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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

It's the final live blog of 2022... Dan Alexander is here, no longer fuelled by the long-since empty Quality Street tin, to take us into 2023...
30 December 2022, 09:00
I lost my Strava KOM to someone who 'cycled' from London to Newcastle in six hours

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

Strava KOM email

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...

Strava activity flagged
Strava activity flagged

 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."

30 December 2022, 15:58
Some more of your Strava thoughts

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."

30 December 2022, 15:41
Wout wins again — more enthralling festive cyclocross action

Four in a row...

Three Brits in the top ten, with Cameron Mason following Pidcock home in fourth before Thomas Mein took sixth, but the win once again goes to Van Aert... 

30 December 2022, 15:11
Police Scotland urge use of BikeRegister
Police Scotland (via Twitter)

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...

30 December 2022, 14:32
Muddy magic meme

Go on, have a meme, it is Friday afternoon after all... 

30 December 2022, 13:43
2 Bikes 1 Wheelchair is complete — Francis and Justin reach LA 3,000 miles later... with more than £137,000 now raised for Get Kids Going!

How's this for a finale to the series? Pretty perfect, I'd say...

The JustGiving page for the challenge is now at £137,767, at the time of writing... You can find out all the info about Get Kids Going! and donate here...

30 December 2022, 12:29
Your comments

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."

30 December 2022, 12:03
BINGO!!!

It's a full house... 

30 December 2022, 11:25
Wout van Aert: "The whole woke debate sometimes goes too far"
Wout van Aert, Dublin UCI Cyclocross World Cup 2022 (Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com)

[📷: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com]

Wout van Aert sat down with Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad to answer some quick-fire questions on the year past... answering one on the most regrettable part of 2022?

"The whole woke debate. I sometimes see it going the wrong way. You have to be so careful with what opinion you express these days. Not even having an opinion is often wrong. You have to shout very loudly: I am woke. Otherwise you are almost by definition discriminatory. The best example is the Zwarte Piet discussion. I never used to associate that with oppression of anyone. It really bothers me that all this is being added nowadays."

And who was Wout most annoyed by in 2022?

"That can be none other than Vladimir Putin? I already referred to it after my victory in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. A war in Europe, not even that far from Belgium. It is unbelievable that this is still possible in this day and age."

30 December 2022, 11:23
Top 7 Paid & Free Indoor Cycling Apps | Zwift alternatives compared

30 December 2022, 10:43
"Dame Vivienne Westwood: designer, punk, cyclist"

Just two of the many tributes to the pioneering British fashion designer who died yesterday aged 81... 

30 December 2022, 10:05
Epic adventures: Jo takes on the new North Downs Way Riders' Route by bike
30 December 2022, 09:38
New York's viral number plate clearer helps more motorists

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

While we're on the topic...

Dan joined road.cc in 2020, and spent most of his first year (hopefully) keeping you entertained on the live blog. At the start of 2022 he took on the role of news editor. Before joining road.cc, Dan wrote about various sports, including football and boxing for the Daily Express, and covered the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Part of the generation inspired by the 2012 Olympics, Dan has been 'enjoying' life on two wheels ever since and spends his weekends making bonk-induced trips to the petrol stations of the south of England.

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40 comments

Avatar
Hirsute | 1 year ago
0 likes

The number of comments blaming the cyclist in this video is, I regret, expected.

https://twitter.com/Rossmac212/status/1609274892058492929

For those who don't have twitter, a ped stepping between cars is hit by a motorcyclist and there are many comments about the cyclist not taking care !

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mattw replied to Hirsute | 1 year ago
0 likes

I think this is down to the person on the motorbike, who admits he is filtering at 20mph down the middle of 2 lines of traffic. And is therefore unable to observe and adequately manage potential hazards.

10-12mph would be more appropriate.

IMO that would apply whether the person filtering is one a motorcycle or a bicycle.

Yes - the confusion of motorbikes and bicycles is not a surprise. Though the tweeter calling a motorbike a "bike" does not help.

 

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hawkinspeter replied to mattw | 1 year ago
0 likes

mattw wrote:

I think this is down to the person on the motorbike, who admits he is filtering at 20mph down the middle of 2 lines of traffic. And is therefore unable to observe and adequately manage potential hazards.

10-12mph would be more appropriate.

IMO that would apply whether the person filtering is one a motorcycle or a bicycle.

Yes - the confusion of motorbikes and bicycles is not a surprise. Though the tweeter calling a motorbike a "bike" does not help.

Tricky one, I'd probably go for 50:50. The biker was filtering too fast to stop in time, but the pedestrian did just run into the road.

