[HAMR] Things we have to cope with

[simonp]

Closest I've come is Feb 2008:

200k on 2nd.
300k on 9th.
300k on 16th.
200k on 23rd.

One of the 300s was a DIY + cal, getting a lift to one of Keith & Sue's 200s from Norwich, riding the event, fixing a broken spoke at the finish and setting off to ride the 100k home at about 8pm - I got home something like 2am. I'd had to stop regularly to take the lid off my bottles to tip slush out into my mouth, having had a kebab in Brandon at around 11pm and carried some baklava from there for energy rations. I'd got a little lost near a farm and asked for directions. "Where are you going?" "Brandon". "What?!". I can't recall if I mentioned that was not my final destination.

I hurt my knee on the last of those events so didn't ride another 200k for about 3 weeks.

[trekker12]

Not really being a member of the 21st century so owning neither a GPS or a Strava account. Is this whole record attempt being validated through Strava or does Steve not send his log direct from the GPS to the UMCA?

If he does it that way does it really matter what a few idiots think on Strava?

[caerau]

That's the point I was trying to make in post 2  - but I can see why the team got concerned if the UMCA immediately queried things - unnecessary additional stress in what is already keeping the team busy.

[Ian H]

Not really being a member of the 21st century so owning neither a GPS or a Strava account. Is this whole record attempt being validated through Strava or does Steve not send his log direct from the GPS to the UMCA?

If he does it that way does it really matter what a few idiots think on Strava?

Strava is the official record, though there are contingency backups.

[Ningishzidda]

It should be about now when SRM Germany get in touch and offer their 'Live telemetry' products for Steve to show off.

[Kim]

I would like to believe that this isn't the case and it is just some idiot playing games.

Bottom half of the internet, isn't it?

I hope that Strava's ruling on such things doesn't count for anything.  Commercial organisations for whom the users are the product aren't known for their thoroughness or fairness in adjudicating disputes, and the internet has a seemingly unlimited supply of trolls.

[Hummers]

One comment on the TT forum was along the lines of 'we could all do it if we have the time but I prefer to spend time with my family'.   Guy tried to defend himself but was shot down.   The rest are busy debating his Max HR, FTP and CTL numbers.

There will always be knockers.  Interesting to know if the knocker had (a) ever ridden 180 miles in a day in January (I haven't) and (b) ridden 180 miles the day after they have ridden 180 miles (I have, but not in January weather).  But perhaps the general good nature of this forum is why I remain here.

...and lest we forget, there are those who just don't understand the challenge that Steve is undertaking.

H

[L CC]

One comment on the TT forum was along the lines of 'we could all do it if we have the time but I prefer to spend time with my family' single mindedness, willingness to sacrifice everything else, experience, massive appetite, fitness, genes and madness

FTFH

In lots of ways I'm not surprised people can't get their head round it.
I'm closer than 99% of the population to 'riding like Steve' and I sure as heckers can't get my head around it.

[KieronY]

Some bloody idiot flagged one of Steve's rides on Strava as having been done in a car. I logged into his account and removed the flag by contesting it which Strava have accepted. I told Drew exactly what had happened.

This might happen a lot and there is nothing we can do. Any Strava user can flag one of Steve's rides and I suspect some of the Tommy Godwin fans will continue to do this.

It seems as though someone has now flagged Steve's ride for the 11/01.

I did notice that someone had flagged a couple of rides by the Australian, Cycle_dr 1, earlier in the month so perhaps there are folks out there on Strava who routinely challenge riders who are turning out high mileages.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Tommy had 1 day off during his year.

[Goldcrank]

Something for Steve to look forward to then...

[Ningishzidda]

On Strava’s frontpage for unregistered newbies, in big print it says “Prove it.”

This also applies to Strava users who contest other member’s recordings.

[red marley]

It's worth noting that flagging a ride doesn't remove the record, so the evidence of Steve's riding remains untouched. So while it might temporally stop the ride contributing to Strava's own awards, that's very minor / irrelevant in the scheme of things.

[Nuncio]

One comment on the TT forum was along the lines of 'we could all do it if we have the time but I prefer to spend time with my family'.   Guy tried to defend himself but was shot down.   The rest are busy debating his Max HR, FTP and CTL numbers.

