Skip to main content
Question

Activities through tunnels not counting toward Group Leaderboards?

  • January 18, 2026
  • 6 replies
  • 72 views
E
Forum|alt.badge.img+3

Has anyone experienced issues with activities not counting toward Group Leaderboards when the route includes a tunnel?

In our case, there is a specific tunnel under Madrid–Barajas Airport that consistently causes problems. Whenever a ride crosses this tunnel, the activity seems to be automatically excluded from the group leaderboard, as if it were flagged or invalidated in some way.

The activity itself uploads correctly and appears normal (distance, time, elevation, etc.), but it does not contribute to the group leaderboard results. This happens repeatedly and only on routes that pass through this tunnel. 

Is this expected behavior due to GPS signal loss, data smoothing, or some kind of automated validation/anti-cheating logic?
Is there any way to prevent this from happening, or to correct it after the activity is uploaded?

Any insight from Strava staff or the community would be appreciated.

    6 replies

    S
    Forum|alt.badge.img
    • Simoninhyogo
    • Hub Starter
    • January 19, 2026

    I get this all the time and it’s driving me mad.  Even when there are no excluded segments, the rides don’t count on leaderboards.  This seems to have got worse recently.  

    A
    Superuser
    Forum|alt.badge.img+10
    • arc88
    • Superuser
    • January 19, 2026

    Yes, using GPS data only, it cannot record your movement without a clear sight to the sky. So your device may lose location then when it regains it snaps to the new one giving highly unrealistic speeds such as 800 kph. That's what's getting flagged. Using a bicycle speed sensor may improve that, since it measures directly the spinning of your wheel, but if the tunnel is long enough there will still be inaccurate distance and speed. You may be able to "correct distance" on the web interface and improve the result. Ideally there should not be a segment through that tunnel since it would be impossible to get reliable results. 

      E
      Forum|alt.badge.img+3
      • Eduardo
      • Author
      • Hub Rookie
      • January 19, 2026

      Yes, using GPS data only, it cannot record your movement without a clear sight to the sky. So your device may lose location then when it regains it snaps to the new one giving highly unrealistic speeds such as 800 kph. That's what's getting flagged. Using a bicycle speed sensor may improve that, since it measures directly the spinning of your wheel, but if the tunnel is long enough there will still be inaccurate distance and speed. You may be able to "correct distance" on the web interface and improve the result. Ideally there should not be a segment through that tunnel since it would be impossible to get reliable results. 

      Yes, with a speed sensor it used to work fine in the past. But for the past couple of months, even the speed sensor won’t make a difference. The only difference with those who don’t have the speed sensor is that I get the full distance of the route in my records, while the other riders are missing these 2-3km. In any case, with or without sensor, the route does not count towards Group Leaderboards.

        Jan_Mantau
        Superuser
        Forum|alt.badge.img+27
        • Jan_Mantau
        • Superuser
        • January 19, 2026

        Isn’t there an option to defy the wrong flagging of such rides? If not I would recommend filing a support request for this problem. Strava is maybe not aware that their AI fails for rides with longer tunnels and then they can train it to better differentiate between the everyday bad satellite reception and the obvious impossibility to get reception in tunnels.

          S
          Forum|alt.badge.img
          • Simoninhyogo
          • Hub Starter
          • January 20, 2026

          I have submitted a ticket,  In the meantime, I will try pausing my ride before the tunnel and restarting when the GPS reconnects to see if it helps.  Have lost over 200km on the distance leaderboard and 2000 metres on the elevation one so far this month.

            S
            Forum|alt.badge.img
            • Simoninhyogo
            • Hub Starter
            • January 25, 2026

            Strava sorted out the leaderboard issue for me, but it seems the best solution for now is to pause the ride when passing through longer tunnels.  Tried that on my ride yesterday and it worked fine.  

              Terms & ConditionsCookie settingsAccessibility statement