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OldRidgeback replied to hawkinspeter | 1 year ago
1 like

hawkinspeter wrote:

mattw wrote:

I think this is down to the person on the motorbike, who admits he is filtering at 20mph down the middle of 2 lines of traffic. And is therefore unable to observe and adequately manage potential hazards.

10-12mph would be more appropriate.

IMO that would apply whether the person filtering is one a motorcycle or a bicycle.

Yes - the confusion of motorbikes and bicycles is not a surprise. Though the tweeter calling a motorbike a "bike" does not help.

Tricky one, I'd probably go for 50:50. The biker was filtering too fast to stop in time, but the pedestrian did just run into the road.

For those of you who don't ride motorcycles, the Police Roadcraft publications, which experienced old school riders should know about and even have read, says that you should filter at 10-15mph quicker than the vehicles you're passing. When I'm on my motorbike I tend to stick to about +10mph. At that speed, you can stop in time. On a motorbike you generally see over the cars and an aware rider travelling at a suitable speed would've seen the pedestrian stepping out and would've stopped. Whether or not thatw ould've been followed by a stream of anglo Saxon vocabulary would've been down to the rider of course.

It does amaze me that pedestrians often won't hear a motorcycle approaching though.

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mattw replied to hawkinspeter | 1 year ago
0 likes

Yes - agree perhaps on any contributory negligence for a claim, but afaik the HC is fairly clear.

However. 2023 - onward and upward.

Just discovered that my old Replay HD Bullet Cam on my helmet can preserve clips by a button click, so I can run that as well as the bike cams that came for Christmas.

Which unfortunately means I will be back to the "brain outside the head" look, when I quite dislike helmets.

Now need to get to grips with the Notts and Derbys Operation SNAPs.

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wtjs replied to mattw | 1 year ago
0 likes

Now need to get to grips with the Notts and Derbys Operation SNAPs

Good! Let us know when you achieve a real success: points and a fine- as opposed to a NIP which they later bin for 'insufficient evidence' (no rear camera, no overhead drone footage etc. etc.) when they think you've forgotten about it

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Barraob1 | 1 year ago
0 likes

KOMs are dead, mountain bikers seem to have claimed most the ones near me when they drive home. Average speed 12kmh, does 72kmh in a 50kmh zone, then joins the motorway for a bit. KOMs used to be great fun, I cancelled my subscription to strava because that was the fun part, all the fitness stuff I can get from polar

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Rik Mayals unde... | 1 year ago
0 likes

On the Strava theme, did anyone notice the post sent out by Strava this week? Sent to every user, including subscribers, offering a massive 25% discount to new subscribers only, nothing for existing ones. You'd have thought they may have sent it out to all those on the free app, instead of pissing off pretty much most of their existing subscribers. many commentators were of the mindset that they were going to cancel their subscription, so Strava may well lose as many as they gain. Own goal, in my opinion.

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Oldfatgit | 1 year ago
0 likes

Bike Register has a website that will run on any device as long as there is amobile Internet connection.

So ... what is the point in developing an app to talk to the Bike Register database?
Surely, the funds for this would have been better spent developing a web-based portal for video submissions, or a specific DropBox/WeTransfer/OneDrive account for videos instead?

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Secret_squirrel replied to Oldfatgit | 1 year ago
0 likes

Oldfatgit wrote:

Bike Register has a website that will run on any device as long as there is amobile Internet connection. So ... what is the point in developing an app to talk to the Bike Register database? Surely, the funds for this would have been better spent developing a web-based portal for video submissions, or a specific DropBox/WeTransfer/OneDrive account for videos instead?

Think you have the wrong end of the stick.  If you reread the article it doesn't suggest that ScotRozzer created it themselves. 

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Bigfoz | 1 year ago
1 like

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

Living in Scotland I;d have to say nothing at all is done to stop anything at source. Which is the same pretty much across the UK. Telling people to use BikeRegister is just a gentler way of victim blaming.

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HarrogateSpa | 1 year ago
4 likes

The reason Wout van Aert doesn't associate Zwarte Piet with oppression is that he isn't black.

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jaysa | 1 year ago
2 likes

Regarding Cornish 20mph zones:

'It only makes life better for the cyclists, who pay nothing for insurance, registration, road tax, or fuel tax.'

This is great, I had no idea that cyclists were exempt from paying for their cars. Where do I sign up for free car insurance, road tax etc. for our cars?

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chrisonabike replied to jaysa | 1 year ago
0 likes

Here in Scotland many folks would be envious of 20mph zones.  As to the complaint - it's worse than that!  By paying tax, not owning a car, driving extremely rarely and avoiding main roads for many cycle journeys I'm simultaneously subsidising driving and making it more convenient for drivers while also trolling them with my lack of accountability, enjoyment of the ride and general smugness.

Cheaper more convenient driving OR knocking a MAMIL off their cycle high horse - now there's a dilemma!

