For those of you with GPS enabled devices Strava is a smart tool that allows you to expand your cycling social scene beyond your regular riding buddies. Strava does three very appealing things:
- You can you upload your workouts (from your Garmin for example) to analyze them online. Reporting and analysis is always being improved.
- Compare yourself to others. Ever want to know how fast you are up a certain climb? Strava can tell you that plus compare you to all other Strava users that have done the same climb. This writer is currently the King of the Mountain on the Col de Castillion in southern French Alpes (near Nice).
- Follow Pros and see how you compare to them! A select group of pros are using Strava and upload their rides – Ted King, Craig Lewis, Ben King, Tim Johnson to name a few.
A few other notes: All of your rides are classifiable – which bike, what kind of ride it was (commute, race, training, MTB, Cross, etc.), and many other variables. Strava has developed a “Suffer Score” that calculates your overall effort for a ride using many variables – your level of activity, speed, amount of climbing. It does cost a few bucks a month if you want to upload all of your activities. You can use Strava if you run, so it is good for triathletes.
Bottom line – fun tool and worth the little bit of cost.
