Timing @ Lake Mascoma TT

Around the Hanover, New Hampshire Strava Headquarters, we have a vibrant cycling community that came out in full strength this past Saturday, August 21^st. The scene at Drummond Custom Cycles in Enfield, New Hampshire saw beautiful new bikes lined up on the lawn to demo, purchase or ogle at, raffle prizes ready at the door, food, and the Time Trial course marked and marshaled.

This Customer Appreciation Day was a celebration of cycling and the community in good style.

After running around the shop in the morning, feeling a great energy in the air while people arrived, I was relegated to sit by the junction of Route 4A and Caleb Dyer Lane, the start of the TT. Here I am stationed in the golf cart in charge of the starting and timing for the Lake Mascoma Time Trial.

It was great to see how Strava could fit into this picture. With a Strava Event created for the 10.5 mile Time Trial and the local Strava riders invited, there was a great, yet diverse, turnout. There were a handful of Garmin devices to test and a computer for Strava sign-ups and instant downloading after the Time Trial. The reactions were positive for those who used Strava for the first time, and even though current Strava users made up only part of the crowd, bringing Strava into this local shop event was a great addition to the community of cyclists.

Despite the riders who came out in full aero gear, skin suits, tri-suits, shoe covers, etc. the Time Trial event was a fit for all the participants, fun, encouraging and competitive at the same time. The range of ages was impressive, and included a handful of kids, as was the diversity of the participants, including a tandem bicycle team.

The core of events like Drummond’s Customer Appreciation Day is bringing together a community of cyclists and friends to celebrate the sport and the outdoors.

There were a total of 25 riders in the Time Trial, some of whom recorded via Strava and some of whom hand-timed.

Here are the Strava Results

The Velo Plan replaces the existing Monthly Plan, and is only $6 per month. You still have the option of paying for a full year — and getting an 18% discount — for $59/year.

We’ve heard from many people that would love to use Strava, but aren’t cycling as much as they’d like to, or would prefer to have a free plan that didn’t limit them to 10 lifetime uploads. Our new Free Plan is completely free and has no limit for how long you can use it. We tried to find a way that would let people who ride less frequently, or want to test drive Strava, do so without any time constraints. The Free Plan lets you upload as many times as you want, but you can only add 5 rides to your Strava account each month. Uploaded rides that aren’t activated are stored in your Rides > Activities view under the Manage Rides tab. Those rides don’t get processed and displayed anywhere else, and obviously, they don’t show up in segment views or leaderboards. When you decide to upgrade to the Velo Plan, all the rides you have in storage are immediately and automatically processed and added to your Strava account.

There are a few other differences between the Velo and Free Plans: on the Velo Plan, you can create and manage public or private clubs and events — on the Free Plan, you can create and manage public clubs and events only.

If you’ve been on the fence previously about using Strava, you no longer have any excuses — go and sign up for the Free Plan now!

For Strava members on the existing monthly plan, we will automatically extend your current month by 2 weeks and reduce your next month’s fee to $6.

I began my research by compiling all of the KOMs (and QOMs) in the entire Strava dataset from Category 3 or harder climbs. This rendered a list of  717 climbs, along with the bikes listed for these rides. Grouping the bikes by manufacturer, I selected the most common 5 bikes chosen by Strava riders for further investigation. There were 2 questions I aimed to answer: How fast, on average, does each manufacturer’s bike go uphill? And, what’s the average cost of each bike?

To answer the first of these questions, I employed a method of comparing climbs called VAM. VAM was designed by Michele Ferrari to help compare and prepare elite cyclists; in Italian VAM is short for Velocita Ascensionale Media, in English, we call it the average climbing speed. VAM boils down to a simple equation: how many meters in elevation are gained per hour while climbing ((delta elevation(m) / delta seconds) * 3600). VAM works well when comparing climbing efforts because the vast majority of your power goes to fighting gravity, which VAM accounts for. When you’re not climbing (for example, in a draft line on a flat road), much less of your energy goes to fighting gravity and factors like road conditions and wind resistance have more influence. Also, because VAM tends to be more accurate on longer, sustained climbs, only Category 3 and harder climbs are used in factoring the results of the equation. To put VAM into perspective, the best climbers in history, Pantani, Armstrong, etc., achieve 1700+ numbers when winning an important mountain stage.

