Even if it's on Strava, it might not have happened — some cyclists are paying 'mules' to ride activities for them

In some of the most bizarre news we've read recently there appears to be a new trend online, with Strava users paying people to complete activities on their behalf so they can impress followers with uploads to the ride-sharing app.

Strava "mules" or "jockeys" are people looking to make a bit of cash by riding or running for someone else, whether it be to top up the purchaser's training miles or for a big event, the willing athlete recording an activity for them and receiving remuneration in return, often dependent on how long or hard the ride or run was.

It was an issue raised in a Women's Health piece last week, Strava since releasing a statement pointing out "part of the platform's magic comes from the authenticity of our global community in uploading an activity, giving kudos, or engaging in a club" and warning those tempted that accounts can be suspended.

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"Strava's mission is to motivate people to live their best lives," a spokesperson said. "Part of the platform's magic comes from the authenticity of our global community in uploading an activity, giving kudos, or engaging in a club.

"As required by our terms of service, Strava athletes agree to create only one account for their personal use and not share their account or Strava credentials with others.

"Accounts found violating the Terms of Service, including through sharing account information or misrepresenting the athlete and/or activity, will be suspended from the platform. This is important to safeguarding and respecting the progress and work of our athletes as they lace up every day."

Why someone would want to pay money not to get the fun and fitness of riding a bike seems quite puzzling to us, but then again this is the social media age of likes and carefully manicured online profiles.

"Give us the starting point, the distance, the pace, and we will do it for you"

We got in touch with one London-based mystery mule, who wanted to remain anonymous but is a 45-year-old Belgian IT expert who is a father of three and a sports coach in his spare time. He explained how seeing the trend grow in Indonesia encouraged him to try it. We'll call him Gill.

"During Covid, slackers started to manipulate their Strava activities in order to avoid being seen running, cycling, swimming, during working hours," Gill explained to us. "The idea of a Strava Jockey came with that in mind and the earlier story in Indonesia I think. I thought, why not me, but at an industrial scale, combining actual activities when we find the athlete to do it on our behalf, or AI generated/IT-manipulated activities.

"An activity is a GPX file. In essence it's an XML file, which is basically a text representation of an Excel table with headers. Your Garmin watch, every one or two seconds it is adding a line into this table, a time stap, the GPS coordinates and any other relevant data at the time (the cadence, the HR, the power or any other data available from the watch or a ANT+ sensor). It's easy to develop a programme where you can import the GPX of an activity and shift backward the time stamp by say six hours. Then a ride from 9am to noon, could become from 3am to 6am."

These can be created from scratch if you're a tech wizard as long as you "ensure data is coherent" to avoid getting flagged, but, Gill tells us, it remains easier just to find someone willing to actually do the activity on someone else's behalf. 

He now has "dozens of clients" and has even moved on to running a "geographically widespread network", identifying interest on online forums and connecting them to jockeys locally, charging £2.50 for a five kilometre run, or £16 for a cyclist in Manchester who wanted a 100-mile ride from the city centre out into the Peak District and back.

"The number of potential customers interested in a three-hour ride starting in Bradford or a one hour run in an obscure industrial estate at lunchtime is pretty limited," he explained. "So the idea is to develop a geographically widespread network. Go on running, cycling, swimming internet forums and find a guy who's about to do an activity where you want it to be, ask for the GPX file once completed, kick him back, and the customer can import the GPX in their own Strava.

"IT 101 for clients, do not ever ever give your Strava password. There's a high risk of scam and phishing, the client just receives the GPX and imports it by themselves in their Strava. If you can't find the athlete, completely faking the GPX is the route, using AI and IT. But much more difficult in terms of technology, especially for cycling which covers longer distance."

He charges 10p per kilometre cycled, his account's profile stating: "You do not have time to cycle or run? We do it for you for your Strava. Any time, any pace, anywhere. Global network of athletes."

"Give us the starting point, the distance, the pace, and we will do it for you!" the page adds.

But why would anyone care enough about Strava to pay for an activity?

"Good question, but social pressure, FOMO (fear of missing out), dream of a life you can't have, making your wife believe you're running while you’re having an affair or are at the pub," Gill suggests. "The reasons are multiple. Touching morals? Yes definitely.

"Everyone will have a different approach to what is morally right or wrong. We'll deliver an invoice if anyone orders a run, a ride or a swim. We are actually currently working on a channel crossing and maybe a Gibraltar straight crossing, this will be for a four-digit sum.

"[Originally] It was really more a joke to see if people are biting into it or would get offended... just fun. We have however received a lot of enquiries for the day-to-day stuff.

"We could make a subscription for that, three 10kms a week for £12, But what has been interesting is the order of things like half marathons, marathons, 100 miles, 200km, Everesting, or even swimming from France to the UK or from Gibraltar to Africa as mentionned. 

"The only moral issue there... if you give an Everesting to someone who gets it validated, it raises serious ethics concerns. However, if you provide a GPX to someone, it's the way they use it that can be against morals, not the fact that I give them away."

Gill also claims that an Everesting — ascending and descending a climb repeatedly until you have climbed the 8,849m elevation of Mount Everest — can go for £500.

Any other mules out there in the road.cc comments? Feel free to get in touch if you, or someone you know, gets paid for (or pays for) their Strava activities?