There will always be knockers.  Interesting to know if the knocker had (a) ever ridden 180 miles in a day in January (I haven't) and (b) ridden 180 miles the day after they have ridden 180 miles (I have, but not in January weather).  But perhaps the general good nature of this forum is why I remain here.

...and lest we forget, there are those who just don't understand the challenge that Steve is undertaking.

H

If anyone missed this, I'd just like to point out that Hummers responded to a post starting 'There will always be knockers' with a serious reply. In fact, we've all done very well there. Well done.

Didn't Strava give Steve free premier membership? I haven't heard that they're sponsoring him, but it wouldn't harm their reputation to be associated with the record attempts if they can be assured they're valid.

[Oaky]

Reading the Strava knowledgebase on flagged activities, it sounds like there's no way of listing all of your flagged activities.

I imagine that later in the year, when there are 300+ rides logged, it would be quite hard to find the flagged ones if someone maliciously flagged some of them .  You'd have to rely on seeing an email notification (and these not getting lost in a pile of other email).

[HK]

Perhaps Strava wasn't the best choice given it's an electronic mileating diary and primarily acyclists social networking site. If anyone has the tools, capability and experience to audit GPS tracks it has to be AUK. Tommy Godwin had independent auditors checking his click click cycle computer why not 75 years on? Alternatively the whole thing for the riders involved should have been set up correctly with Strava with only the UMCA with ability to flag rides it may have a concern about before they started riding. HK

[Ashaman42]

AS for checking at the end of the year which rides have been flagged - why not outsource it? I'd happily check a fortnight/month assuming it can be checked by others users.

[arabella]

All of which reminds me, wen I did the Suffolk Workplace Challenge last year I did get a polite query as to whether I'd really meant to log that I'd done 2x 12 hour rides in on day.  I said actually it was one 38 hour ride over 2 days and pointed them at the AUK website as potential proof of the activity.

So plenty of people won't have a clue what Steve's about.  They  may even be trying to stop him looking stupid by accidentally logging car miles or somesuch. 

[mcshroom]

I wonder if Strava have the facility to block the flagging of rides on a certain account? That should prevent the problem occuring in the first place and reduce the hassle for everyone.

I doubt they'd have it as an offered service, but the HAMR riders are a special case, with other methods of checking being used, so internally they might be able to put a block in there.

[Climberruss]

Ref: Earlier post on this thread about "Getting your head around what Steve is doing".
My personal max mileage in a week is 900. I only rode 5 out of 7 days but 3 of them were for 24hrs. I was shattered at the end of the week. The thought of doing 300+ miles more than that in a week and then repeating it for 52 weeks is enough to make me go week at the knees!

[MikeFromLFE]

Sorry if I'm in the group labelled 'stating the bleedin' obvious' - but has anyone in Steve's team communicated with Strava directly?
Doing so might help them as much as Steve, and knowing that their product was being used to support such a high profile challenge could have mutual benefits.
They might be able to put an extra step into the flagging process for Steve to prevent malicious flagging?

[simonp]

Strava are aware of Steve's challenge AIUI - they gave him a free upgrade to premium. But if the stupid flagging of his rides continues, perhaps they'd be willing to do something about it.

[MikeFromLFE]

Strava are aware of Steve's challenge AIUI - they gave him a free upgrade to premium. But if the stupid flagging of his rides continues, perhaps they'd be willing to do something about it.

Thanks for that clarification.

[Byronius Maximus]

If it becomes a persistent problem, one way may be to change Steve's privacy settings so that only approved people can follow him. Not an attractive option as it severely limits a major stream of publicity for the effort, but it may help (though I think people can still flag a ride if they aren't a follower; I had one of mine flagged once which was a very modest ride, but I must have knocked someone out of a top 10 who was pleased!).

[simonp]

Anyone who loses a KOM to Steve gets a notification and will be able to see it. I've accidentally uploaded bad data and had it flagged, and done the same to others. It's a necessary feature IMO but it could become a real pain for steve's team, but it's surely feasible for Strava to disable this feature on steve's account.