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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

#91

Post by FDSGSG »

analog31 wrote: post #51
FDSGSG wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the big problem with doping anyway? Even now, everyone is doping, it doesn't seem to be causing huge problems. Wouldn't it be safer for everyone if it was all out in the open?

If it's permitted, then it becomes obligatory. In sports where doping was tacitly permitted, chances are that it was unthinkable for a player to even be a contender for the elite level without doping. If obligatory, then it starts killing people. Consider football and concussions. And then there's marketing. A certain amount of risk is accepted in sports, and is part of what makes it attractive to fans and sponsors.…

It's already obligatory if you want to compete at the top level.

> chances are that it was unthinkable for a player to even be a contender for the elite level without doping.

Which is really the case for most sports today.

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

#92

Post by digital-cygnet »

LargoLasskhyfv wrote: post #71

Phew! What a (doxxing) "ride". But to be honest, I wouldn't have been curious about that climb. Doesn't seem that remarkable to me, because I think I've done similar in my youth, beginning around 1981/2, until around 1995/96. After that time not so much anymore, because of time constraints, work, and so on. Anyways, on a 27x1 1/4 Hercules, for about 600,- DM, 10 speed only, really nothing special, but robust. "Entry…

Taking this in good faith, as the HN guidelines ask us to, I'm fairly certain that either your recollection or your measuring equipment is faulty.

Taking the "less impressive" https://goo.gl/maps/t1soU1WKtb7UBuwA9 as an example, you're claiming 60kph (37 mph) for nearly an hour over flat terrain. According to this cycling calculator [1] with some generous assumptions, that's over 800W average for an hour -- smashing the world record of 440 [2]. Similarly, that handily beats the world record of 55km in one hour [3], set by a professional in a velodrome under perfect conditions with a custom bike (including being at altitude for lower air resistance)

These claims are from 30-40 years ago so I don't fault you for misremembering specific times and distances, but cycling is a sport where people really obsess over numbers and metrics, and these just don't pass the sniff test.

[1] https://www.omnicalculator.com/sports/cycling-wattage

[2] http://www.creakybottombracket.com/home/2020/1/23/events-the...

[3] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hour_record

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

#93

Post by nradov »

stereocodes wrote: post #79
nradov wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that the Strava developers have been too lazy to even catch the most obvious cases where there is zero risk of false positives. Like if someone "runs" a mile in 3:25 on a flat segment, is that really possible? It would be absolutely trivial to automatically flag those cases, but they haven't bothered to even try.

again you call the devs lazy. you really need to sit back and think about what you say. There is nothing more apparent to me that you have no idea what you're talking about when you say that. Obviously you've never worked on a large team or in development at all. Strava probably doesn't think its worth it, and has absolutely nothing to do with the development team.

I have done development work on large software product teams. I know what I'm saying and stand by my comment.

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

#94

Post by LargoLasskhyfv »

digital-cygnet wrote: post #92
LargoLasskhyfv wrote: post #71

Phew! What a (doxxing) "ride". But to be honest, I wouldn't have been curious about that climb. Doesn't seem that remarkable to me, because I think I've done similar in my youth, beginning around 1981/2, until around 1995/96. After that time not so much anymore, because of time constraints, work, and so on. Anyways, on a 27x1 1/4 Hercules, for about 600,- DM, 10 speed only, really nothing special, but robust. "Entry…

Taking this in good faith, as the HN guidelines ask us to, I'm fairly certain that either your recollection or your measuring equipment is faulty. Taking the "less impressive" https://goo.gl/maps/t1soU1WKtb7UBuwA9 as an example, you're claiming 60kph (37 mph) for nearly an hour over flat terrain. According to this cycling calculator [1] with some generous assumptions, that's over 800W average for an hour -- smashing…

That isn't really flat, but mostly downsloped for the first half, even if only slightly. I know it sounds unreasonable, because people then didn't believe me either.

Except when they've seen me doing it.

Edit: I also caught fire for being unimpressed with Tour de France and the likes, at the times.

Edit: Also klicking that link it seems to be a different route now, which would be a detour almost to the Airport of Cologne. (Sigh). The route I took was more direct, about 55km.

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

#95

Post by stereocodes »

nradov wrote: post #93
stereocodes wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

again you call the devs lazy. you really need to sit back and think about what you say. There is nothing more apparent to me that you have no idea what you're talking about when you say that. Obviously you've never worked on a large team or in development at all. Strava probably doesn't think its worth it, and has absolutely nothing to do with the development team.

I have done development work on large software product teams. I know what I'm saying and stand by my comment.

so you're just a jerk. nice.

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

#96

Post by kenned3 »

smackeyacky wrote: post #68
kenned3 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I gave up on Strava long ago and now only use it to "benchmark" myself. How well did i do on this ride vs the last time i took this trip? The cheating on Strava is just shameful. you often see people with impressive KOM scores, but then check their ride history and it is pathetic and clear they cheated. Someone with 3 rides and an average speed of just 8km/h posting a 55KM climb up a 6 Degree incline? Sure... As the…

I gave up on it, but for a different reason. Strava is basically "done" in that all the roads have been ridden tens of thousands (and even hundreds of thousands) of times. Take away the cheating and the ranking on climbs just becomes ossified over time. It basically started out as a fun activity and turned into a public performance that nobody else cared about. There are plenty of other apps out there you can use to…

Strava's social aspect is easy to control. Dont follow anyone, and you can even boot others who follow you. You can also mark yourself "follow by request" which seems to facilitate cheating as well (you can see their KOM, but not their rides?).

