Strava Segment Hunting

Hahahaha, Strava make me giggle sometimes!

It’s been a while since I held the Strava KOM on the Borth Golf Course Straight segment, but it’s the closest segment to my house and, as Jon pointed out the other day, about time I attempted to regain it as he had been in the top spot since he knocked me off the podium back in October 2012.

I’ve just taken a look at the history on this segment using Jonathan O’Keefe’s clever Segment Statistics tool and as you can see Jon was the first person to ride it back in 2010 but was knocked off top spot in May of that year by Shelley. This was all presumably before there was a segment set up there so the times are slow as people weren’t really going for it.

Segment Stats for the Golf Course Mile

Segment Stats for the Golf Course Mile

I entered the fray in June 2010 with a time of 3 minutes exactly which was enough for 2nd place back then but I was soon knocked into 3rd by Dan and then out of the top 3 by Martyn. These are all people I know and ride with from time to time so it’s fun to see the competition heating up. Things didn’t really start to get going until the end of 2011 though when more people knew about Strava and the segment itself was created. At that point Dewi went under the two minute mark with a time of 1:55 for the mile and held it for a while. I came back with a time of 2:03 which was good enough for 2nd place and then the competition really began. Gruff started to join in as well and as a pretty strong semi-pro rider it was only a matter of time before he had the top spot.

That was until I upped the ante quite a bit posting a time of 1:45 in May 2012 putting me on the top spot with a time that was fast enough to hold off all comers for a quite a while. Many people tried to beat it but failed. Gruff had a couple of concerted efforts with rides specifically aimed at getting the segment but only managed a time of 1:50. Then Jon put in a stormer posting a time of 1:42 in October 2012. Things were serious now and people were picking their days in order to get the right conditions. 1:42 was pretty fast though and conditions were all important if you wanted to beat that.

His time held throughout the winter despite the fact that plenty of people tried to beat him. However a massive effort from Richard on April 11th this year equalled Jon’s time of 1:42 so there were now two people on the top step of the podium with me and Gruff in 2nd and 3rd respectively.

I woke up this morning and had a notification that Gruff had beaten my time – I told you that was inevitable but I took a look at his ride and there can’t be a more blatant segment hunt than this!

Gruff's Ride

Gruff’s Ride

His entire ride was 2.3 miles long, he started in Borth and just rode up towards the beginning of the segment and then rode flat out along it and stopped. He posted a time of 1:42 equalling (but not beating) that of Jon and Richards, but that was it. I don’t know how he got there or how he got home again but that was the extent of his ride – There isn’t even any heart rate data, but he was now on the top of the podium with the other two and I was still in 2nd place.

You know what that meant – yep, time to get out on my bike and give it a go. It was now time to regain the title and really up the stakes on the Golf Course Mile segment – I wanted it back so it was time to go a’hunting!! So before breakfast I put my cycling kit on rode into the wind to Borth, turned around and started to crank it up. Just as I started the segment some numpty in a car decided to do a three point turn in the middle of the segment so I had to stop, turn around, go back and start again. Never mind, a good clearing effort before the main effort could be just what I needed. So off I went again, up to speed with the wind behind me flying along the mile. It felt pretty fast all the way and was actually fairly easy but I didn’t want to blow up too early so as long as I was above 35mph I was happy. I managed that and before I knew it the mile was over and I was braking to make the bend at the end. I slowed a little too quickly really and probably lost a second here and reckon I could have gone a little faster, but that was it. Segment hunting over for the day and time to head home for some breakfast. Yep, I hammer out Strava segments before breakfast, because I’m hard like that!!!

But had I done it? Was it fast enough?…… Ooooh, not quite, there are now 4 of us on the top spot all with a time of 1:42, if only I hadn’t slowed down quite so much for the bend at the end, I thought it finished earlier than that!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Avatar forComment Author

Alan Cole

Alan is a Freelance Website Designer, Sports & Exercise Science Lab Technician and full time Dad & husband with far too many hobbies: Triathlete, Swimming, Cycling, Running, MTBing, Surfing, Windsurfing, SUPing, Gardening, Photography.... The list goes on.

You may also like...