Strava have launched the Climbing Challenge to coincide with the inaugural Women’s Tour, challenging you to climb 2,310m – about half what the pros will ride – between 7-11th May while the race is underway.
The Climbing Challenge starts today, and presently nearly 44,000 people have signed up for it. There is still time to participate, and you can still enter part way through the challenge, if you think you can complete the climbing total in less than the allotted time. If you complete the challenge you will be able to purchase a limited edition Strava jersey for $109. Don’t forget to join the road.cc Strava club as well while you’re at it.
For the pros, the Queen of the Mountains classification will be hard fought with two classified climbs on each stage. Strava have helpfully listed the main climbs of the race on this page here, which should make for some interesting reading after the race has passed over them, presuming the athletes upload their ride activities.
Strava have also helpfully listed some of the women to watch out for in the battle for the polka data jersey. Marianne Vos is the clear favourite for the race overall, but she’ll face stiff competition from the likes of Lizzie Armitstead, Lucy Garner, Hannah Barnes, Laura Trott and many others, in fact 21 of the 96 starters are British. For the Queen of the Mountains classification Emma Pooley must surely rank as a favorite to wear the polka dot jersey all the way to the finish.
Marianne Vos is on Strava so hopefully we'll get an insight into the race. Here's a video in which Vos looks forward to the inaugural Women's Tour.
Don't forget to join the road.cc Strava group and share your rides with other road.cc readers as well www.strava.com/clubs/road-cc
26 thoughts on “Strava launches Women’s Tour Climbing Challenge”
I might join in if the
I might join in if the weather is nice tomorrow, I was thinking of hitting the Lecht anyway, that’ll give me just short of 4000ft in one ride. As much as I like the jersey, I aint paying that for it
Would I look stupid in a
Would I look stupid in a women’s jersey? I don’t have any moobs to speak of, so would there just be two floppy bits of excess fabric on my chest area? I’m just saying what everyone else has probably thought at one time or another.
chokofingrz wrote:Would I
Having spent a great deal of time in women’s clothes, I would have said (speaking as a man) that tightness across the shoulders is more likely to be your problem.
Cough Cough…..
Cough Cough….. http://www.provisionclothing.com/womenstour/strava-replica.html#
I’m probably going to see the
I’m probably going to see the race on Sat and Sun if I can, but we are in the East of England so climbing needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. Sprint up in the big ring, more than grind it out!
The Fred Whitton takes care
The Fred Whitton takes care of numerous $100 jerseys.
There are mens versions of
There are mens versions of the Strava Climbing jersey.
Strava needs to sort out
Strava needs to sort out their elevation feature first. See so many rides where elevation is at least a quarter higher than what it should be.
hardgrit wrote:Strava needs
I don’t think it is possible, problems as I see it, use a barometric altimeter, ride through a weather front and watch as you climb or decend whilst riding a flat road. Use a phone and you are relying on the base maps which don’t account for every little rise or fall in the road.
I have a relatively flat ride to work but the discrepancy between when I was using an iphone and the Garmin 500 I now use is pronounced.
iphone
http://www.strava.com/activities/88380884#1834793131
garmin
http://www.strava.com/activities/126274492#2837255313
only 50ft difference but as said a relatively flat road.
I use a basic Bryton 20 which
I use a basic Bryton 20 which seems to get the elevation pretty much correct.
I see a lot of rides done on Garmin which are way out among my Strava buddies.
I did just under 10000ft on Saturday over 110 miles. Ridewithgps mapping gave approximately the same results. In March I did a 100 with my mate. He’s got a garmin. My ele 8700, his over 11000ft!! exact same ride. There is some weirdness with garmin and Strava. See it all the time. Bit unfair when it comes to climbing challenges unless you have a Garmin of course 🙂
Only really trust my phone for shorter rides (commuting), otherwise again incorrect elevation and speed discrepancies.
elevation is an issue for GPS
elevation is an issue for GPS because it’s not really designed to measure it. barometric altitude measurements, in spite of their being affected by changing pressure, tend to be more accurate over a ride of a few hours, and topographical measurements based on elevation data in maps can be more accurate still, depending on the map. but not always.
bottom line is, it’s not a problem with Strava, it’s just a general problem with recording or calculating altitude.
