I lost my Strava KOM to someone who 'cycled' from London to Newcastle in six hours; New York's viral number plate clearer helps more motorists; Epic adventures; "Dame Vivienne Westwood: designer, punk, cyclist" + more on the live blog

Humour me on this one please, I don't have enough KOMs for losing one not to be a mildly traumatic experience...

So, once the initial shock of the dreaded Uh oh! email had faded I took a closer look, naturally, just to make sure... I mean it can't just be that someone stronger did it faster, can it? That's too logical, there must be something else at play...

Luckily for me, there was...

 Having rung Dave Brailsford with a tip-off about a British-based rider who'd win the Tour (and every other big race) for the next ten years the conclusion was drawn that my KOM had not been stolen by the fastest person to ever ride a bicycle...

While we neither know (or suspect anyone cares what the mode of transport was here) we've been here before. Back in September we reported that Strava KOMs were being nabbed by motorcyclists clocking speeds as fast as 112mph, raising road safety concerns.

> Why can't Strava stop motorbike riders nicking KOMs? Plus tech nerd-out with Silca's CEO on the road.cc Podcast

Strava confirmed: "The Ride activity type is for conventional human-powered bicycles (including recumbents) riding outdoors. Do not use this activity type if your activity includes data recorded while driving a car, motorcycle, pacing a vehicle, using an electric bike, or another electric-assisted vehicle, using a non-traditional bicycle with full fairings or aerodynamic modifications including velomobiles, or using a GPS simulator programme for virtual riding. 

"Please note that motorcycle activities are not allowed on Strava and cannot use the Ride or E-Bike activity types."

Now.
I'm not claiming that this is in anyway dodgy. But I will say that this #strava segment is directly under the flight path into Jersey Airport.
Poor Ian Clarke, and the other 119 folks that can do it faster than me. pic.twitter.com/cZQIEvmgNA

— Lord Nick Allison (@NickEngineer) December 30, 2022

Keep writing to strava about it and the only solution is to flag.. This is passing the responsibility to the users (in my case paid user). They even have a limit in the number of flags/day. Honestly an algorithm automatically removing these doesn't sound so complicated in 2022..

— Pakete207 🔻 (@pakete207) December 30, 2022

Back in September we asked Strava about the issue of KOMs being taken by people in motor vehicles...

We were told: "Being part of the Strava community is a commitment to respect: we respect each other, ourselves and the rules. When we all share mutual respect, we all win. Read our community standards here. 

"That means that we rely on our global community to help us monitor the integrity of our segments and leaderboards. We ask our athletes to flag anything that doesn’t match our community standards – including mechanical cheating – which will be addressed.

"Strava values sportsmanship and fair play, and we want members of our community to earn spots on the leaderboards through clear and safe competition."

Police in Scotland are just one of the forces using the Bike Register app to help return stolen bicycles to their owners and have urged riders to register their bikes with the website.

In short, it allows officers to run a VIN of any bike they find to establish the actual owner. Sergeant Carly Bryce, from Police Scotland’s Acquisitive Crime Team, told ITV: "Allowing us to help the public mark and register their bikes, but up until recently whenever we came across a potentially lost or stolen cycle, we would have to contact Bike Register directly and get them to check if the bike was on the database.

"Thanks to the development of the app for police mobile devices, we can instantaneously carry out a check ourselves and if the bike is registered and found to be in the possession of someone who is not the owner, we can respond swiftly and appropriately.

"We know that bikes are an expensive commodity and the last thing anyone wants to think about it their valued present, training equipment or mode of transport being lost or stolen, but should such an issue arise, it’s really important that the bike is registered on the database."

We'll leave it to you to decide if enough is done to stop bike thefts at source...

I've reached out to Strava on some of their challenges, in one case, the top leader, had a multi thousand mile/kilometer ride, in one day ;)😂😜

— 𝐉𝕠𝕙𝕟 𝐑 𝐏𝕖𝕣𝕒𝕝𝕖𝕤 🏴‍☠️ 🚴 (@JohnRPerales) December 30, 2022

Grahamd noted the police might be interested in the top speed, while Fursty Ferret now wants to go give the KOM a try...

Confession time: my best was assisted by a conveniently timed slow-accelerating HGV as the perfect lead-out man... go flag me if you wish, I won't be offended, and can give it a flat-out 'natural' effort once the Christmas fitness has shifted... despite the faux-outrage in my earlier post trust me, I won't be losing any sleep over a Strava KOM...

General Zod: "It's a complete pain in the arse. Half the segments on my ride to work have the top few slots taken by people doing three figure speeds. Constantly flagging them is a time-consuming exercise. Strava's algorithm should easily be able to screen impossible segment times."

I caught another REPEAT offender — so I committed some serious criminal mischief on Prospect Park West in tony Park Slope. Must-see CRIMINAL MISCHIEF against a plate-covering perp here. pic.twitter.com/9qrcQqeiWi

— Gersh Kuntzman (@GershKuntzman) December 29, 2022

Keep tuning in to our podcast for more from Gersh in the new year... 

While we're on the topic...

What consequence should you get if you’re caught with one of these?? pic.twitter.com/4J2pIft9xc

— Sam Balto (@CoachBalto) December 30, 2022