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Exposed by a Strava KOM: The Many Lives of a Fake Pro Cyclist

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Re: Exposed by a Strava KOM: The Many Lives of a Fake Pro Cyclist

#81

Post by trustBUTverify »

Maro wrote: post #75

What I don't get is how people didn't notice during the group rides. I've ridden a few times with former athletes, and there was no mistaking the difference between an amateur like me and a former pro..

Well he was decently fast. And he used the ole “I am old/fat excuse…” but yeah most amateurs haven’t ridden with ex pros so how would we know?

Re: Exposed by a Strava KOM: The Many Lives of a Fake Pro Cyclist

#82

Post by trustBUTverify »

doogerdog wrote: post #59

I'm an avid cyclist and this was a fascinating article. Well researched and well written. The author put in a lot of time to track down all the lies, but it sort of glosses over one point. There had to be a ton of people that knew it was made up and did nothing. Why did't anyone make him put up or shut up? If I lived within a few hundred miles of his shop, I would have dropped by just to meet him and get something I…

Well the lies slowly grew. They didn’t get wide circulation until 2021. By then he had befriended a lot of folks who were blinded by friendship. He took it too far with all the bogus KOMs and the Pez article. People did notice and everyone knew in 2020. The guys at the bike shop did nothing because they wanted a job. The women did nothing because they believed the second round of lies (it was all a misunderstanding about doping). Ultimately no one really cared enough about this none sense because they had real problems like COVID to deal with and no one had the time the author did to publish it all in one place.

Re: Exposed by a Strava KOM: The Many Lives of a Fake Pro Cyclist

#83

Post by trustBUTverify »

ilamont wrote: post #38

This line, a comment from one of the riders on his women's team, says a lot: > he needed to be adored and respected He does have some sort of narcissistic personality disorder going on, aided and abetted by the ease of publishing or telling lies that few people will ever check. Makes me wonder about the breathless bios and claims in VC and CEO bios, or hinted at in interviews. Military service, elite university backg…

One thing that helped him was he was perpetrating this last round of frauds in the US and was an Australian citizen. It just makes it a little more difficult for those of us in the US to fact check somethings. He crafted his story with just enough confusing details and remote locations that finding the truth wasn’t super easy, but it was still doable.

Re: Exposed by a Strava KOM: The Many Lives of a Fake Pro Cyclist

#84

Post by trustBUTverify »

kevingadd wrote: post #18
lom wrote: post #2

I started reading this, but then realized it was almost 20000 words long.. how much is there to say? He faked his career, then got called out after some time, this topic really isn’t worth all the effort that was put into it

There's a lot more to it than that. If you're curious, you can skip to further sections in the article to find out more - he manipulated and harmed lots of people and his conduct is way more complex than just one faked career.

Yeah he kinda screwed over an entire publicly traded company. He made millions as a very under qualified CEO on a fake CV. He was a real scum bag to a lot of people well before his fake pro cycling career. He lives in a million dollar house in one of the most expensive neighborhoods outside DC, renovated and paid for by local cyclist who thought they were buying from a real expert. That is before he got all the COVID stimulus money. He’s doing quite well, and other than having to reinvent himself, he really didn’t lose much except a temporary boost to his ego. The lesson here is faking it and taking shortcuts seems to work well for white men in America.

Re: Exposed by a Strava KOM: The Many Lives of a Fake Pro Cyclist

#86

Post by wheres_my_exit2 »

arpinum wrote: post #24

Well worth the read, but it left me with so many questions. How much is self-deception? The conclusion of the article makes me think he believes some of his own lies, as if he starting lying so much he doesn't remember what is reality. The other characters in the story are equally fascinating. Did the retired general know Clark was a grifter, but was happy to collect a pay check sitting on the board? Can you succeed…

Did he choose to coach amateur women because they seemed any easy mark? They wouldn’t know any better? What about the mechanic working in the proBikeFC shop all those years and now he takes over as owner? What about Nick’s 3 kids? What happened with his wife? Why didn’t Alexium shareholders sue him? Where was he before he appeared out of apparent obscurity? I almost want to order his book. Weird that no one thought it was odd he didn’t have a single professional race or military picture from those days! He is still the second largest shareholder of the company he ripped off? So much more to explore here. Maybe it really could be a Netflix series or podcast?

Re: Exposed by a Strava KOM: The Many Lives of a Fake Pro Cyclist

#87

Post by wheres_my_exit2 »

Nick Clark was outgoing, funny, high energy, and definitely a big personality. If you gave him any sort of praise, he was friendly and made you feel like you were part of the cycling family. He hosted little BBQs after every ride and spoke of all things European in an Aussie accent, and sold fancy bike brands most beginners hadn’t heard of before. He surrounded himself with adoring women from the PBFC team, local law enforcement and first responder types, and there was a full time personal trainer who was a legitimate retired army officer, so it disarmed any misgivings you might have. He could ride a bike reasonably fast. It just felt genuine even when it wasn’t. It was all my design. He created a little world where he was King, King of the Mountain, and King of local cycling in his mind anyway. Although, it wasn’t like he was that central to the DC biking scene.

Re: Exposed by a Strava KOM: The Many Lives of a Fake Pro Cyclist

#89

Post by jimmux »

hackflip wrote: post #52
cyberpanther wrote: post #32

I created a Strava segment in my neighborhood and started to monitor it. I quickly found a couple cheaters and flagged them. Some I could tell some were just bad GPS data, such as riding a bike in a lake. I usually take mine down if the GPS is totally off. However, some were definitely blatant cheating, such as cycling at 80 mph when the road speed is 40mph.

I'm always loading my bike/skis/etc into my car after a ride and forgetting to turn off Strava for the drive home.

My commute goes past a velodrome that sits next to a short, steep hill. Every day there were new times on that hill that would be difficult for some cars to achieve. It was pretty obvious that many people forget to turn it off, and never bother to trim the data.

Re: Exposed by a Strava KOM: The Many Lives of a Fake Pro Cyclist

#90

Post by zentauri666 »

Ich bin als Tochter mit einer narzistischen Mutter aufgewachsen. Ich weiß was das bedeutet einen Münchhausen Menschen erleben und ertragen zu müssen. Der Narzist ist widerlich, erbärmlich und auch sehr gefährlich für die Psyche seiner Opfer! Ich habe dadurch sensible Antennen für Lügner und Möchtegerns entwickelt, aber musste dafür auch viele leidvolle Erfahrungen sammeln. Heute laufe ich so schnell ich kann, bevor mich ein narzistisches Wesen nochmal in seine selbstbemitleidende, kontrollierende Hände bekommt!
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