The experiment that we wish we could run would be to take the same group of riders and put them on different bikes, measuring VAM on the same climb with each bike. This would really get at the question of the impact the bike has on performance. Instead, we can pool our data across riders on different bikes, assuming that the average rider on each bike is of approximately equal ability. We recognize this is a big assumption. If bike choice among the top 5 most popular bikes is biased by biker ability, then this analysis is only going to reveal that bias and not the impact the bike has on performance.

The following chart shows the average VAM and price for each of the top 5 bike manufacturers, for KOMs on Category 3 climbs or harder, in the Strava dataset.

VAM vs. Price

I’m assuming several things with this analysis — first, that the average frame by each manufacturer ridden by Strava athletes is the mid-level frame in each manufacturers’ series of racing level frames. I’m also assuming that, with 717 Category 3 or harder climbs, the average climb ridden by each frame manufacturer is on average the same length and grade. These assumptions may be wrong, and warrant further research.

Now let’s take a look at the bikes:

Cannondale Six 13	Cannondale had an impressive showing with a 1076 Average KOM VAM. A popular choice for the Cannondale line is the Six13 (shown left). It has a carbon/aluminum frame with a fully-built weight in the 16.5 lb. range (7.5 kilos), that makes it a clear top choice for climbers. The Cannondale was used by Team Barloworld in 2006, and assisted Ivan Basso to achieve numerous Mountain Stage wins in several tours. This line of bikes has been replaced by a new line of 6′s — the Carbon 3, 5, 6 and Féminine 3 and 4.
Scott Addict SL	The Scott line of bikes — specifically the Addict — is another popular choice among climbers. Mark Cavendish has shown the world that Scott bikes can be made to go fast as well. With a ridiculously light 790 gram frame, the Addict SL can be built way under the legal UCI limit (I’ve heard rumors of 13 to 14 lb. builds of this bike when set up as a pure climbing machine).
Trek Medone	Trek bikes — specifically the Medone — have been made a popular choice for all types of cyclists by Lance Armstrong, who rode Treks to all his Tour de France wins. Trek has been pushing the envelope by committing a large budget to R&D for years. There are 15 choices in the Medone line alone — its carbon frame can be grouped with components to make it either light or super-light.
Specialized Tarmac	With a monocoque carbon frame and fork, the Specialized Tarmac line is also a great choice for climbers — made evident by watching Andy Schleck pilot one of these to within a whisker of winning this year’s Tour de France. This is a bike that should be on the short list for any cyclist who has a bent on climbing.
Cervelo R3	Cervelo seems to be everywhere now. A popular choice is the R3 which can seemingly suit evey purpose. Cancellara has won with this bike on the cobbles, so it’s clearly rugged — yet it can also be built into a sub-15 lb. climbing machine.
Parlee Z3	One notable bike that isn’t in the top 5 is the Parlee Z3, which looks like a traditional ride. Built in Beverly, Massachusetts, this bike is often the choice of very discriminating cyclists. Nearly everyone who owns one raves about it. Unfortunately they don’t come cheaply.

Two other questions worth looking into are: who are the top climbers using Strava? And, what bikes are they riding?

Strava has some very impressive climbers. Here are the top 5 via VAM analysis:

1. Brent Mellen on Burke Mountain:  Bike:  Scott Addict SL, VAM: 1685 (watch this ride on YouTube here, here and here — and note the Strava kit!)
2. Rowan Dever on Noojee – Vesper:  Bike:  Specialized Tarmac SL3, VAM: 1492
3. Ben Silberfarb on Mount Ascutney:  Bike:  Parlee Z3, VAM: 1455
4. Jacob Berkman on Alba Road:  Bike:  Cervelo R3, VAM: 1424
5. Jamie McJunkin on Old La Honda:  Bike:  Cervelo R3, VAM: 1410

Brent holds the top 3 overall climbs on Strava for VAM analysis as well. Ben Silberfarb (number 3 on the list) currently owns the KOM on Old La Honda with a VAM score of 1419, which is nearly as high as his ascent up Mt. Ascutney. This climb is interesting in that he provides a conduit through which climbers from the West coast of the US can compare themselves to East coast climbers, and proves the value of VAM as a tool for comparison.

What questions have been answered by this look at bikes and their climbers?

My analysis of the Strava data shows that certain bikes tend to reach the top of climbs before others. These results may be attributed in some part to the qualities of the bike, but the results could just as easily be attributed to the fact that Strava’s strongest climbers gravitate towards certain bikes.

• Can an average climber be made great by a great bike? Probably not.
• Do bikes make a difference in overall climbing speed? Probably, but perhaps less than one might hope.
• Are there any relative bargains to be had? It appears that there are, though it’s up to you to decide what they are. The reasons for harmony between bike and rider can be complicated — price is only one ingredient.

