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Strava segments – to flag or not to flag?

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  • August 15, 2014 at 5:19 pm #22165
    Matt eaton

    I’ve recently joined Strava having been persuaded by a friend. I was dubious about it’s merits but have to confess that I’m quite enjoying being able to compare my rides and even chase the odd segment, which leads me nicely to my question: when should I flag a segment?

    Outside the obvious where segments are clearly dangerous or there are times on the board that are wildly inaccurate etc. what’s the view on flagging segments that are just stupid or pointless? There’s one in particular that I’m wondering about near me. It’s 1 mile long and skims the town centre, so it’s a fairly built-up area. My reason for considering flagging the segment is that it passes through a total of 6 traffic lights. 3 of these are pedestrian crossings and the other 3 are part of a gyratoty system. You could certainly pick your time and be able to be quite confident of a green light on all of the crossings but the chances of a clear run with no red lights is very slim. Because of this the segment seems pointless. Even comparing your own efforts with so many variables that are out of your control seems meaningless.

    What’s the done thing? Should we flag rubbish like this for the benefit of all Stava users or just hide the segment so that we, as individials, don’t have to look at it?

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Viewing 11 replies - 16 through 26 (of 26 total)
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  • August 16, 2014 at 10:30 pm #810175
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    Jimmy Ray Will

    I have to agree with the
    I have to agree with the previous post… what one man perceives as dangerous might be perfectly fine for everyone else. Who calibrates anyone’s sense of whats safe and whats dangerous?

    There are a few segments around me that have been flagged for no good reason I can see. One has been flagged as it uses a road that for about an hour a day is sometimes a bit busy… I really can’t see how or where the danger could possibly be…

    Yes I’m bitter about that as I had the KOM, but move on.

    Likewise there are plenty of segments that I question the point/safety of… however, for me, its just not worth going for them… which I guess is the opinion of everyone else.

    A lot of the time, I think these segements get created simply because a rider knows they’ve picked up a draft and had an unusually clear run through a certain set or sets of light… its like showing off their good fortune. Who cares I say, take responsibility for your own safety and trust others to do the same with theirs.

    August 16, 2014 at 9:22 pm #810173
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    Matt eaton

    Cheers for the advice all.
    Cheers for the advice all. I’ll leave off of flagging silly segments and just hide them.

    I’m certainly not taking Strava too seriously, but planning rides to take in segments that I particularly want to have another go at or try for a decent time on has made things more interesting and I’ll probably create a few private ones too which will be more useful.

    August 16, 2014 at 1:03 pm #810171
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    Gkam84

    Leave them alone. Everytime a
    Leave them alone. Everytime a bloody holiday maker comes up here and doesn’t get a good strava time, the section gets flagged and removed. There is no recourse to get it back either. Pisses me off that what someone else flags as dangerous, 100’s of others think is fine.

    August 16, 2014 at 12:43 pm #810169
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    KirinChris

    P.S. And yes I see the irony
    P.S. And yes I see the irony that I have the Strava thing in my signature. I like Strava a lot but I don’t take it seriously.

    I’ve never created a public segment and when I get an email to say I’ve lost a KOM I couldn’t care less. I do find it useful to get a general sense about my times on a certain stretch if it is something I do regularly but mostly I use it to just track my rides and for the social/connection side.

    August 16, 2014 at 12:39 pm #810167
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    KirinChris

    Matt eaton wrote: it’s daft

    Matt eaton wrote:
    it’s daft to compare your times with others who may have been drafting or riding a high-end TT bike in the middle of the night with no traffic about.

    It’s just daft to use Strava to compare your times, other than in a very general way. Use it to compare your own times, get a sense of where you are and see what your friends are doing.

    People who use it for competition are sad and deluded.

    As for flagging segments. Unless your name is Sisyphus and you’ve finished your previous job and have some time on your hands, I wouldn’t bother.

    August 16, 2014 at 12:30 pm #810165
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    Joeinpoole

    I think you are taking Strava
    I think you are taking Strava way too seriously. It’s a bit of fun and a useful means of logging rides and measuring your own performance under known conditions.

    If you really want to know how fast you are compared to others then join a club and do some TTs.

    August 16, 2014 at 11:04 am #810163
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    mrmo

    segments through lights meh,
    segments through lights meh, segments with lots of horses, pedestrians, kids, i will flag, though most of these are either off road downhill or shared use.

    August 16, 2014 at 8:55 am #810161
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    230548

    Yes, flag dangerous segments,
    Yes, flag dangerous segments, times should be about being fastest on the flat or uphill, not how many risks going across roundabouts, jumping traffic lights, you can take.

    August 16, 2014 at 7:38 am #810159
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    arfa

    If people want to risk their
    If people want to risk their own lives that is their business. If in doing so they risk others than a line is crossed. I have flagged a couple of segments on shared use paths after encountering segment hunters bombing through an area where young children were on the path walking with families. That’s it – purely when others refuse to exercise judgment as to where they should be dropping the hammer or not.
    As for people cheating, it’s pretty obvious and if they want to out themselves as types who get off on cheating the way to the top of the pile so be it, it’s meaningless really.
    I only really compare performance against myself and a few similar cycling friends and that’s it.

    August 15, 2014 at 8:04 pm #810157
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    Matt eaton

    You only have segments on
    You only have segments on hills? We seem to have them on every possible stretch of road. There’s another one that I’ve been puzzling about where the KOM was set a couple of years ago and the road layout has now changed (in a way that would slow you down). The KOM was legit when it was done but it would be harder to achieve the same time now.

    I’m liking Strava but I do keep spotting these little things. I realise you have to take it with a pinch of salt anyway as people do cheat and it’s daft to compare your times with others who may have been drafting or riding a high-end TT bike in the middle of the night with no traffic about.

    August 15, 2014 at 7:39 pm #810155
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    sergius

    I think you just ignore them,
    I think you just ignore them, I certainly do.

    I live in Surrey so virtually every hill of note around my way has at least 10+ segments covering the same-but-slightly-different sections of road. Last time I checked there were at least 30 for box hill…

    The bit that really annoys me, is all the buggers who insist on riding up the damn hills so much faster than me. It’s just not cricket.

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