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Digital EPO: smash your Strava times… by cheating

Website allows you to 'enhance' your ride performance from the comfort of your sofa...

Digital EPO is a website that allows you to ‘enhance’ your ride data before you share it with your friends, teammates and so on. It lets you cheat, basically.

Countless riders have gone to great lengths over the years to convince people that they’re better than they actually are. Often that involves drugs, but drugs cost money, they’re potentially dangerous, and you run the risk of a ban. If you’re going to cheat, Digital EPO is an altogether less hazardous way of doing it.

Why go to all the trouble and pain of training and actually working up a sweat? You simply need to go for a ride at whatever intensity you like, upload your ride to GarminConnect or a similar performance-tracking website, then export it out as a TCX file. 

Then you upload it to the Digital EPO website, entering the amount of ‘juice’ you want to add to your ride. So, you can increase your speed, lower your heart rate, or increase the amount of climbing you’ve done. Then you can upload the file to Strava or something similar and bask in your undeserved glory.

As an exercise in Mickey taking, we reckon it’s quite funny. They say that you know you’ve made it when people start lampooning you, so we guess that means Strava has definitely hit the big time.

We can’t see it going down too well with people who take their KOMs seriously, though. In fact, we'd urge you not to get involved. Cheats never prosper - ask multi-millionaire Lance Armstrong. Oh no, hang on, that doesn't work.

Anyway, check it out here: http://digitalepo.com/

[Apologies if you saw this months ago, by the way, but it's a new one on us and well worth sharing].

Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.

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61 comments

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madhouse | 11 years ago
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Ahh, this one's been around for a while and I presume is used by all those so desperate to get a KoM they'll cut corners on the road and trail. I do a lot of MTBing and we've all seen 'strava' lines on the trails.

All boils down to a lack of respect, unwillingness to actually train and the desire for recognition - something that can be applied to a lot more than Strava!

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hood | 11 years ago
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THAT is extremely sad, KOM are good for a laugh down the pub, and as a small pat on the back after competing with thousands across a busy london section. but anyone taking it seriously needs to get a life, because to be quite honest any phone GPS tracking app(strava, garmin etc) isnt 100% accurate anyway!!!!
if u r going to "juice" your rides u shud be out competing for real, not wanking off in your bedroom over made up stats on a made up race!!! its all in your head!

oh, and i love the way the site calls it "juice", come on, be honest, its cheating, lol. dont try n make the cheater feel less bad about it, if your going to cheat may as well be honest with yourself. calling it a different name wont make the facts change!

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11speedaddict | 11 years ago
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Only sad misguided riders take their KOMs seriously. You know the type, not fit enough to actually race so act like they are racing on some "pay-to-ride on a road you can ride on for free" sportive. But heh they are not beating anyone on a sportive because the riders they pass are not racing.
Several riders in our club would smash the KOMs near me but are not interested in 1: Strava 2: even having a computer on their bike (e.g Andy Wilkinson being one)
I hold several KOMs with 100s of riders behind me. But 85%+ just rode the segment unknowingly and are not actually competing AND I often have a gale force tail wind.
No One is a KOM without favourable conditions.
So My "Juice" is the MET office App !!! wind direction  14

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Mat Brett | 11 years ago
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I feel the need to point something out to some commenters.

The Digital EPO site: it's a joke.

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fbhidy | 11 years ago
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Interesting how some of the folks mocking those who take Strava too seriously have the veloviewer banner  39

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Wookie | 11 years ago
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I use Strava to benchmark my own performance mainly. Never had a KoM and never likely to.
But I do notice there appears to be a 0.5 mile of a difference between Strava and my Garmin performances.
Strava being slower.  7

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Colin Peyresourde | 11 years ago
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I see someone has already ridden 9 times and done 11,000km in that time on the latest Strava challenge. It's a shame that people feel like messing Strava up.

You get out it what you want, your own personal challenges, but it looks like jealousy and competitiveness (and anti-competitiveness) win out.

I guess some people want us to all be the same or not bother comparing people because they fear comparison.

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theincrediblebike | 11 years ago
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I've just lost a KOM but kudos for whacking my time. Anyone who has to cheat on their times is a fucking loser. Suffer like a real man.

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pilchard67 | 11 years ago
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This is a fantastic resource for anyone wishing to boost their performance without the health risks of actually doing epo. Has anyone come across a digital testosterone? The combined effect would put you bang on top of leader boards with no nasty blood thickening etc.

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oldgit | 11 years ago
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Always hated Strava, always thought it was a bit snide and this proves it.
Beating the other man to the chequered flag or stopping the timekeepers watch is the way to go.

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waldner71 | 8 years ago
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2 points. One is that this looks like a thread by misers,  as no one has "liked" any of the previous 60 comments, two, the May climbing challenge "Everest no filter Climbing challenge" is currently being led by Rayo Boursier who has "climbed" 19911m in 3 days apparently,  yet there's no recent activity this week from him. He did climb 72000m last week though. Surely Strava must notice this..

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koko56 replied to Mat Brett | 11 years ago
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Mat Brett wrote:

I feel the need to point something out to some commenters.

The Digital EPO site: it's a joke.

Beat me to it!

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mrmo replied to Colin Peyresourde | 11 years ago
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to be fair, you do get the odd glitch. For some reason the gps trace will send you half way round the world for a moment.

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notfastenough replied to Mat Brett | 11 years ago
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Mat Brett wrote:

I feel the need to point something out to some commenters.

The Digital EPO site: it's a joke.

Someone (Gkam?) said they tested it and it does what it says though, right?

Regardless, I notice the 'Skata' parody site which it links to, is then one massive link back here, regarding the legal nonsense surrounding that chap dying trying to regain a KOM - you knocked all this up yourselves didn't you?  4  39

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dave atkinson replied to notfastenough | 11 years ago
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notfastenough wrote:

Regardless, I notice the 'Skata' parody site which it links to, is then one massive link back here, regarding the legal nonsense surrounding that chap dying trying to regain a KOM

oh yeah. wondered how we were getting traffic back from them...

and no, we didn't make it. promise.

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italianbikesnob | 11 years ago
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I'm aware of Strava being used from cars and motorbikes but can anyone explain these times?

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zanf replied to italianbikesnob | 11 years ago
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italianbikesnob wrote:

I'm aware of Strava being used from cars and motorbikes but can anyone explain these times?

GPS data error. I have had times where I've forgot to stop the timer when I've gone in my flat and it clocks ridiculous speeds despite not moving.

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beardyjim replied to zanf | 11 years ago
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zanf wrote:
italianbikesnob wrote:

I'm aware of Strava being used from cars and motorbikes but can anyone explain these times?

GPS data error. I have had times where I've forgot to stop the timer when I've gone in my flat and it clocks ridiculous speeds despite not moving.

Depends on the segment but that may be a tt that is 6 laps of something and strava does sometimes take one lap as the full lap and hence thinks you did it 6 times faster than you actually did (hence avg speed of 25mph becomes 150mph)
Strava just isn't smart enough to work those out (although in its defence it would have to be pretty smart to do that automatically!)

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mr-andrew | 11 years ago
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Interesting reading all these angry comments - I guess we now really know how some top non drugging athletes feel. If nothing else this site has probably done more to make me realise the impact of doping than anything I've come across. WADA should sponsor it

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notfastenough | 11 years ago
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This is precisely one of those scenarios where the IT security folks probably recommended encryption ages ago. The business people in Strava promptly said "Encryption? Who the heck would want to hack this stuff?"

....

It is rather irritating, I'm mostly just out for personal bests and trying to beat my clubmates, but if I can swing a top 10 or a KOM occasionally, that's nice.

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bdsl replied to notfastenough | 9 years ago
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This is precisely one of those scenarios where the IT security folks probably recommended encryption ages ago. The business people in Strava promptly said "Encryption? Who the heck would want to hack this stuff?"

Encryption woudn't prevent this. You could make it a bit more complicated, but I there's no clear way to stop people submittied dishonest reports to strava. Strava might try programing the strava app to use a secret code to sign the report, but then people with rooted/jailbroken phones could copy the secret from strava and use it to sign their made up report.

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Threeh | 11 years ago
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Not surprised at all, some of the climb times on my local hills are done at an average of 25mph!?

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crash144019 | 11 years ago
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Really only use strava as a training aid. To be honest at 50 my days of serious competition are long gone. However do know lots of riders who take it seriously feel this mocks them and it's not funny.

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karlowen replied to crash144019 | 11 years ago
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crash144019 wrote:

However do know lots of riders who take it seriously feel this mocks them and it's not funny.

Anyone taking Strava "seriously" deserves to be mocked. It's fun to show off the odd KOM to mates, or a bit of light hearted ribbing of clubmates but taking it seriously is another matter. I'm a heavy user, but if someone wishes to take my KOM through a program, good luck to them. I'll give them a bashing up the same hill next time i see them in my sights.

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zanf replied to karlowen | 11 years ago
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karlowen wrote:
crash144019 wrote:

However do know lots of riders who take it seriously feel this mocks them and it's not funny.

Anyone taking Strava "seriously" deserves to be mocked. It's fun to show off the odd KOM to mates

Says the guy with Strava data all over his signature!

[ducks]

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Mr Agreeable | 11 years ago
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According to Strava, I'm faster than Road.cc staffer John Whittington up a local 4 in 1. This is the same bloke who usually laps me twice at local cyclocross races.

While the accuracy of it remains so duff, I think the ire of the people having their KOMs taken away from them remains misplaced.

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ilovemytinbred | 11 years ago
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It is a shame but Strava has never been a true reflection of performance. Group rides or TT bikes as well as inaccurate data recording have always meant you take these things with a pinch of salt.

All around the country there are club TTs where you can just turn up and find out how you stack up, there are plenty of guys and girls on road bikes. Added bonus is you get to talk to real people.

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cidermart | 11 years ago
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Probably made by a rather large chappie with an aversion to sunlight and exercise. No thanks.

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ajft | 11 years ago
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Don't really care. If you're insecure enough to need to do it, then fine, go for it. Any system anywhere that relies on user-entered data has to accept that some of that data will be bogus.

There were guys I knew 25 years ago who used to deliberately enter larger wheel diameters into their sigma or cateye bike computers so they could "show" that they had the highest top speed at the end of a ride.

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Colin Peyresourde | 11 years ago
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I can only think of the look on some Pros face as his KOM goes to some fat faced chump digitally morphing his ride time.

Daniel Lloyd has the KOM on Boxhill. It would be interesting to see if it pushes them to the edge.

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