The evidence of bike superiority is anecdotal and may very well change as more data rolls in. The data that I found most intriguing is:

• None of the top 5 climbers in the Strava database chose the bike with the highest average VAM, a Cannondale.
• 4 of the 5 top climbers in Strava chose one of the top 5 average VAM machines (with the Cervelo R3 earning the choice of 2 of Strava’s top 5 climbers).

Ultimately my initial research does seem to indicate that the strongest climbers tend to get to the top of climbs quicker than most regardless of the bike they ride. So, I’d say, “Chalk one up for the horse!”  However, I can’t ignore the data. There does seem to be the possibility of increasing one’s VAM through the right bike choice — perhaps enough to gain valuable seconds on rivals.

Last year there were 4 entrants who uploaded their race data to Strava, including myself — actually, I recall there were only 2 of us who uploaded near race-day, the others were “historic” uploads. This year we had a whopping 21 Strava-ites (can someone out there suggest a better term?) upload their ride date from Sunday’s race. What a difference a year makes!

Strava members put up some very impressive results (see the full race results here). I’ve ordered the list below by each racer’s average lap time and included the racer’s overall result, race category, and their fastest lap time:

It’s interesting to see how different racers across different categories compare. A few caveats: some categories raced more laps than others (e.g., Pro did twice as many as Masters Cat 4), and I didn’t verify these results. It’s very possible some of these times include warm-up or cool-down laps.

It’ll be cool when Strava builds features to analyze performance across riders, such as a race summary page (although we’re not promising anything soon…).

Congratulations to all the Strava racers!

Get Started with Strava from Strava on Vimeo.

We’re thinking of holding another meetup next month — let us know in the comments if you’re interested in attending.

All Garmin Edge 500 rides appear every time you upload

We fixed a bug where we were showing all Garmin 500 rides on your device as new, even if they had been uploaded before. This affected riders in timezones other than PDT.

Unable to re-upload a ride that’s been deleted

If for some reason you delete a ride, you can now re-upload that ride from a Garmin device or file.

Upload appears to stall on IE7

The javascript we were using for our ride upload progress bar wasn’t working properly in IE7. Even though the rides were getting uploaded and processed, it appeared that they were hanging up. The progress bars should work fine now for IE7.

Garmin Edge 305 is displayed as a 205 on ride page

This has now been fixed, and your 305 should be shown as such on your ride pages.

Please contact us at support.strava.com if you are still having any issues uploading your rides.

Here’s a quick excerpt that captures some of our trip:

Cycling is part religion in Portland, Oregon. I’ve never once considered living in a big city, but if some unimaginable force were to drop me into a metropolis forever, I’d choose Portland. If you’ve never been there, but you equate the value of each individual day to how much time you spend on your bike, you’ll immediately feel at home in the aptly-named City of Roses.

My brother and sister live in Portland; both ride bikes. One is a mad commuter who refuses to use anything but flat pedals (not even toe-clips), the other is a huge fan of dirt and refuses to give up her bomber (but heavier) touring bike, no matter how smooth the road. It’s also ironic that she once lived on one of the only dirt roads within city limits.

Despite our constant controversies over what and how to ride, it’s always a pleasure to bike with them and they’ve taken me to some cool spots over the years. They know I love to climb, so Larch Mountain is always a favorite. And when we can’t escape the city, they send me into the West Hills to get my kicks. I love the combination of the views of Mt. Hood and the enormous city below from these vantage points.

During this trip, my sister, my boyfriend Matt, and I headed to the Trout Lake region in Washington for the Oregon State Road Championships (Oregon championships held in Washington? hmmm, what’s the catch?). Washington or not, the state title was definitely alluring to many and captured a strong group of riders. This is where I came to appreciate the Sorella Forte Women’s Team. They had a large number of participants who controlled much of the race, including Anne Linton and Sarah Tisdale, who are new members to Strava (welcome!). Apparently their Portland Club is HUGE and is made up solely of women. Very cool! After the race, I also caught up with Steve Schwaeber, a Veloce rider out of Portland. Steve and his teammates will also be test driving Strava. I have to say thanks again to Steve for giving me some recovery food, since I was locked out of our car after the race (a result of poor communication between my sister and I… ahhhh, family relations). Matt and Sue had returned late from a ride that took them through the ranches and forests at the base of Mt. Adams. They came back with stories about great climbs, mountain views, loose cattle, cheese pizza, and fist-sized gravel. If nothing else, it proved there is plenty of challenging and scenic riding to be had a short drive from Portland’s city limits.

