Strava Ride Cards

Strava Ride Card

It has happened to us more than a few times. We’ll be out on a ride and cross paths with another cyclist riding with a GPS device. We tell them about Strava but we know the chances of them remembering to go to our site are understandably slim. They are focused on their ride, not on a sales pitch. “Strada??” we hear. “It’s S-T-R-A-V-A dot com, it means ‘to strive’ in Swedish.” “Oh, ok– sounds cool. I’ll try to remember to check it out…” 10% probability at best. Maybe you have had similar experiences.

To help spread the Strava gospel we now carry Strava Ride Cards (see left). The intent is to have something to hand to the rider  on the road without having to seem like you are selling something. The cards enumerate a few of the many benefits of a Strava membership and can be slipped into a jersey pocket by the recipient for later. They are waterproof with rounded corners and sport Strava orange. They are cool, if we may say so ourselves.

The best part is that we printed up a bunch of these ride cards so we can share them with some of our members. They can easily be personalized with your Strava athlete ID or vanity url turning the cards into a way to earn rewards on Strava and a convenient way to introduce yourself to another cyclist. It’s fine to stay anonymous, too. If you would like to request ride cards, just email support@strava.com and let us know your mailing address.

Instructions for ride cards:

• They are waterproof and have rounded corners that will not get snagged on jersey pockets—ride with them!

• Write your athlete ID number or Strava vanity url at the bottom after the printed text “strava.com/athletes/”  (optional). Use ball point pen or a permanent marker making sure to let the ink dry before use.

• Hand them to friends or riders you meet

• Recruit members—get rewarded by Strava

• They are reusable…tell folks to pass the cards on… and on… you get credit for any new member who indicates your athlete ID or vanity url when they register at strava.com

Questions or comments: support@strava.com

follow: http://twitter.com/stravaHQ

discuss: http://groups.google.com/group/strava

join: http://strava.com

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Rearranged pages, better views into your climbs & rides, 'vanity' urls, and more… Sprint 8 release notes

When was the last time you rearranged the furniture in your bedroom? Makes everything seem new and fresh, doesn’t it. Well, we pushed new code on Thursday (09.17.2009) and you will see that we have rearranged a few pages on Strava, among many other things. Most of these modifications and additions are in direct response to the great feedback we keep getting from YOU, so thank you for pushing Strava forward. These notes should help guide you as to what is new, but nothing beats poking around on Strava and finding all the ‘new’ yourself.

Team page and Leaderboard page

We have added a new page called ‘Leaderboard’ which shows the 7day rolling leaderboards for the six standing competitions you are used to seeing on the Team page. The old Team page has gotten a new look. It still shows shows the list of latest rides uploaded to Strava, but the list is now paginated. You can go back all the way to the first rides ever logged on Strava if you care to. You will also see a list of the newest climbs found (with a link to the complete list of new climbs), and a list of the most popular climbs (with a link to the full list of popular climbs). Coming soon… the ability to see the ride and climb lists ‘regionalized’ to your geographical area. The Strava blog feed and Strava totals are still on the team page.

Expanded climb leaderboards

When you look at a climb page, you now have many more ways to see results of your efforts and those of other riders. Under ‘MYRESULTS’, clicking on ‘see more results…’ shows you the full list of all your efforts up that climb and your PR history of best efforts. (Think of it as…when you do that climb slower than a previous PR, it does not show up on the PR history list but when you beat a previous PR, it shows up on the PR history list ahead of your previous PR.) Under ‘LATESTRIDES’, clicking on ‘see more results…’ shows a paginated list of all efforts up that climb. Finally, under ‘KINGOF THE MOUNTAIN’ , clicking on ‘see more results…’ shows a full climb leaderboard with the ranked order of all efforts, history of KOM for that climb, ranked order of riders by their best efforts, and the ranked order of all efforts on that climb for men and for women separately.

Expanded data on athlete detail page

On an athlete’s page you will now see a list of an athlete’s favorite climbs (with a link to the full list); a list of the climbs where the athlete is the KOM (with a link to the full list), and a list of all the athlete’s unnamed climbs (with a link to the full list).  Remember, if you are the first to ascend a climb then you get naming rights and can describe its start & end characteristics. The list of an athlete’s unnamed climbs will be helpful in keeping Strava’s data accurate and useful for all. We will be turning our attention to getting unnamed climbs named and described by their ‘owners’ in an upcoming Strava competition. Stay tuned for more.

‘Vanity’ urls

You can now set how you want your athlete  home page url to look on Strava.  Your athlete home page has the format strava.com/athletes/### and still does, where ‘###’ is your athlete id number in our database. But, you are not number to us and we want your url to be as unique as you are. Go to the the Edit Profile page to choose your  ‘vanity’ url. For example, you can set it to ‘bigmark and you can  athlete homepage url would then be strava.com/athletes/bigmark. You can send this url to anyone or even put it on your business cards. We do.

