Guest Article: An Open Letter
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
Couldn’t agree more. My Strava rides tend toward alliteration (e.g. “Scorching Sunday Spin”, which also allows me to invoke Rule #9). Laurens ten Dam does a particularly good job in the peloton – “Hard day again. But hey, I wanted to be a cyclist” and other such insights.
So maybe a revision of the Strava requirement is in order. “Strava, with a good ride name, or it doesn’t count” perchance?
The only rides that get left with a default name are my round town and commuting rides, which are all tagged Private anyway so it’s only me that sees them. The only trace to the outside world is the tick, tick tick of accumulated distance.
Went touring in Belgium and the Netherlands. Went for naming each day’s ride “Stage 1” etc.
I’m such a stud a climb up ventoux or a descent down the Galibier is just an ” afternoon ride”, nothing special
I too agree, although for no good reason I start all of mine with the date. Commuted to work this morning and the main event of the 28km ride made it into the title “2016.07.22 To Work and Saw A Hare!”. Boo hiss to the bland, Strava given titles.
Yes. Although I think there’s a bell curve.
If you’re in the left tail – e.g. a mundane ride flagged as a commute, OK to go with the default.
And if it’s in the right tail – e.g. Stage 19 of the 2016 Tour when you gave your bike to your mate and flogged in 6 minutes later – then the default name is fine – Casually Deliberate indeed.
But otherwise, yes. Name that ride.
I have been known to follow themes now an again say using song titles. So for a random long ride hunting out the lanes could be “Here, there and everywhere” or maybe “The Long and Winding Road”. A morning ride when the sun is breaking through “Here comes the Sun”. Must get back to those themes as I tend to while away my brain thinking of a suitable link which all helps take the mind of the manic world outside.
I don’t have a smart phone or do Strava. At some point I’ll likely have to get the former, but the latter holds no interest.
As for that headset cap? “Away tae fuck” as they say in Glasgow. All my rides “happen” because I ride them.
Right on cue – Michael Valgren of Tinkoff with a “Lunch Ride”, stage 19…
I’ve recorded 439 rides on Strava so far and none of them has those boring captions, not that I’m so original or witty, but my rides are my rides and I love them all.
Depends on the spin I suppose. Some are mundane, not worthy of any real though apart from a midpoint destination or local hill.
But some rides are ripe something more eye-catching.”30mph x pothole = double puncture + sore balls” springs to mind from last year…
Preach.
Never used Strava and already don’t appreciate it.
I agree with creative naming. It’s always good to see what other guys on the same ride thought about it, except when they call it something like- super slow ride because ‘that’ guy! Always feels personal :-)
I not only name my ride with something uniquely relevant, but I like to add a photo. I think that personalizes the post and makes it far more interesting.
I’ve always like the names given to rock climbs, like Capt’n Crunch’s Last Words, something named when stoned and rock climbing. It says absolutely nothing about the route, just the climbers state of mind…possibly stoned.
Would this work for Strava? Not really as some information on route is the point of all of it. My Taint’s Last Words, fun but all I would know would be it was probably a climb and not enough chamois creme was available.
@wiscot
What’s Glaswegian for “get off my lawn, ya wee fucks”
@wiscot
Yes, exactly. Starve = quantifying narcissism. Get a life people.
Yes, exactly. Starve = quantifying narcissism. Get a life people.
P.S. Strava (swedish crap)
We don’t need no stinking Strava…..just ride your freaking bike.
@Resurrect
That’s a bit harsh. I use it because its fun and I like to see what my mates are doing in far off lands. Its not just quantifying, its has qualitative aspects – maps and pictures for example. I imagine some use it to reflect their egos but it also has a strong social aspect.
If it happened, it stays in the head. If you cheated, it may appear good on strava but the cheat stays in the head. We should not brag about our rides nor disgrace our steeds with computers. No strava for me. Am with @wiscot and @universo on this.
“””””is putting at least a little creativity into your digital cycling life too much to ask?”””””
no thanks, I am not interest in what others eat, or to what music they listen, + other personal drama.
@Gianni
I think it’s “get off ma lawn, ya wee fucks”
@Teocalli
Being an Edinburgh native I might be wrong, but surely no self respecting Weedgie would have a “lawn”? It would be “the / ma gress”, right? As in; “git aff ma gress, ya wee fucks”…
@Stefan
I think your view of Strava, which you imply is not based on experience, is a little one-dimensional. You are on an internet forum exchanging ideas and opinions. The forum is a way of communicating information. That is what Strava does. It makes information available. You can follow who you want and not follow who you don’t want. I have lived an expat life for 16 years and have made friends riding in China, Indonesia, Serbia and France. I have mates who ride in my home country, Australia. We follow each other on Strava. None of us gives a rat’s arse about PRs and KOMs. We like to see that we are all still riding, following our passion and keeping fit. We like to see the photos and make the ocaisional comment. You could argue that there are other ways of doing that, but it just so happens that STRAVA does it particularly well.
@geoffrey
I’m with you.
Get Kudo’s for Morning Ride
@geoffrey
Spot fucking on!
@geoffrey
i upload my stuff to strava just to have a record of what i do. sometimes i take a look what the friends of mine have done… thats it. i even kicked friends for their music taste ;)))
Ooft…lot of anger out there about Strava. I can see why though. Some people’s decisions drive me mad too.
