Strava Overload

Pross
Pross Posts: 42,453
edited September 2013 in Road general
Having recently ridden the Tumble and uploading the ride to Strava I was amazed to find that there are at least 13 segments in a climb that is 3 miles long. The hill does have two / three obvious sections but how people manage to make so many in such a short length is beyond me. Has anyone come across a more congested section of road on Strava? I suspect there'll be some inner city ones where there is a lot of overlap!
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Comments

  • hatch87
    hatch87 Posts: 352
    I probably have more hidden segments than actual segments now. I just keep the longest one and hide the rest along with any down hill ones
    http://app.strava.com/athletes/686217
    Come on! You call this a storm? Blow, you son of a bitch! Blow! It's time for a showdown! You and me! I'm right here! Come and get me!
  • me-109
    me-109 Posts: 1,915
    Box Hill
  • OverTheHillAt21
    OverTheHillAt21 Posts: 102
    Considering over 1500 have cycled all the way around Loch Rannoch and posted the data on Strava, nothing would surprise me anymore. But there are only two segments and the shorter one is 19km :-)
  • richard_farrant
    richard_farrant Posts: 231
    Me-109 wrote:
    Box Hill
    +1

    Utterly ridiculous, at least 30-40 segments for one hill
    Dolan Mythos
  • BrandonA
    BrandonA Posts: 553
    hatch87 wrote:
    I probably have more hidden segments than actual segments now. I just keep the longest one and hide the rest along with any down hill ones

    I never used to make use of the hidden segment feature but I too experience lots of pointless segments in my area too. I've now started hiding lots of segments.

    I once joked to some people that I might create lots of segments around the area because if I didn't then eventually someone else would and they might give them stupid names or poor start and end point, or they'd be created by people with smart phones and have more tacking. Obviously I didn't do this but ultimately ever bit of road between two junctions will have a segment.
  • overlord2
    overlord2 Posts: 339
    Richard Farrant wrote:
    Me-109 wrote:
    Box Hill
    +1

    Utterly ridiculous, at least 30-40 segments for one hill

    Hardly worth one segment let alone 40
  • Strith
    Strith Posts: 541
    Yep I quit using it quite a while ago now. Novelty wore of pretty quick, and yeah all these segments on box hill etc make the thing a mess.
  • Mikey23
    Mikey23 Posts: 5,306
    Strava does let you know when you are creating a segment that there is already one just like on the same bit of road and do you want to proceed. Should be a bit of a clue even for the thickest...
  • wheezee
    wheezee Posts: 461
    Strava badly needs editors, or moderators, who can check out over-subscribed sections, distil them into one or maybe two segments, and lock them. They seem to be able to disable "hazardous" ones easily enough.

    Seeing as how the whole thing is crowd-sourced, maybe the hive-mind will sort it out eventually.
  • bernithebiker
    bernithebiker Posts: 4,148
    Come to France. I can take you on glorious routes of 100km where you won't even do ONE segment!!
  • charlie_potatoes
    charlie_potatoes Posts: 1,921
    wheezee wrote:
    Strava badly needs editors, or moderators, who can check out over-subscribed sections, distil them into one or maybe two segments, and lock them. They seem to be able to disable "hazardous" ones easily enough.

    Seeing as how the whole thing is crowd-sourced, maybe the hive-mind will sort it out eventually.

    There is an option for you to hide any segments that you are not interested in. So you can be your own moderator :D

    Totally agree with the comments about Box Hill BTW. (except the ludicrous one by Overlord2)
    "You really think you can burn off sugar with exercise?" downhill paul
  • adr82
    adr82 Posts: 4,002
    Mikey23 wrote:
    Strava does let you know when you are creating a segment that there is already one just like on the same bit of road and do you want to proceed. Should be a bit of a clue even for the thickest...
    You'd think so, but no. People will create segments that literally stop halfway up a hill (even a short hill that takes 40 seconds to ride up!!!), presumably because that's as far as they can get before their legs give up and they really really really want a KOM.
    wheezee wrote:
    Strava badly needs editors, or moderators, who can check out over-subscribed sections, distil them into one or maybe two segments, and lock them. They seem to be able to disable "hazardous" ones easily enough.
    Absolutely agree, it's the obvious solution. It would also benefit Strava directly because their systems will be wasting time and space processing and storing all these near identical segments.
  • charlie_potatoes
    charlie_potatoes Posts: 1,921
    adr82 wrote:
    wheezee wrote:
    Strava badly needs editors, or moderators, who can check out over-subscribed sections, distil them into one or maybe two segments, and lock them. They seem to be able to disable "hazardous" ones easily enough.
    Absolutely agree, it's the obvious solution. It would also benefit Strava directly because their systems will be wasting time and space processing and storing all these near identical segments.