In my past two visits, I’ve also made sure to head over to the Portland International Raceway (not so “international,” but there are lots of cool flags to help gauge the wind) on Monday nights to race the track series. It’s always a thrill to bike race when you don’t know any of your other competitors. Plus, the track here has an amazing turnout and is super safe and friendly. That night, my sister also raced with the Novice women and Matt jumped into his first race ever (on a rental bike no less — see Waterfront Bikes for some great rental options). No primes that night but Strava was able to donate 2 Garmin units with Strava memberships to the organizers at Team Oregon. They’ll be this month’s 1^st place prizes for the men and women (a nice incentive to go fast!).

In speaking with Team Oregon at registration, I met Emiliano (try not to butcher the name) and his girlfriend, Lana (Team… hmmm, can’t quite remember, but she has a very sharp looking pink kit).  I’ve come to learn that both Emiliano and Lana, in addition to having exotic names, are very dedicated athletes and they’ve already shared some great ideas regarding Strava.

Later that week and after feeling relatively good at the track, I was still debating racing with the Men’s 3 at the Twilight Crit in downtown Portland. Finally, I decided against it (thanks to Matt who all too often helps me with my indecisive “Libra-ness”) and was quite thankful for that once I saw the course in person. It was a recipe for disaster, tight and numerous corners with precariously located manholes, ready to eat you, yikes! I was much happier remaining upright with the sole responsibility of balancing my beer.

The pièce de résistance for the trip had to be watching and waiting for my sister’s bike team to get to the finish of the Rapha Gentlemen’s Race. This well-known and epic event changes course every year, and this year it caught everyone a bit off guard. 123 miles including some dirt and mega-sized gravel was not a good mixture with the surprising 90+ temperatures. While eavesdropping among the teams who had succeeded in finishing (less than half), similar themes emerged, as the words “flat, puncture, heatstroke, dehydration, cramping, delirious” and other four letter counterparts were all too common. Poor Sue, I thought to myself, “will she/they make it?” Finally at around 7:30 they rounded the corner into the Chris King parking lot, looking many shades darker than when they began. Their stylish kits were now a dull and monotone dirt brown. “What took you so long!” I began to joke. Little did I know there had been a significant handicap to overcome. Suzanne had broken her pedal in the first 20 miles of the race and her front derailleur busted shortly after. Turns out she rode the whole thing with one pedal and no big ring. Way to go sis, STUBBORN and tough as nails! I couldn’t be more proud.

Signing out with a big welcome to the new Portland riders, including my sister, Sue from Velodirt. I hope to see many of you during my next visit. Enjoy Strava and keep us updated on your amazing cross season!

Here are some helpful links for any riders who are considering a trip to Oregon in the future:

• www.waterfrontbikes.com for rentals.
• http://velodirt.com for more info on riding the dirt.
• http://obra.org for racing info and events.
• http://oregon.cyclingaction.com/ for Oregon cycling highlights and news.
• http://www.racemondaynight.com/blog/ a Monday night series at the Portland International Raceway.
• http://www.hopworksbeer.com/ for the best combo of bikes and beers.
• http://gritandglimmer.com/2010-rapha-gentlemans-race-report-in-full/ a very entertaining summary of the Rapha race.
• http://www.soapboxracer.com/index.htm for just plain fun… on wheels.

Today, we’ve updated Strava with a bunch of bug fixes, tweaks and other improvements — many of which were suggested by members, thanks!

Here’s a quick highlight of the important changes:

• Added KOMs link to athlete profile page
• Added ability to edit multiple activities at once from Activities page
• Fixed some display issues with IE7
• Added link to create new club to Clubs section
• Enabled searching for climbs without entering a location
• Made the elevation map segments clickable

The ability to edit multiple activities at once was something we were improving upon, but didn’t finish prior to the Monday release. It’s an important part of the work flow for uploading new rides, so we wanted to get it out as quickly as possible. Here are some screens that show it in action:

New activities are displayed in edit mode by default.

You can also edit existing rides from the activities view by hovering over the ride and clicking the edit button.

If you live or work in San Francisco, don’t forget to come by, meet the Strava team, and let us know what you think of the recent improvements at our meetup tonight!

San Francisco-based Strava members and cycling enthusiasts are invited to come by and give us your thoughts on the new updates, as well as any other feedback, complaints or suggestions you have.

So if you’re in SF on Thursday, make sure you come by and say hello, and we’ll buy you a beer!