Word?
Dear readers, let us take a break from the almighty Tour for a few minutes. I am the least qualified Velominatus to introduce an open letter concerning Strava as I’m too shame-based to post my rides to Strava. I have a Garmin on the bike for no particular reason, ok, maybe to occasionally see how fast I’m descending or to know the grade of the climb I’m presently suffering on. At some point it will ask me what should it do with all these weak-ass rides taking up Garmin memory. Oye.
@Artie has authored this open letter (our first?) and like the Rules themselves, @Artie is just trying to improve our cycling experience in this digital world. Thanks @Artie
VLVV, Gianni
Dear Keepers of the Cog and Curators of the Rules,
The Tour de France this year has had a few memorable moments. Cavendish moving behind only Merkx in Stage victories, Froome’s new descending style, and of course the bike-less sprint up Ventoux come to mind. But there has also been a subtler addition to my viewing this year. More and more cyclists in the peloton have been sharing their ride data on Strava. For example, scrolling down my Strava feed after a late afternoon ride, I now notice Greg Henderson’s data, and see that yesterday he was in fact descending like a madman, just as Rule #85 and Rule #93 implore him to do. This supplement to my Tour Digest bridges to a theme my friends and I have often discussed and I thought it time to share our thoughts.
Our over-connected world has reached a point, where the dubitability of any cycling accomplishment has become (almost) strictly correlated with that said accomplishment appearing on Strava. Did you climb Sa Calobra during an early spring training camp? Did you reach the summit of Galibier before your best friend? Did your race up Alpe d’Huez with such a murderous intent that locals began to talk about the ghost of Pantani that appeared one late August afternoon? Perhaps… but without a Strava log to prove it, who knows! But, it is not the virtues or vices of using Strava that I wish to comment on; many people use it and some don’t. Instead it is a much more mundane aspect of the app that has been the subject to our diliberations, i.e. the naming of our tours.
The default name Strava gives each activity are more than boring; “Morning Ride,” “Afternoon Ride,” or “Evening Ride.” “Morning Ride” sounds like a Monday morning commute to work. “Afternoon ride” is what I do with my girlfriend, when she wants to go on a picnic in the park across town. “Evening ride” is an excursion with my Holland Bike to the bar down the street and to the left. The blandness of these names do absolutely no justice to a properly ridden tour. If you keep your bike perfectly matched, kit in shape, and tan lines razor sharp, is putting at least a little creativity into your digital cycling life too much to ask?
I say that a proper tour deserves a proper name, and a proper name should – like all things – be casually deliberate. A quick comment about the ride would be a basic but satisfactory name, e.g. “Hard push up to Chamonix”. If you are racing, the name of the event would be fine; “Paris-Roubaix” is far superior to the default. A more sophisticated name would be that of the song you started to whistle while pushing through the most difficult bits of a climb. Such a title has a lasting effect. Each time those you rode with heard the song, they would be reminded of the pressure their legs felt as you climbed, and doubt would be further seeded into the moral.
I wish to avoid a long digression into the art of naming, although the horizon is large and well worth exploring. But, I do wish to assert that a cyclist who has gone digital should maintain his digital cycling life as he does his real life. Calling an afternoon conquering cobbles on your way back to Liege “Afternoon Ride” is a digital dirty chain; it is unacceptable, but luckily easy to fix.
Yours Kindly,
Arturo
Hamburg, Germany
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View Comments
@Steve Trice
Slow Ride...a beat that translates into a cadence that would blow the competition away as you peddle in your big ring. Awesome!!! I just got back from vacation in the Alps. Along with seeing a bit of the last mountain stage of the Tour, I did a little bit of cycling in the hills. On the wayup Galibier, shortly after the end of Telegraphe, a massive thunderstorm appeared out of nowhere; the thunderbolts and lightening were very very frightening :-)
@Artie
Mamma mia, mamma mia, didn't you think about taking Shelter From The Storm?
@Steve Trice
Now that's the first truly useful application of this technology that I've heard. I know my wife would check regularly to see where I am and I doubt that would be a bad thing as, after 38 years, nothing I can do on a bike would surprise her anymore. If I were a hundred miles away and still heading the other way, she might give me a jingle to find out what my plans were--or if I had any. If we ever get cell service in the areas of Vermont where I ride, I'm definitely going to consider going live with my rides.
Otherwise, Strava is just an exercise in distraction, beyond its application as a social networking platform and fitness log. In racing, you're riding against others under what is at least close to the same conditions, even in a TT. Assigning a KOM based on performances that took place on different days isn't even remotely valid.
@RobSandy
It's pretty rubbish IMHO. It doesn't do a great job of comparison. You need to look at Intensity Factor which you don't get on Strava.
I've used Strava Premium, Training Peaks and Golden Cheetah and GC is by far the best analysis tool - if you end up using 50% of what it can show you'll be doing well.
Using Strava for the analytics is like reading Playboy for the articles and Scientific American for the pictures.
@Steve Trice
I was burned out from exhaustion, buried in the hail
Poisoned in the bushes an' blown out on the trail
Hunted like a crocodile, ravaged in the corn
Come in, she said
I'll give ya shelter from the storm
@ChrisO
Hey now. I have a few Playboys from the 70s that friends have given me as gifts, since they feature a bicycle on the cover (along with other stuff) and they actually have some pretty interesting articles, especially the interviews they used to do. An ex-gal friend had a few with Roald Dahl interviews, as she really liked his writing. She was unique, not many women with 70s Playboys.
@wiscot
You could almost believe Bob was a cyclist ?
@Steve Trice
So long as "cyclist" is in quotes! http://starcasm.net/archives/51564
@Steve Trice
Oh, and be careful using those emojis! Emoticons are banned around here and Frohnk might take a dim view of their shorthand brethren.
@ChrisO
Chris, that was my first impression. The form/fitness thing is pretty laughable, particularly as the graph it's drawn me is based on completely guessed HR info.
We'll see how I get on though - it's something at least. I made big improvements last year using Strava basic, a HRM and a Joe Friel book.
What I really want is a power meter, but that's not going to happen this season. Probably not until I get a new bike (and then if you have a training bike and a race bike, do you need a PM on both?).