The little stuff

We have added a number of nice touches (if we do say so ourselves): the bar chart on the athlete page now has smart scaling of the bar heights based on weekly stats of the athlete; the bike used on a ride is now included in the Ride Details section of the ride page; the perceived effort and ‘commute’ designation are now editable on the Ride page by the ride owner; and a few minor bugs with Athlete Rides search have been fixed. Also, if you ride with a PowerTap and a Garmin Edge 705 with +ANT capturing the data coming off of it, we now report both the measured watts from your PowerTap as well as our calculated watts from your GPS data so you can compare the two. See the note below about changes to our watts calculcations.

Behind the scenes

What you will not see, but undoubtedly will appreciate through faster response times, is that we have completed a big clean-up of old tables and code making our database smaller and more efficient. We have also gone over all of our math and implemented revised calculations for elevation gain and calculated watts. In essence, a better smoothing algorithm is now being used. The net result is that you are likely to see calculated watts have increased by 2-5% for most efforts. In comparisons with measured watts from a PowerTap device, our calculated watts are within the range of measurement error of the two devices.

Please let us know what you think– either drop us a line at support@strava.com or post a comment to the Strava group.

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Strava group now on Google

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We have recently set up a Strava group on Google which is a place for you to post questions regarding Strava to other members, share stories, as well as contribute and discuss feedback. This group is open to anyone – Strava member as well as folks who are not yet members. The topics and discussions are contributed and managed largely by the group’s member with moderation provided by Strava Member Services. Suggestions made in this group will be listened to and considered by Strava as we continue our mission to build a world-class online club for passionate cyclists.

You can and should still email us directly with your feedback, suggestions, and questions. If you see something in your ride data on Strava that does not seem right, please let us know so that we can continue to ensure that Strava data has the highest degree of accuracy possible. A simple email to support@strava.com is all it takes to make Strava better.

Thanks for your help! Now, get out and ride. Then live it again on Strava.

StravaHQ
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Strava kits now available

The Strava Grand Départ 2009 cycling kits are now available for purchase. We have a limited supply of these premium jerseys, shorts, vests, socks and arm warmers in stock, now at special pricing for Strava members only. Designed by Angry Bovine, produced in the US by Panache Cyclewear and manufactured in Italy these kits have been tested on the backs of our founding members all summer and have performed exceptionally well.

You can see images of everything as well as pricing and sizing information in this blog post. But if you have additional questions, just let us know. Ordering is easy— just email your selections and sizes to support@strava.com. After placing your order, you will receive an invoice by email and can pay using PayPal or, if you prefer, the old-fashioned way (check in the mail).

Jerseys, shorts and arm warmers

Our jerseys are short sleeved and are made from micro mesh fiber with full front zipper for excellent all-condition use. The matching bib shorts (shown) and regular shorts incorporate a 220gm Power Lycra® / Pro Stock™ Chamois for incredible comfort on long and short rides. For cool starts that heat up quickly, our arm warmers pack neatly into the back pocket of the jersey.

Wind Vest

The Strava Wind Vest is made from Windtex® Light with wind protection on front and mesh on back. Based on member feedback, we toned down the ‘Strava’ to make the vest compatible for use over other jerseys.

Socks and T-shirts

Our 5″ socks are engineered to dry quickly for excellent performance with a mesh toe, 10% lycra, 50% Coolmax (soft against skin) and 40% nylon (durable against cycling shoe). T-shirts are produced by Matteo Studios on 100% cotton, tagless  T’s and come in either navy blue or orange. The text on the back of the t-shirt says “built for passionate cyclists.”

Prices

We opted to offer only premium quality clothing bearing the Strava name. We could have produced cheap kits at lower prices, but why? You can get those in a multitude of other places. Instead, we wanted your Strava kit to be exceptional. We are pleased to offer special pricing on Strava cycling clothing to all current Strava members. Pricing  for individual pieces is as follows and represents a 25% discount off retail price. Buy any combination of the jersey, shorts, and/or vest and take an additional 10% off your entire order. Shipping and handling to U.S. addresses is included (int’l: inquire for shipping rates). CA residents add 9.25% sales tax.

Grand Départ 2009 Pricing for Strava Members

Sizing help

Our kits fit similar to Giordana and Castelli.  Generally speaking, this means you should order one size larger than US brands. Please refer to the sizing charts below for jersey, shorts, vest, sock and arm warmer sizing. T-shirt sizing follows US standard sizing (S, M, L, XL).

Strava’s Return Policy

We want you to love what Strava does for you. If you are not fully satisfied, you may return any unused item purchased from Strava within 60 days of purchase for a full refund or exchange. Please return your item in its original packaging to Strava, Inc. PO Box 32, Hanover, NH 03755. Please let us know the reason why what you received did not meet your expectations and we will issue a refund or send you an exchange item, as you prefer.

We hope to see you out there wearing Strava!

Member Report: Zack Simons competes in Tour of Utah

You may have noticed that many Strava members spend a lot of time on their bikes– 200+ miles per week is not atypical. But 400+ miles per week is more than two standard deviations above the average. That’s the kind of mileage Zack Simons has been logging on Strava this summer in his successful attempt to move from Cat 4 to Cat 1 in his first season of racing. Zack is no stranger to elite competition. However, he normally has skinny skis clipped to his feet instead of pedals. Zack is a National champion nordic skier based in Park City, Utah. He has been pursuing a spot on the 2010 U.S. Olympic squad for the past several years. Due to illness, he missed a large part of the nordic racing season last winter. That’s what prompted him to get on a bike this spring and summer so that he would get back to racing shape well before the snow started flying this year. Based on his bike racing results to-date, it looks like he has accomplished that mission. What follows is his account of racing in the Tour of Utah Aug 18-23, 2009. You can follow along on Strava too! And, thanks to Zack for sharing his race report with us.

