that I was all kinds of awesome on some of my local off-road segments. Not the fastest, but top ten in many cases, and top 20% in most. Then I entered a race on those very segments, and my illusions where comprehensively shattered, in many cases by 'proper' XC MTB athletes who had no interest at all in Strava. Or Strava athletes who came from outside the area, yet, with a practice lap or two, managed to completely out-ride me on my 'home' trails.
Having mountains on the doorstep is the key - last month I was on holiday for 3 weeks in Cyprus and the climbs started within a mile of the villa which meant I managed 20,000m for August...
Now I am back to a flat part of the UK so getting a lot of climbing in requires long rides to hilly areas.
I am not convinced that the Barometric GPS in the Garmin is very good it - in the past I have manually set the elevation to 0 when stood at sea level, walked back to the car (about 20 meters) and the shown elevation is 60m above sea level. Similarly on a group rides the elevation gain can vary +/-200m for a 30 mile ride between riders.
Now I am back to a flat part of the UK so getting a lot of climbing in requires long rides to hilly areas.
I am not convinced that the Barometric GPS in the Garmin is very good it - in the past I have manually set the elevation to 0 when stood at sea level, walked back to the car (about 20 meters) and the shown elevation is 60m above sea level. Similarly on a group rides the elevation gain can vary +/-200m for a 30 mile ride between riders.
Barometric is flawed, it assumes that atmospheric pressure is correlated to altitude, but it is also correlated to weather. It's often not a noticeable issue, but I've had rides with a distinct change in the weather during the day that has resulted in an obvious problem. You can see the altitude gain rising much quicker than normal, so by the end of a 1000ft climb you're on 2000ft or more.
It's not necessarily more accurate than the corrected data, certainly in the UK.
It's not necessarily more accurate than the corrected data, certainly in the UK.
I agree with barometric pressure being poor, certainly in changeable weather conditions. Here is a ride I did in Italy earlier this year, under storms and flood warnings. The mountain is only 3000 ft, but the Garmin has recorded double that! This is also the only wobbly I have noticed. I know I rode down the SS12 to get to Lucca.
https://www.strava.com/activities/603101197
https://www.strava.com/activities/603101197
jesusbuiltmycar said:
Having mountains on the doorstep is the key - last month I was on holiday for 3 weeks in Cyprus and the climbs started within a mile of the villa which meant I managed 20,000m for August...
Now I am back to a flat part of the UK so getting a lot of climbing in requires long rides to hilly areas.
I am not convinced that the Barometric GPS in the Garmin is very good it - in the past I have manually set the elevation to 0 when stood at sea level, walked back to the car (about 20 meters) and the shown elevation is 60m above sea level. Similarly on a group rides the elevation gain can vary +/-200m for a 30 mile ride between riders.
slightly off topic, where in cyprus did you ride? i was there 3 weeks ago and had a venture into the troodos.Now I am back to a flat part of the UK so getting a lot of climbing in requires long rides to hilly areas.
I am not convinced that the Barometric GPS in the Garmin is very good it - in the past I have manually set the elevation to 0 when stood at sea level, walked back to the car (about 20 meters) and the shown elevation is 60m above sea level. Similarly on a group rides the elevation gain can vary +/-200m for a 30 mile ride between riders.
jesusbuiltmycar said:
This month the challenge is to climb 11000m in September. I join this every month because it is a nice way challenge myself to get out and ride more hills.
What amazes me is the number of people that manage to complete the challenge within the first couple of days or even within a single ride. As this is a personal challenge what is the point in cheating? I don't understand why anyone enters these things then goes off and uploads ridiculous rides - it is not the Krypton Factor to use the elevation correction button if gps has screwed up.
I just had a look at the leader board and some of the rides that have been uploaded are ridiculous...
The guy leading has already climbed 40000m.... Amazingly his last ride was 19km with 12000m of climbing! What was he riding a spaceship?
I learnt to ignore the leader boards for any of the challenhes very early on. Even if they aren't cheating they are either people paid to ride a bike or they ride every waking hour outside of work. When the people at the top of the distance challenges are averaging 100 miles a day for a month then there's no point in even looking to see how close you are. What amazes me is the number of people that manage to complete the challenge within the first couple of days or even within a single ride. As this is a personal challenge what is the point in cheating? I don't understand why anyone enters these things then goes off and uploads ridiculous rides - it is not the Krypton Factor to use the elevation correction button if gps has screwed up.
I just had a look at the leader board and some of the rides that have been uploaded are ridiculous...
The guy leading has already climbed 40000m.... Amazingly his last ride was 19km with 12000m of climbing! What was he riding a spaceship?
te. Always correct data on strava - you can sometimes see the drift as the day goes on with the garmin graph.Bill said:
11000m in a month?!? Bloody hell! I was vaguely planning to do 8848m (mostly off road, though) this year . 
Give or take, I'm at about 65,800 metres climbed for the year so far. Biggest month for distance (968.4 miles) was December, believe it or not! Climbing then was 13,244 metres. I blame the silly "Rapha Festive 500" challenge for that! The most climbing in a month was in May, when I did 13,902 metres (45,612ft) vertical ascent in 1,320km (802 miles). The other 6 months this year I've not got anywhere near 11,000 metres in the month. Which reminds me. Too much local MTB trail riding has curtailed both my mileage and elevation figures for too long. I really must get out into the Surrey Hills area and put in some decent climbing hours soon...yellowjack said:
Give or take, I'm at about 65,800 metres climbed for the year so far. Biggest month for distance (968.4 miles) was December, believe it or not! Climbing then was 13,244 metres. I blame the silly "Rapha Festive 500" challenge for that! The most climbing in a month was in May, when I did 13,902 metres (45,612ft) vertical ascent in 1,320km (802 miles). The other 6 months this year I've not got anywhere near 11,000 metres in the month. Which reminds me. Too much local MTB trail riding has curtailed both my mileage and elevation figures for too long. I really must get out into the Surrey Hills area and put in some decent climbing hours soon...