    Perhaps they could charge a small subscription fee to help cover the additional costs :lol:

    Or.....
    Charlie Potatoes wrote:
    There is an option for you to hide any segments that you are not interested in. So you can be your own moderator :D
    "You really think you can burn off sugar with exercise?" downhill paul
  • adr82
    adr82 Posts: 4,002
    Charlie Potatoes wrote:
    There is an option for you to hide any segments that you are not interested in. So you can be your own moderator :D
    Yes, but this involves needless work for me :) Why should I have to click "hide" 60 times because some people lose all self-control when creating segments? They should at least allow you to comment on segments, so I could at least ask people wtf they were thinking creating a 100 yard segment that includes two sets of lights and a blind corner.
  • charlie_potatoes
    charlie_potatoes Posts: 1,921
    adr82 wrote:
    Charlie Potatoes wrote:
    There is an option for you to hide any segments that you are not interested in. So you can be your own moderator :D
    Yes, but this involves needless work for me :) Why should I have to click "hide" 60 times because some people lose all self-control when creating segments?

    :D
    It is well OTT on some rides but you only need to hide them once.
    Just think about how difficult it would be for someone to administer and how many people would be whinging that their segment had been pulled and not others.
    "You really think you can burn off sugar with exercise?" downhill paul
  • Mikey23
    Mikey23 Posts: 5,306
    Bet they all jump red lights too...
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 42,453
    Maybe they could have a 'rate segment' option that you can use once you've ridden it. If it gets below a certain figure it gets wiped.
  • foiled
    foiled Posts: 17
    What Starava needs is a filter that will hide all segments less than x meters and a gradient of less than x %

    Easy!

    In fact I might suggest it to them :)
  • bernithebiker
    bernithebiker Posts: 4,148
    I love the uphill segments where someone will turn up a little farm track near the top for 50m, just to make sure noone ever gets their KOM!!

    We should encourage CSH's* to go out and squash their KOM off the map!

    *Crap Segment Hunters
  • chuckla
    chuckla Posts: 132
    Pross wrote:
    Having recently ridden the Tumble and uploading the ride to Strava I was amazed to find that there are at least 13 segments in a climb that is 3 miles long. The hill does have two / three obvious sections but how people manage to make so many in such a short length is beyond me. Has anyone come across a more congested section of road on Strava? I suspect there'll be some inner city ones where there is a lot of overlap!

    The Tumble on the A48? If you're riding that, it's nowhere near 3 miles long
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 42,453
    No, The Tumble AKA The Keepers / The Blorenge from Govilon to Blaenavon, one of the best known climbs in UK cycle racing and included in the original 100 Greatest Climbs book. It's 2.9 miles from the point usually marked as the start but I always think of he start being just above the canal bridge which makes it slightly shorter.

    http://www.strava.com/segments/4743916
  • roger_merriman
    roger_merriman Posts: 6,165
    Pross wrote:
    No, The Tumble AKA The Keepers / The Blorenge from Govilon to Blaenavon, one of the best known climbs in UK cycle racing and included in the original 100 Greatest Climbs book. It's 2.9 miles from the point usually marked as the start but I always think of he start being just above the canal bridge which makes it slightly shorter.

    http://www.strava.com/segments/4743916

    It's certainly where the climb starts rather than just gaining height, strava does auto make some segments quite a few MTB ones on the sides of the Blorange and Gilwern Hill
  • philbar72
    philbar72 Posts: 2,229
    With some parts on things like Box Hill, they can be ana advantage, I keep it down to 5 segments, the 3 seperate zigzags, the zig zag climb and the 2.2k climb.

    That way i can see if i've improved and where i've improved. I counted up the blocked segments i had and they number over 200 just for the surrey hills. it is fairly ridiculous.
  • sbbefc
    sbbefc Posts: 189
    I've never ridden in London or the south east but I have a few friends who ride down there and their rides are always littered with 100s of pointless segments.