Well, they don’t call it ‘America’s Toughest Stage Race’ for nothing! The Tour of Utah is the real deal and so was this year’s field. It was pretty awesome to be able to race against guys like Oscar Sevilla and Dave Zabriskie, considering that just this spring I was banging elbows with the local Cat 4′s. I went into the race as prepared as I could be, given that I had never competed in an NRC race before and not totally knowing what I was in for.

The first race was a prologue, 2.8 miles long. It was a steady uphill drag to turnaround and a superfast return. I started hard, hoping to make some time on the way out and just hang on the way back. I felt like I had a decent race but finished mid-pack. I was about 25 seconds behind Zabriskie… Not terrible for a guy who doesn’t own a TT bike but I was looking for more.

Day two (Stage 1) was a tough one. I was looking for something big on the several long, steep climbs. From the start, my teammate Dave Clinger and I rode the front. It was no problem to hold position into the first climb. I felt awesome… and then I blew a tire. I got a new wheel quickly from the neutral support but the mechanic tweaked my brake pad when he pulled my flat off and it took an extra minute or so to readjust and get rolling again. Knowing the course, I realized that if I didn’t get back on the pack by the top of the first climb my race was over. I’d have to ride 60 miles solo… So I killed myself to rejoin, which meant riding a 35 minute climb roughly 90 seconds faster than an NRC pack…. Not an ideal situation… But I did make it back to the group and settled in for the next hour of rolling terrain. I was pretty blown but still hoping my legs would come back around. They didn’t. When we hit the final climb I was cooked, it was all I could do to just pedal up the hill. I lost 20 minutes on the peloton. Rough start but I knew I was riding well.

Day three (Stage 2) was a 50 mile flat drag around Utah Lake and a 20 mile climb to the top of the Wasatch Range, 5300 feet later! Same story as day two. I rode near the front, held my position fairly well until we got close to the climb. The OUCH train came through and drilled it at the front before I could get the position I wanted and I struggled to get into the top 20. As we hit the base of the climb, the pack strung out immediately. I was too far back and didn’t have a chance. I settled into a pace that I could hold for the next hour and a half of uphill and started picking people off. I rode my way up into the 60′s (of 160 riders) by the finish. It wasn’t bad but it could have been a lot better if I had moved up earlier… Lesson learned. No messing around in an NRC pack.

Day four (Stage 3) was a flat 12 mile Time Trial. It was a blast. It was held on a race car track. The pavement was like marble flooring and the corners were smoother than anything I’ve ever ridden. I rode hard but generally felt flat. My legs didn’t have it to get up to 30mph without really hurting and as I neared the finish, I couldn’t speed up. I ended in 90th. Not a good TT for me but still one of the most fun I’ve ever ridden (I’ve only done 5 of them).

Day five (Stage 4) was the queen stage. It was really hot, 100+ degrees and the course was brutal. 99 miles and over 10,000 ft of climbing. The first bit was pretty aggressive as there were a lot of attacks at the front. Eventually the pack sat up and a break went. I moved up early to get a shot at the lead pack over the first major climb (~1hr long @ 10% grade). I got there right where I wanted to be. I hammered but faded at a critical spot and lost about 20 feet to the lead group. When we got to where the road flattens out a bit, I was solo and the leaders left me in the dust. I crested the climb within a minute of the front and was eaten up by the second group. Over the next couple of minor climbs I just sat in and on the last major climb of the day (40 minutes @ 12% grade) I drilled it. I rode great and was putting out some good power for the tail end of a 4.5 hour race. I reeled in a lot of blown riders and dropped everyone in the second group. I finished up in 44th place and was fairly pleased with the day. (unfortunately, I realized late in the race the mount on my Garmin Edge had broken off on a decent and I lost the unit somewhere out on the course – thus, the missing stage 4 and 5 on Strava. bummer!)

The last day (Stage 5) was the crit. I underestimated it. I thought I would just ride it like I’ve ridden every other crit this summer. Not so. Not in an NRC race. The pace is so fast and the pack is so tight that positioning is everything… It was a long and brutal day and I found myself near the back of the pack more often than I would have liked. I ended in 101st. It wasn’t a good race but I survived and learned more in that 90 minutes than I’ve learned in any race this year. I can’t wait to get another crack at an NRC crit.

So I finished up dead center of the pack on GC, 80th place of 160 starters. I was looking for better and had I not flatted on the first stage, things would have been a bit different. Overall, it was an awesome experience. As August comes to an end, all I want to do is figure out how to ride my bike faster… but as a professional nordic skier, it is time to figure out where my upper body has gone. The snow will fall three months from now and I intend on being ready…

Zack Simons