Dedication

We will be using this blog for a variety of purposes — Sharing news about Strava, describing new features and services, soliciting feedback for an idea or product, etc.  But from time-to-time, we receive something from our members that simply must be shared.

To that end, we honor Ben Silberfarb – a founding member of the East coast Strava team – with the inaugural Member Post:

[wpvideo Z4bOYBPs]

Talk about dedication…

If you have a video clip worthy of the Strava archives, please do not hesitate to send it along!

Welcome to Strava

Welcome to the Strava Blog.  Although we have been busy working with some amazing, passionate cyclists this past year and developing some unique online services, we have been doing so largely in anonymity. We realized it was time to start letting the rest of the world know what Strava is creating.

But before we can talk about the future, we believe a little history is in order. (Please note, “story” is the bigger part of “history”):

In late 2007, a group of us were sitting around reminiscing about the “glory” days.  As avid cyclists, rowers, and runners, we found ourselves missing the excitement and camaraderie of past athletic teams and competitions.  But there were some problems:

o    We lived all over the country
o    Free time was a scarce commodity
o    Training had often become a burden
o    Family and professional obligations took priority

Bottom line – Our lives had become complicated and hectic.  And our training was suffering.

So, we decided to build a clubhouse…but, no ordinary clubhouse.  This clubhouse was located on the Web and was dedicated to our passion for cycling.  Rather than bricks and mortar, we wrote code and leased collocated servers. We used GPS data from our training rides to create a database of valuable information about our performances and our teammates.  We began comparing rides and creating small competitions amongst ourselves.  It worked… We started to bring the fun back into training and created a sense of camaraderie despite the virtual location.

In the summer of 2008, we invited a few others to join the party.  We recruited a small group of passionate cyclists to upload their ride data and begin comparing results with old and new friends alike.  We also began adding services to the clubhouse – point competitions, team services, ranking systems, and richer feedback concerning our rides.  Basically, we kept creating services that made our rides more enjoyable.  (And the trash talk was fun too!)   Pretty soon it was obvious we should be sharing the clubhouse with as many avid cyclists as possible.  Why hog all the fun?

Thus, STRAVA was born…  a members-only online service dedicated to avid cyclists.  Our mission: Entertain and motivate a global community of cyclists.

And, with your help, we can do just that.  We truly believe this is your clubhouse.  Your ideas… Your passions… Your goals… Come join us and together we will create something great.  A virtual home and family for our favorite passion – CYCLING!