This speaks to the changes strava needs to make. if the rider is "by invite only" all KOM's should be hidden as well.

Strava does a decent job tracking myself, and once i turned off all the social. media aspects and stopped looking at other riders it became much better.

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

#97

Post by LargoLasskhyfv »

digital-cygnet wrote: post #92
LargoLasskhyfv wrote: post #71

Phew! What a (doxxing) "ride". But to be honest, I wouldn't have been curious about that climb. Doesn't seem that remarkable to me, because I think I've done similar in my youth, beginning around 1981/2, until around 1995/96. After that time not so much anymore, because of time constraints, work, and so on. Anyways, on a 27x1 1/4 Hercules, for about 600,- DM, 10 speed only, really nothing special, but robust. "Entry…

Taking this in good faith, as the HN guidelines ask us to, I'm fairly certain that either your recollection or your measuring equipment is faulty. Taking the "less impressive" https://goo.gl/maps/t1soU1WKtb7UBuwA9 as an example, you're claiming 60kph (37 mph) for nearly an hour over flat terrain. According to this cycling calculator [1] with some generous assumptions, that's over 800W average for an hour -- smashing…

Well. What can I say? I've been unaware of the hour record.

What I can do say is that at the times I described my sustainable top performance on flat grounds without (noticable) winds as 55kph for one hour. Though that is hard to compare to something done in a velodrome, or on closed streets, since I did that in normal traffic. OFC I had to sometimes stop because of red lights which I couldn't overrun without crashing or causing crashes. Also I needed something to eat after that, like a banana, or an apple, maybe some nuts, and to drink, water, orange juice, or something isotonic.

However, in cities I've comfortably gone with the flow of cars, sometimes overtaking them, outside of them there was now flow, because less cars.

Maybe it's a good thing not knowing what the record is? :-)

Regarding the route on google maps which I posted, and you reposted, I don't know wtf google is doing! The route it shows when I click your repost isn't what it showed me when I reconstructed it to show!

Edit: rechecked right now, it is even showing me another one. That is unusable, because for the one I reconstructed to show here I already marked the vias to get the right one. Somehow that seems to get lost in the link it presents to share.

Edit: further reading about those records...

I wore lose fitting t-shirts, and short sport shorts. no helmet, and didn't shave my legs. Also, the heresy of not wearing pure white socks! And no special shoes clicking into the pedals, just normal running shoes fitting into something called "Tretkorb" on the pedal.

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

#98

Post by LargoLasskhyfv »

LargoLasskhyfv wrote: post #97
digital-cygnet wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taking this in good faith, as the HN guidelines ask us to, I'm fairly certain that either your recollection or your measuring equipment is faulty. Taking the "less impressive" https://goo.gl/maps/t1soU1WKtb7UBuwA9 as an example, you're claiming 60kph (37 mph) for nearly an hour over flat terrain. According to this cycling calculator [1] with some generous assumptions, that's over 800W average for an hour -- smashing…

Well. What can I say? I've been unaware of the hour record. What I can do say is that at the times I described my sustainable top performance on flat grounds without (noticable) winds as 55kph for one hour. Though that is hard to compare to something done in a velodrome, or on closed streets, since I did that in normal traffic. OFC I had to sometimes stop because of red lights which I couldn't overrun without crashin…

s/now flow/no flow

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

#99

Post by Maro »

trustBUTverify wrote: post #81
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?

Perhaps I was lucky.

It's actually a similar story (minus the fraud): my local Trek dealership [in Budapest, Hungary, when I live there] had a few salesman who were former professional (tri)athletes, one of them was the hungarian national triathlon champion in his youth days. Some of the other guys working there were former mechanics for teams.

When we went for group rides, there was no mistaking their performance. The former national champion (sub-9 IM times)---although he wasn't actively training---was leading the pack, maintaining a 40+ km/h pace in strong headwind, veins popping on his legs. After a crazy 100km ride he took us for a run and was dishing out a sub-4:30 pace for "good training". You can't make that up.

Also, sometimes (very rarely) he'd still go to races and finish with very impressive times, often/usually winning his age group (eg. 40-45). He said he doesn't like going to races anymore, because his competitive side is crazy strong, and it bothers him if somebody is faster than him, even if they're younger. He had a very different, very competitive mentality compared to non-pro amateurs. An amateur, even soneone who trains very hard to get good times / PBs, usually isn't bothered by poeple being faster, because as an amateur that's always the case (pros are always way faster).

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

#100

Post by trk_krt »

omg! I used to go to this shop all the time when it was ProBike Falls Church or PBFC. One day the mechanic became the owner and the sales guys never gave a straight answer about where the owner was. Now it’s called Vida Ciclista, but it sells the same stuff. I do remember all the medals and fancy bike frames, I never heard the full range of lies he told, just that he was “pro” a long time ago. It makes sense now, he was just some doughy middle age corporate hack trying to be one of the cool kids and ended up with a bib wedgie instead.
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