    Also there needs to be a filter between road segments and mtb.
  • slowbike
    slowbike Posts: 8,498
    Pross wrote:
    Maybe they could have a 'rate segment' option that you can use once you've ridden it. If it gets below a certain figure it gets wiped.
    I think there's merit in that - although perhaps its more a "like/dislike" option - those that have an overall negative can get wiped.

    Sometimes I can understand an overlap in segments - several climbs around me are used for club hill climbs - they don't start at the bottom and don't finish at the top - probably because the layby/carpark they use are slightly into the climb - no prob ...
    Then there's a segment on my ride home - for 2 years it's been <place> climb ... it started at the bottom of the climb and finished at the summit - it's a smooth hill - ramps up slowly and then flattens out at the top ..
    so some smart alec comes along and decides to create <place> climb (uphill part) starting at the same place but finishing 0.2miles short of the full segment ... the full segment was only 0.5miles to start with!

    Anyway - I'm pleased that my best time up it is faster than Joanna Rowsell's best time ... by 24 seconds! But I bust a gut to get up it and she was probably on a cool down part ... :( Still - it's the only way I'm likely to be "faster" than a pro! ;)
  • adr82
    adr82 Posts: 4,002
    philbar72 wrote:
    With some parts on things like Box Hill, they can be ana advantage, I keep it down to 5 segments, the 3 seperate zigzags, the zig zag climb and the 2.2k climb.

    That way i can see if i've improved and where i've improved. I counted up the blocked segments i had and they number over 200 just for the surrey hills. it is fairly ridiculous.
    This is exactly what private segments are for (if that's not what you're talking about)
  • Emphursis
    Emphursis Posts: 124
    adr82 wrote:
    Mikey23 wrote:
    Strava does let you know when you are creating a segment that there is already one just like on the same bit of road and do you want to proceed. Should be a bit of a clue even for the thickest...
    You'd think so, but no. People will create segments that literally stop halfway up a hill (even a short hill that takes 40 seconds to ride up!!!), presumably because that's as far as they can get before their legs give up and they really really really want a KOM.


    I live in the middle of nowhere and have made quite a few short segments up steep slopes that take anything from 20 seconds to three minutes to get up. Why? Because Strava is for measuring yourself against your previous efforts.

    I do agree that in many places there is an excess of segments with near identical start/end points, but in some cases there are perfectly valid reasons. I've created a new version of a couple of segments because they have dodgy endpoints (one ended just past a very narrow gate on a cycle path for instance).
  • philbar72
    philbar72 Posts: 2,229
    adr82 wrote:
    philbar72 wrote:
    With some parts on things like Box Hill, they can be ana advantage, I keep it down to 5 segments, the 3 seperate zigzags, the zig zag climb and the 2.2k climb.

    That way i can see if i've improved and where i've improved. I counted up the blocked segments i had and they number over 200 just for the surrey hills. it is fairly ridiculous.
    This is exactly what private segments are for (if that's not what you're talking about)
    nope, these are all standard segments. I choose to blockthe majority of Boxhill and other segments, simply because they are really annoying and spurious. same with richmond park. again i chop it down to Half 1 and half 2 the 4 quarters and the 2 hills so i can see if i have any improvements. Richmond park is far more traffic orientated, and times can of course be meaningless as you get stuck behind traffic or idiots.
  • slowbike
    slowbike Posts: 8,498
    Emphursis wrote:
    I live in the middle of nowhere and have made quite a few short segments up steep slopes that take anything from 20 seconds to three minutes to get up. Why? Because Strava is for measuring yourself against your previous efforts.
    Then surely they can just be private segments ... ?
    Emphursis wrote:
    I do agree that in many places there is an excess of segments with near identical start/end points, but in some cases there are perfectly valid reasons. I've created a new version of a couple of segments because they have dodgy endpoints (one ended just past a very narrow gate on a cycle path for instance).
    Ah - I can understand that - perhaps you should be entitled to edit an existing segment that you didn't create if you met some sort of criteria - say in top 10% of riders or ridden x%age of the total rides...

    I've noticed sometimes during the creation of a segment on Strava, being very careful with the start/end points that the resulting segment has different start/end points - perhaps it lines up with the nearest GPS record of that ride... ?
  • toasted whippet
    toasted whippet Posts: 49
    Hillingdon Cycle Circuit is another place with a ridiculous number of segments. Its an 0.9 of a mile loop.

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