Paying for VeloViewer

Last week I stumped up £9.99 to continue using VeloViewer. I did this gladly because it is a useful site and makes Strava worth using. I started using Strava in August and found it good motivation to try and improve my segment positions. I was flagging just riding on my own and needed some external motivation; I occasionally work on a Saturday or Sunday and am not naturally an early riser so I mainly ride after work or in the afternoon, so club riding just doesn't fit. I soon found that I clocked up a few hundred segments but had no way on Strava to track them all quickly and conveniently.

Having been on Road.cc for a couple of years I had seen peoples VeloViewer banners and looked into this to see what information it would give me. Though the graphics can be a bit rough around the edges it does exactly the sort of thing I expected Strava to do for me. I now have a complied list of all the segments I have covered. I can sort them by position or percentage behind leader or time behind leader so I can see if there is something I can target. I am now just covering as many segments as I can during the winter and getting any old time for them. I am planning a STRAVA250 for next summer (May/June) where I go around turning all my top 250s into top 100s, all my top 100's into whatever. This would be impossible without VeloViewer.

So back to the fee. Of course it used to be free, you could donate. The site builders did trail it for a while but you now need to pay to use it for more than your last 10 rides or it will wipe the old data. They clearly stated that the storage demands and number of people using the site precluded keeping it free, which is entirely understandable. I do wonder if Strava would buy them out and add these functions [or buy them out and shut them down.] I hope others are now coughing up to keep this website going; what to you think of VeloViewer?