@Neil
When I first began cycling seriously we had no means of recording our ride distances at all (other than riding a route in a car). Nowadays I know the distance, along with loads of other stuff, and when I stop the data gets uploaded to Strava. However, I can confirm that I enjoy cycling now just as much as I did then, if not more. Strava really doesn’t have to change how, when or why you cycle, it just records it and shares it in a cyclecentric social network, not unlike this one.
@Stefan
I wish there was an irony emoticon…
When I don’t have the energy to one up with a creative name for a ride, my default is JAFR. You have to know the movie Blue Thunder to figure out the acronym.
@chuckp
Well you sent me to google but I could only come with JAFO in the context of Blue Thunder.
JAFR – Just a Friendly Reminder or perhaps the Journal of Applied Financial Research?
This week I’ve been riding in the Alps doing most of the Tour routes so I’ve gone for a naming sequence followed by the main cols of the day. e.g.
Alps Day 1: Ramaz and Joux Plane
Alps Day 2: Domancy, Aravis and Colombiere
… you get the idea.
I also like to name special rides when I’ve enjoyed them, like Super Sunny Sunday Smash.
As for the Strava haters… it’s not all about KOMs and segments for most people. It’s a great social tool to find people, discover routes and keep in touch and see what friends and riding partners are doing. I’ve hooked up with people in Mumbai, found places to ride in Rio and I have friends in Dubai, Australia, France, Spain, the US and others parts of the UK who keep in touch on it.
It’s also great for racing or TTs when you can find a circuit or course and check out the profile and times so you can plan and know what to expect.
@Ben Hunt
There most definitely is a certain amount of cool reflected in the posting of EPIC rides with the default name. One of my riding mates completed a 325 km slog on one of the hottest days of the year a few weeks back and there it was on Strava – “Morning Ride”…
“That fucker”, I thought to myself.
@wiscot
This.
The east coast of Scotland would say the same.
I was in the Alps for a week with a group from various parts of the UK, Australia and New Zealand. One guy from the Lincoln area was ecstatic on checking his Strava account because he was leading his home club’s King of the Mountain or whatever it was, leaderboard for that week. I thought (perhaps out loud) No shit, you’re here climbing Alpine cols all day, Lincolnshire is flatter than a flat thing. Bellend.
This highlights much that I find disagreeable about Strava and some who use the app. It’s not for me, thank you. If it’s for you I really don’t want to hear you going on about KOM’s (or QOM’s) that are in reality nothing more than a bump on the road and only tackled with a strong tailwind.
What is this “Strava” thing you all keep referring to? Sounds (from what I am reading) a lot like the pet rocks from the 80s or Sea Monkeys of the 70s….they didn’t do anything but took a lot of time……
Best of luck with it though
STRAVA haters…
@Dean C
But Strava is free unlike the pet rocks and Sea Monkeys. Sea Monkeys indeed were equally fascinating however. Cheers
I find it nothing but motivating. On efforts where I’m killing myself – deliberately trying to be my own best time – it’s either gratifying to see I was successful, or (more often) disheartened it didn’t work and determined to get it next time.
Re: the OP, there was a death metal band I’m a fan of and two of their songs often play on repeat in my head, and I think the titles would be great names for a ride now and then, but by the time I get home both “I won’t Come Back Alive” and “Endless Teeth” seem melodramatic.
@Randy C
Never had a pet rock, but did send in my hard earned cash for my Sea Monkeys though….was horribly disappointed when they 1. looked NOTHING like the picture and 2. did NO tricks or wear a crown like the advertisement.
take care guys- ride safe
When I ride on a narrow trail in the woods and I have to avoid reckless riders who show no consideration to hikers or traffic in opposite direction then I immediately think of Strava.
I ride MTB since 1991 and although there have been always some selfish individuals on the trails however the numbers of inappropriate aggressive riding is more common since more people are competing against imaginary opponents.
Can’t comment on the road scene though.
Just like so much technology it can be used for good or ill. Basically #Rule43 applies.
That said my Saturday bunch is a Strava collective. Bunch of strangers brought together that now have like minded colleagues to find new paths to hurting each other.
@Artie
Couldnt agree more, If you’re going to the trouble of recording and downloading, lets get some Titles up there !
Sadly, at this time of year, alot of my inspiration comes from Simon and Garfunkel, namely ” Hello Darkness, my old Friend, Ive come to talk with you again ! ”
Although the band ” Disturbed ” does a better version of the original.
@Barracuda
That disturbed version is brilliant isn’t it?
As far as song titles for Strava rides go, the one that always pops into my head is by Foghat’s “Slow Ride” (take it easy) :-)
@Steve Trice
Yep, off topic I know, but I’m throwing the glove down and saying its a better version than Mr Garfunkel’s.
Why is it that heavy metal bands always sound better doing work not related to their genre ?
100% on this. I try to be inventive and cryptic at turns in my naming, with more than the odd sarcastic or self-deprecating element. Some recent rides:
Cock, Kop & Cramps – Two notable hills (Cock Lane & Kop Hill) and the cramps I suffered towards the end.
Easy Sunday – Anything but easy, out of breath for nearly three hours trying to keep up with whippets.
Thetford knows I’m miserable now – Dull 30 miles on some of the flattest, most boring roads known to man.