Cheers Dave
I tend to ignore
Cheers Dave
I tend to ignore it now to an extent and just keep riding uphill till I can ride uphill no more 🙂
I emailed Strava yesterday
I emailed Strava yesterday and they confirmed that there are both men’s and women’s jerseys available. They have updated the challenge text to reflect this overnight.
never mind the altitude
never mind the altitude thingy, Strava *really* need to look at their power algorithm. So far off the ball it’s not true.
andyp wrote:never mind the
It’s a calculation. No calculation will be as accurate as a power meter
I know. Hence the use of the
I know. Hence the use of the word ‘algorithm’.
I’m getting up to 500W differences between a calibrated PowerTap and Strava’s ‘calculation’. Thus I reckon it needs some work.
andyp wrote:I know. Hence the
But how do you account for chaingangs, tail winds, etc.
Really not sure how Strava can get the Algorithm right?
On elevation, it’s not just a
On elevation, it’s not just a question of GPS versus barometric measuring equipment, but there’s a more fundamental issue of measurement granularity. How fine-grained should your elevation change measures be? Should you measure every little bump, or only every 100 metres?
It’s like the question “How long is the coast of Britain”, there simply is no right answer. It all depends how you measure it, and on subjective factors. There simply is no “correct” elevation change algorithm Strava could implement, even if they had perfect measurements!
On the power calculation thing, if you’re getting 500W differences, then you’re likely talking about only a very short climb. For long (e.g. Strava cat-3+) climbs I’ve found Strava’s estimation isn’t too far off compared to PowerTap, within 10%, sometimes 5%.
In principle, the longer and steeper the climb, the closer to truth Strava’s estimation should be – excluding wind factors and assuming elevation data is accurate.
Ah, where was this challenge
Ah, where was this challenge when I was in holiday in Tenerife eh? Would have been one day… only about 100m more than one continuous climb.
Marianne Vos has just
Marianne Vos has just uploaded here Women’s Tour stage one ride http://www.strava.com/activities/138494425?ref=1MT1yaWRlX3NoYXJlOzI9dHdpdHRlcjs0PTQxOTY3MzM%253D
hahah they’ll be a lot of
hahah they’ll be a lot of unhappy stravarites there. MV has just nicked a load of KOMS 🙂
David Arthur wrote:Marianne
Love that according to Strava, she rode with 11 friends – that’s just a club run, surely?! Average speed of just under 24mph too – would leave me standing!
‘On the power calculation
‘On the power calculation thing, if you’re getting 500W differences, then you’re likely talking about only a very short climb. For long (e.g. Strava cat-3+) climbs I’ve found Strava’s estimation isn’t too far off compared to PowerTap, within 10%, sometimes 5%’
I most recently saw a 450W difference on a flat piece of road. Either way, it doesn’t make for a decent ‘estimate’.
Agreed around 5-10% off on long climbs, up to around 20%.
‘But how do you account for chaingangs, tail winds, etc. ‘
This is exactly why measuring yourself against others (see nauseating ‘KoM’ bagging) on Strava is utterly pointless.
andyp: Yeah, I’d lump flat
andyp: Yeah, I’d lump flat roads in with short climbs as not being cat-3+ climbs. 😉
Just ignore the power estimate on anything other than longer climbs. For the longer climbs, it gets more accurate. Still not terribly useful though.
andyp wrote:
This is exactly
However using it to measure against yourself is very much valid.
Flat…as in FLAT. not flat
Flat…as in FLAT. not flat with short climb. spirit-level flat. Two riders riding shoulder to shoulder, at the same speed, on the same day/time…450W difference. I know one rider might be a *little* more aero than the other, but… 😉
I *always* ignore the power estimates as clearly, they are shite 😉