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mattw replied to chrisonabike | 1 year ago
0 likes

chrisonatrike wrote:

Here in Scotland many folks would be envious of 20mph zones.  As to the complaint - it's worse than that!  By paying tax, not owning a car, driving extremely rarely and avoiding main roads for many cycle journeys I'm simultaneously subsidising driving and making it more convenient for drivers while also trolling them with my lack of accountability, enjoyment of the ride and general smugness.

Cheaper more convenient driving OR knocking a MAMIL off their cycle high horse - now there's a dilemma!

Having spent a little bit of time over New Year trying to solve the maze that is Edinburgh Cycle design standards, I empathise with that.

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Hirsute replied to jaysa | 1 year ago
1 like

I've just renewed my vehicle tax £0 and they sent me the letter in the post to pay !

Also

"We're pleased to reveal over 120,000 uninsured vehicles were seized across the UK this year! "

https://twitter.com/DriveInsured/status/1608843083067674625

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Bigfoz replied to jaysa | 1 year ago
0 likes

Paying fuel tax on a bike is an interesting concept, one the moaners haven't quite thought through...

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mattw replied to Bigfoz | 1 year ago
0 likes

That's the VAT on your cornflakes.

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wtjs | 1 year ago
7 likes

I have, of course, no interest in fashion, but I am invigorated by these pictures of an affluent designer cycling in London in normal clothes without a helmet (I always wear a helmet)- these are the people we should welcome. Dame Westwood is a sad loss!

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eburtthebike | 1 year ago
2 likes

Regarding the highly illegal plate flipper from the USA; if he was getting $1,000 a week in fines, why wasn't he banned?  Hopefully, the local police will buy a device from him, get his details and then book him for breaking the law with the plates on his own car; and ban him for life.

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mattw replied to eburtthebike | 1 year ago
0 likes

That seems to be something to do with police attitude, and something to do with reluctance to enforce by non full-police-officers - when every car could have a person with a gun in it.

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wtjs replied to mattw | 1 year ago
1 like

That seems to be something to do with police attitude

Pfff! NYPD appears to be a bit backward. All this plate-flipping stuff is unnecessary when Lancashire Constabulary's radical Ignoratron is installed and officers become free to drive around all day looking the other way while immediately binning all reports of offences. Here's an illegal plate which I have displayed before, but which festive revellers may have missed. Non-existent OM61 JAY is on a Cannon Run Mercedes- an organisation frequented by people so dreadful that you can't believe they haven't been banned by International Treaty. Climate-burning toffs in an identifiable illegal vehicle, you say? what's not to prosecute?

Come to Lancashire, All is Forgiven!

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Grahamd | 1 year ago
3 likes

I think the Police should investigate the Strava ride, 157 kmh max speed is somewhat excessive. Let the idiot who posted it explain that one.

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Awavey | 1 year ago
3 likes

Pele was quite famous for popularising a bicycle move in football if we are heading into adding tributes to famous people with tenuous links to cycling in the blog.

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Fursty Ferret | 1 year ago
3 likes

I know this is pathetically childish but I now have an overwhelming urge to find this segment and try to claim the KOM myself.

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mark1a replied to Fursty Ferret | 1 year ago
1 like

You would just be taking it from the person who originally had it. Activity flagged so removed from leaderboards and previous placings reinstated. 

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Dan Alexander replied to Fursty Ferret | 1 year ago
4 likes

Be my guest, I'll give you a blog shout out when you do!

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JohnP_SM7 replied to Fursty Ferret | 1 year ago
0 likes

If you mean the 'Up Bonsor Drive, Kingswood' segment,  then it's just down the road from me, in Kingswood, Surrey.  And I'm going to grab that KOM.  I 'only' need to knock 50 seconds off my 1:46 time to equal Dan's KOM... 🙄

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Bmblbzzz | 1 year ago
0 likes

Perhaps Strava should just create a separate category for motorbikes, cars, etc? After all, the motorbikers and drivers surely don't think of themselves as in competition with cyclists. 

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lonpfrb replied to Bmblbzzz | 1 year ago
1 like
Bmblbzzz wrote:

Perhaps Strava should just create a separate category for motorbikes, cars, etc? After all, the motorbikers and drivers surely don't think of themselves as in competition with cyclists. 

No, absolutely not. If you want to compete in a motor vehicle go to a circuit or closed course for that purpose. The public highway is for transport with due care and attention to the conditions on the day. That test is frequently failed by motorists of all types that we have to pay for education, enforcement, prosecution and incarceration.
The Strava kom is only tolerated because it doesn't endanger other road users. That's not to suggest that cyclists are more competent road users, just that the size, weight and construction of a bicycle are much less likely to cause harm than other vehicles.

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