Tuesday 19 June 2012

We REALLY Can't Handle Strava

So, the family of a guy who died as a result of his own reckless riding in pursuit of Strava fortune and fame is suing Strava. I don't even know what to say. The etiquette of Strava is one thing - whether you post group rides or not, whether you do the "fade back before a segment then sprint like mad to latch back onto the group and then draft the rest of the segment," whether you throw your Garmin the last 50 feet of the segment to punk it, whatever. These are all things that people do that some people say is cheating and some people are convinced puts them on a "level playing field." The amount of value we put behind our latest race results is borderline sociopathic. Placing enough value on Strava to game the system, well. People drive segments in their cars. I've tested myself on one segment near Chain Bridge. The ride that sort of piqued my curiosity about Strava was a ride at Fountainhead, and now they are going to run a full time trial on that "segment" (it's really, really wrong to refer to the full Fountainhead loop as a "segment") on July 8. That's pretty cool. I'm doing it (just registered, in fact), and I'm psyched for it. The people who win THAT DAY in THAT EVENT will be the unquestioned king and queen of Fountainhead to me. But seriously, this guy killed himself trying to prove that he was the man on a section of public road. It's a human tragedy, but this whole situation is just a metric ton of unabashed stupidity.

No comments: