Ian Stannard’s Tour of Britain stage win on Strava

Chris James wrote:

Without wanting undermine the guy in the Glasgow area's 'achievements' - if people want to get competitive about how fast they can ride then they should buy a licence, pin a number on, and prove it. Everything else is nonsense.

No worries, you can't undermine him without stealing his KOMs. Feel free to try.

So tell us, why is time trialling nonsense. Seeing how fast you can go is the purest, if not one of the oldest, most respected forms of racing in all disciplines. 

Or how about we get you and this 'nonsense' guy from Glasgow together for a race. I want to see you show him up for all of his nonsense.

We can all chip in, pay the transport costs for the two of you. I'm sold, who's in. 

unconstituted wrote:

Chris James wrote:

Without wanting undermine the guy in the Glasgow area's 'achievements' - if people want to get competitive about how fast they can ride then they should buy a licence, pin a number on, and prove it. Everything else is nonsense.

 

No worries, you can't undermine him without stealing his KOMs. Feel free to try.

So tell us, why is time trialling nonsense. Seeing how fast you can go is the purest, if not one of the oldest, most respected forms of racing in all disciplines. 

Or how about we get you and this 'nonsense' guy from Glasgow together for a race. I want to see you show him up for all of his nonsense.

 

We can all chip in, pay the transport costs for the two of you. I'm sold, who's in. 

It's not always comparable, though. If the pros weren't "trying" on those segments, perhaps because they knew they had another seven days racing to go and they don't care about strava KoMs, whereas this guy is purposefully blitzing it to hit the top of the leaderboard and can perhaps take things 20 miles at a time when he feels like it, then it's not the same.

That's not to say he's not a good cyclist, nor that strava is worthless compared to actual racing... The truth is they're different things.

Kristian House holds the KoM on The Wizard climb in Alderley Edge. He didn't get it in the breakaway on Tuesday, he got it on a training ride last year when he did 4 repeats of the climb, presumably with the traffic in the mix to boot. Definitely not the same thing.

vonhelmet wrote:

unconstituted wrote:

Chris James wrote:

Without wanting undermine the guy in the Glasgow area's 'achievements' - if people want to get competitive about how fast they can ride then they should buy a licence, pin a number on, and prove it. Everything else is nonsense.

 

No worries, you can't undermine him without stealing his KOMs. Feel free to try.

So tell us, why is time trialling nonsense. Seeing how fast you can go is the purest, if not one of the oldest, most respected forms of racing in all disciplines. 

Or how about we get you and this 'nonsense' guy from Glasgow together for a race. I want to see you show him up for all of his nonsense.

 

We can all chip in, pay the transport costs for the two of you. I'm sold, who's in. 

It's not always comparable, though. If the pros weren't "trying" on those segments, perhaps because they knew they had another seven days racing to go and they don't care about strava KoMs, whereas this guy is purposefully blitzing it to hit the top of the leaderboard and can perhaps take things 20 miles at a time when he feels like it, then it's not the same.

That's not to say he's not a good cyclist, nor that strava is worthless compared to actual racing... The truth is they're different things.

Kristian House holds the KoM on The Wizard climb in Alderley Edge. He didn't get it in the breakaway on Tuesday, he got it on a training ride last year when he did 4 repeats of the climb, presumably with the traffic in the mix to boot. Definitely not the same thing.

Don't agree with the 'everything else is nonsense' view, but equally, Strava isn't everything! 

I do think many of the KOM holders on Strava who only race virtually actually have great potential to start racing or at least entering TT's. Much of this potential is sadly untapped. Ditto many decent sportive riders. I guess that's where a good club can help with encouraging and mentoring strong riders to enter their first race. Making the jump to competitive racing, where you can reliably compare efforts and ability, can seem a little daunting. 

Chris James wrote:

Without wanting undermine the guy in the Glasgow area's 'achievements' - if people want to get competitive about how fast they can ride then they should buy a licence, pin a number on, and prove it. Everything else is nonsense.

Really? You say that without knowing anything about this fella. As far as we know he could be the local TT champion or Hill Climbing champ. Theres plenty of clubs in Glasgow churning out some seriously good cyclists. 

giff77 wrote:

Chris James wrote:

Without wanting undermine the guy in the Glasgow area's 'achievements' - if people want to get competitive about how fast they can ride then they should buy a licence, pin a number on, and prove it. Everything else is nonsense.

Really? You say that without knowing anything about this fella. As far as we know he could be the local TT champion or Hill Climbing champ. Theres plenty of clubs in Glasgow churning out some seriously good cyclists. 

Yes, and if he is then he will have pinned a number on and shown it in a race, like I suggested.

Equally he could be driving around on a moped.

Yorkshire wallet wrote:

Bloody pros ruining Strava!!

Oh, I dunno, there's a small hill round my way, about 17-20%, which the ToB went up last year. My time is faster than Michal Kwiatowski and Alex Dowsett!

My heart rate was probably about 50bpm higher though! 

Good for a chuckle anyway!