{"id":41293,"date":"2022-09-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-29T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=41293"},"modified":"2022-10-04T17:34:22","modified_gmt":"2022-10-04T15:34:22","slug":"icons-of-cycling-strava","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/2022\/09\/30\/icons-of-cycling-strava\/","title":{"rendered":"Icons of cycling: Strava"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
ICONS OF CYCLING<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

Strava<\/h2>\n\n

The ride log has created a global cycling club \u2013 and transformed how cyclists interact with social media<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

Cogito, ergo sum, posited Descartes, the great cyclist: \u2018I think, therefore I am\u2019. Now we have a different philosophy: \u2018If it\u2019s not on Strava, it didn\u2019t happen\u2019. <\/p>\n\n

The computer platform for sharing workout data was launched in 2009 by high-achieving Harvard sporties Mark Gainey and Michael Horvath, named after the Swedish str\u00e4va (\u2018stray-var\u2019), meaning \u2018strive\u2019. Around 100 million people worldwide now use it to spread their activity data from fitness devices. The dozens of activities include alpine skiing, canoeing, rock climbing, swimming\u2026 even zombie treadmills (A to Z, then). <\/p>\n\n

But most are cyclists. No wonder. A bike is a two-wheeled metrics generator: speed, power, location, weather, altitude, attitude. For training obsessives it\u2019s, well, obsessive: two-thirds of Tour de France cyclists are Strava devotees. <\/p>\n\n

Socialites <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

Recently Strava has developed its social side. Not all users compete over stats. For many it\u2019s Facebook-for-cyclists, in orange not blue, and not bombarded by ads, fakenews clickbait or warring halfwits. Their posts are more like mini-travelogues, with cake-stop photos, amusing reports of harmless jeopardy, and amiable banter. <\/p>\n\n

Strava\u2019s given us new jargon. \u2018Kudos\u2019 (akin to a Facebook \u2018like\u2019); \u2018segments\u2019 (popular route sections, listing the fastest completers); and \u2018KOM\u2019\/\u2018QOM\u2019 (quickest rider on a segment, \u2018King\/Queen of the Mountains\u2019, even if the \u2018mountain\u2019 is a Lincs fen). It\u2019s enabled a new visual art discipline: some routes creatively trace out the Mona Lisa, a Welsh dragon, even a marriage proposal. (It was accepted, presumably with a kudos.) <\/p>\n\n

Bumps in the road<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

It\u2019s produced 21st-century problems too, however. Its heatmaps, superimposing cumulative rides by everyone, have unwittingly revealed sensitive locations such as military bases, while personal posts pinpointing a clearly affluent rider\u2019s home have resulted in targeted bike thefts. And there\u2019s data exploitation: like every freebie app, if the product is free, you are the product (there\u2019s an enhanced paidfor version too though). But Strava keeps growing, despite technically not making a profit. As Descartes might have said: Non Strava, non factum. <\/p>\n\n

Rob Ainsley <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ride log has created a global cycling club \u2013 and transformed how cyclists interact with social media <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":41292,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"24","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"24","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_24-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_24-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"November-2022","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"November-2022","purple_external_id":"November-2022-24-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"November-2022-24-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000111762||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000111762||","purple_android_product":"com.im.cyclingplus.398","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.cyclingplus.398","purple_ios_product":"com.im.cyclingplus.398","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.cyclingplus.398","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"d6ad2395-23ab-4326-a10d-940b8b948490","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-09-29T16:12:23Z","apple_news_article-theme":"","apple_news_api_id":"7ac64d40-5600-44b3-9859-41f7716840b8","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-10-04T15:34:28Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABQ==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AesZNQFYARLOYWUH3cWhAuA","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":true,"apple_news_is_preview":true,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_article_theme":"","apple_news_sections":"[]"},"categories":[48],"tags":[14],"apple_news_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2022\/09\/41d3043e-4aeb-4adf-a470-f08cc5520838.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2022\/09\/41d3043e-4aeb-4adf-a470-f08cc5520838.jpg",1431,1547,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2022\/09\/41d3043e-4aeb-4adf-a470-f08cc5520838-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2022\/09\/41d3043e-4aeb-4adf-a470-f08cc5520838-278x300.jpg",278,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2022\/09\/41d3043e-4aeb-4adf-a470-f08cc5520838-768x830.jpg",768,830,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2022\/09\/41d3043e-4aeb-4adf-a470-f08cc5520838-947x1024.jpg",800,865,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2022\/09\/41d3043e-4aeb-4adf-a470-f08cc5520838-1421x1536.jpg",1421,1536,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2022\/09\/41d3043e-4aeb-4adf-a470-f08cc5520838.jpg",1431,1547,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The ride log has created a global cycling club \u2013 and transformed how cyclists interact with social media","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41293"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41293"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41772,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41293\/revisions\/41772"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}