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

We spoke to a mule to find out more... as Strava warns against eroding "part of the platform's magic" with paid-for activities...

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.

> There's a new fastest time up Box Hill — but what's the world's hardest Strava KOM to add to your collection?

"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."

Strava Jockey Twitter

"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?

Dan is the road.cc news editor and has spent the past four years writing stories and features, as well as (hopefully) keeping you entertained on the live blog. Having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for the Non-League Paper, Dan joined road.cc in 2020. Come the weekend you'll find him labouring up a hill, probably with a mouth full of jelly babies, or making a bonk-induced trip to a south of England petrol station... in search of more jelly babies.

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34 comments

Avatar
Eurodolphin | 1 month ago
3 likes

After a major cycling accident I was rushed to hospital in an ambulance with Strava still recording.  It recorded me cycling at great speed down a motorway and I was registered as the fastest climber of a very steep hill close to the hospital.

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the little onion replied to Eurodolphin | 1 month ago
0 likes

something similar happened to me. I got several KOMs which were all flagged within seconds (literally!) of going up on Strava.

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Miller | 1 month ago
4 likes

I wouldn't do an Everesting for £500. Then again I am in zero danger of being asked to do that.

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Smoggysteve | 1 month ago
1 like

IF and I do mean IF you are sad enough to want to make it look like you did a ride , do this:

Find an old ride and download the GPX file.

Open the file as a text document 

find the date time group and change the first instance to the current date. Don't try and change the time, just the date bit. 
 

go to find all and put in the old date and change every instance to the new date. 
 

voila your ride is as if you just rode it that day.,

 

before uploading, ensure you change the file name from a .txt to a .gpx file. 
 

happy fake riding 

 

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Oldfatgit replied to Smoggysteve | 1 month ago
0 likes

Or you could use an online editor and really play ..

https://www.fitfiletools.com/#/top

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cyclisto | 1 month ago
0 likes

Love it really. To the show off fitness madness, this is the perfect troll reply.

True perfection. Even better if the mule uses a moped.

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Dnnnnnn | 1 month ago
4 likes

Giving up the day job!

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Bigfoz | 1 month ago
3 likes

I mean really, cheating on Strava? Why? What is wrong with people? How untrustworthy do you need to be to either pay someone to cheat, or to be paid to cheat? 

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Cayo replied to Bigfoz | 1 month ago
3 likes
Bigfoz wrote:

I mean really, cheating on Strava? Why? What is wrong with people? How untrustworthy do you need to be to either pay someone to cheat, or to be paid to cheat? 

Employers already check current and potential employees' social media to see if they are suitable people - could be only a matter of time before they use 'Strava honesty' as an employment suitability parameter! 😁

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brooksby replied to Cayo | 1 month ago
2 likes

Cayo wrote:

Employers already check current and potential employees' social media to see if they are suitable people

Erm - what if you don't have any social media?

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Simon E replied to brooksby | 1 month ago
1 like

brooksby wrote:

what if you don't have any social media?

If that's the case then you're likely to be too old to be worth employing.

I think it might be fair to rephrase Cayo's comment as checking for evidence to suggest that they are UNsuitable people.

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Cayo replied to brooksby | 1 month ago
0 likes
brooksby wrote:

Cayo wrote:

Employers already check current and potential employees' social media to see if they are suitable people

Erm - what if you don't have any social media?

Then... 🤔

they don't check it?

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OldRidgeback | 1 month ago
1 like

If people are daft enough to want to cheat this way then fair enough for those willing to earn a bit on the side. But I don't see the point.

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Matthew Acton-Varian replied to OldRidgeback | 1 month ago
3 likes

Some of the rates are not so enticing (10p/km would be about £3/hour at 30kph average, less if slower) but £500 for an everesting - or pretty much a day's work. If it takes 10 hours, that's £50/hr - over 4x my current wage. It would be very tempting. And you don't need to be quite at Everesting ability to do it.

Pick a decent hill mostly free from traffic, take the car, ride for a bit, when you get too tired use your car and drive at the same pace you ride for a couple of reps (to prevent activity getting flagged), jump back on the bike. Easy money for the mule.

But the people paying for this - it's the phony social media gutter behaviour "oh look at me I did this amazing thing" false inspiration crap. It's like those so-called influencers who have been secretly filmed - who smile hard taking selfies then the moment they put their phone down they look like they have absolutely no joy in their bones. You have to be seen doing something hard for clout. It is a scourge on society but it is a very prominent feature in the current climate.

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Nick T replied to Matthew Acton-Varian | 1 month ago
2 likes

Matthew Acton-Varian wrote:

Pick a decent hill mostly free from traffic, take the car, ride for a bit, when you get too tired use your car and drive at the same pace you ride for a couple of reps (to prevent activity getting flagged), jump back on the bike. Easy money

Be careful the person paying doesn't find out you drove part of the ride, you could be reported to trading standards

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EM69 | 1 month ago
7 likes

"The Earth on which we live is maintained as an insane asylum by the other planets of the universe"

George Bernard Shaw.