Yeah, but you're clearly some sort of pervert. Therefore, it doesn't count =)broster said:
slightly off topic, where in cyprus did you ride? i was there 3 weeks ago and had a venture into the troodos.
Did you hire a bike or take your own? This year I took my own bike which made the holiday. I was staying Pissouri bay, which is halfway between Paphos and Limassol. I rode early in the morning, leaving the villa at 6:00AM to avoid the heat. This meant that the roads were very quiet.I find Cyprus a fantastic place to ride - the scenery is pretty amazing and the road surfaces are pretty good (there are a lot less potholes than the UK). My biggest ride there was from Pissouri (sea level) to the top of Mount Olympus and back - about a 120K round trip with over 3K of climbing. I particularly enjoyed the coast road between Kouklia and Kourian, the climb to Dora from Kouklia and the back road road between Anogyra and Dora.
Here are some of the routes I used:
https://www.strava.com/routes/2895828
https://www.strava.com/routes/694049
https://www.strava.com/routes/6106979
jesusbuiltmycar said:
Did you hire a bike or take your own? This year I took my own bike which made the holiday. I was staying Pissouri bay, which is halfway between Paphos and Limassol. I rode early in the morning, leaving the villa at 6:00AM to avoid the heat. This meant that the roads were very quiet.
I find Cyprus a fantastic place to ride - the scenery is pretty amazing and the road surfaces are pretty good (there are a lot less potholes than the UK). My biggest ride there was from Pissouri (sea level) to the top of Mount Olympus and back - about a 120K round trip with over 3K of climbing. I particularly enjoyed the coast road between Kouklia and Kourian, the climb to Dora from Kouklia and the back road road between Anogyra and Dora.
Here are some of the routes I used:
https://www.strava.com/routes/2895828
https://www.strava.com/routes/694049
https://www.strava.com/routes/6106979
I took my own this year, two years ago i hired one from mountain bike cyprus (they do alot of road stuff now).I find Cyprus a fantastic place to ride - the scenery is pretty amazing and the road surfaces are pretty good (there are a lot less potholes than the UK). My biggest ride there was from Pissouri (sea level) to the top of Mount Olympus and back - about a 120K round trip with over 3K of climbing. I particularly enjoyed the coast road between Kouklia and Kourian, the climb to Dora from Kouklia and the back road road between Anogyra and Dora.
Here are some of the routes I used:
https://www.strava.com/routes/2895828
https://www.strava.com/routes/694049
https://www.strava.com/routes/6106979
Oddly i rode to Pissouri Bay, i stayed between Kourian and Limassol, so yes i am also familiar with the old coast road, lovely riding.
The climb up Olympus is great, do you go up the base at the top or did you stop at troodos?
The riding is great there some great views, was a little warm, i was setting off at 7am most days.
broster said:
jesusbuiltmycar said:
Did you hire a bike or take your own? This year I took my own bike which made the holiday. I was staying Pissouri bay, which is halfway between Paphos and Limassol. I rode early in the morning, leaving the villa at 6:00AM to avoid the heat. This meant that the roads were very quiet.
I find Cyprus a fantastic place to ride - the scenery is pretty amazing and the road surfaces are pretty good (there are a lot less potholes than the UK). My biggest ride there was from Pissouri (sea level) to the top of Mount Olympus and back - about a 120K round trip with over 3K of climbing. I particularly enjoyed the coast road between Kouklia and Kourian, the climb to Dora from Kouklia and the back road road between Anogyra and Dora.
Here are some of the routes I used:
https://www.strava.com/routes/2895828
https://www.strava.com/routes/694049
https://www.strava.com/routes/6106979
I took my own this year, two years ago i hired one from mountain bike cyprus (they do alot of road stuff now).I find Cyprus a fantastic place to ride - the scenery is pretty amazing and the road surfaces are pretty good (there are a lot less potholes than the UK). My biggest ride there was from Pissouri (sea level) to the top of Mount Olympus and back - about a 120K round trip with over 3K of climbing. I particularly enjoyed the coast road between Kouklia and Kourian, the climb to Dora from Kouklia and the back road road between Anogyra and Dora.
Here are some of the routes I used:
https://www.strava.com/routes/2895828
https://www.strava.com/routes/694049
https://www.strava.com/routes/6106979
Oddly i rode to Pissouri Bay, i stayed between Kourian and Limassol, so yes i am also familiar with the old coast road, lovely riding.
The climb up Olympus is great, do you go up the base at the top or did you stop at troodos?
The riding is great there some great views, was a little warm, i was setting off at 7am most days.
I went all the way up Mt Olympus to the base this year, didn't realise how much further on it is from Troodos square. I really enjoyed the ride even though it is probably the hardest ride ever done. It was 27C at teh top and 42C when I got back to Pissouri...
They are a good company to deal with, based in pafos, delivered my bike to Limassol no problems. They don't have anything super fancy but it's all in top condition. They do guided rides too.
If you go Mtb riding, from what I've seen the trails in troodos are pretty amazing! Plenty of full on downhill bikes up there. Too much for me!
If you go Mtb riding, from what I've seen the trails in troodos are pretty amazing! Plenty of full on downhill bikes up there. Too much for me!
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