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Cayo | 1 month ago
9 likes

What kind of sad individual would get someone to fake a ride for them? 👀

I usually have Ride With GPS running on my phone in addition to my Garmin and since they (and other apps) are linked, I get the ride recorded twice on Strava etc. If I were cheating (cheating myself as I don't share rides publicly anyway), I'd leave the duplicate rides to bump up my total, but where is the satisfaction in that, any more than faking your 'achievements' to others? No better that all those people who upload photos of themselves on social media just to get compliments no matter how they appear in them.

As for doing rides for other people, it's all a bit "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale"* isn't it?

(*That's "Total Recall" for those of you who prefer your Philip K Dick in cinematic form, rather than in a book😉)

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joules1975 | 1 month ago
2 likes

Paying someone £500 to do an everesting for you?!!

On the one hand, paying anything just to get a strava activity on your account seems like a waste of money.

On the other hand, £500 seems a bargain for the effort required for someone to do an everesting.

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Matthew Acton-Varian replied to joules1975 | 1 month ago
2 likes

For a 10 hour attempt that's effectively £50/hour. 12 hours is just under £42/h.

Considering national mimimum is under £12 that's some pay packet for a single day's work.

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joules1975 replied to Matthew Acton-Varian | 1 month ago
0 likes

Except it's not one day's work, as it requires either significant training to reach the necessary level and/or a lot of riding already under your belt and established fitness.

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JLasTSR | 1 month ago
4 likes

If you are going to cheat why not just buy an illegal 1000w e-bike and romp up every hill.

Mind you I am not on Strava. I do record my rides but it is for my consumption only. I don't get the need to share what a zero I am. I am never going to be a hero,

I might feel differently if I was in the top 2% of the UK.

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Matthew Acton-Varian replied to JLasTSR | 1 month ago
4 likes

I feel like this kind of cheating isn't aimed at KOMs and fastest times. This is about artificially boosting overall time and/or distance stats or long challenges. Motorised assistance achieves very little in this instance.

I haven't managed an outdoor Imperial Century yet ( I don't have the luxury of a good 6 hours or more to do so at will) and have at most managed 150km in a sportive that took a lot of advanced planning. I can knock out a 100k ride in around 4 hours with a short stop but family commitments (disabled wife and strongly autistic young son) give me only half a dozen opportunities per year to do so. If I was so inclined, I could pay a mule to fix that, but I do not see the point as I gain nothing from it IRL. Such a thing is aimed at the likes of myself. But I do not find myself tempted to pay someone to falsify my stats.
 

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JLasTSR replied to Matthew Acton-Varian | 1 month ago
5 likes

I have ridden my very old bicycle on a charity ride for the past 11 years. I have ridden about 50 miles for 9 of those, in 2022 I cycled 76 miles then in 2023 I did my first ever 100 mile ride. lots of short stops to verify progress. Hard work, incredibly satisfying to achieve,

I would have deprived myself of the satisfaction if I had not ridden every last foot of it myself.

Now I have a new left hip, I should be able to do second century ride in 2025. it took me absolutely ages well 8 hours cycling and about 9.5 hours in total but it was over 30 degrees Celsius that day at least that's my excuse.

I wish you every success when you find the time to do it and I can say you will find it hard work but very satisfying.

It is something that I count as a special moment in my life. Not sure what that says about me!

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Matthew Acton-Varian replied to JLasTSR | 1 month ago
2 likes

I agree - the personal sense of accomplishment is more valuable than anything. I do a few shorter distance TTs throughout the year and whenever I get a course PM I consider it a huge win. I have done 100 miles virtually (on a trainer - a moment of lunacy) - 7 hours 3 wee breaks and a lot of food. Never again. But knowing I bloody did it? Priceless.

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polainm | 1 month ago
3 likes

This further proves my assertion that social media is mostly rank sewage from the  mindless, dribbling phombies. 

I've ridden the LEL Audax a few times, that's a 1,440km ride in under 5 days, non-stop except for snacks and power naps. £250 and I use your Garmin/Wahoo head unit, so it is undetectable as a Strava Mule. 
 

For an extra £100 I can Photoshop 4 photos of your choice into the route. 

Minimum 3 simultaneous 'riders' so tell your banker mates. 5% discount on 10 'riders' or more. 

 

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Tom_77 | 1 month ago
5 likes

Seems strange that anyone would pay for this, but if your motivation for cycling or running is purely extrinsic then I guess it's understandable.

Would have thought generating a fake .gpx file was fairly easy so why not do that instead?

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henryb | 1 month ago
5 likes

Madness. Presumably as a 'mule' you'd be able to record activities for multiple 'clients' (and thus get paid more) by carrying several phones with you?

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Paul J replied to henryb | 1 month ago
0 likes

Will Strava not automatically detect a ride uploaded multiple times? 

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Matthew Acton-Varian replied to Paul J | 1 month ago
3 likes

On seperate accounts, it will show up as a group ride. Nothing will get flagged as there's nothing tangible in the data alone that will show as suspicious.

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joules1975 replied to henryb | 1 month ago
1 like

I'd imagine Strava will already be on the lookout for rides that are just too similar. Even when riding in a group or with mates doing the same route, it's extremely unlikely your ride recordings will be identical.

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