Require heart rate and power meter data to qualify for leaderboards

[_JD_]

Unfortunately cheating on Strava segments seems to be fairly common. Suggestion for cycling activties is to require a heart rate monitor and power meter to an obtain a leaderboard ranking. For running, etc., require a heart rate monitor. At a minimum, a heart rate monitor for activites would be a step in the right direction. This would help maintain the integrity of Strava. Will it solve the problem, no. But the change would definitely help expose cheaters. 

[niceguysean]

Not a good idea. I don't have a power meter on any of my 3 bikes, and nor should I have to have in order to qualify for leaderboards. Not everyone can afford them, plain and simple. 

[rosetto]

all you need is a simple heart rate monitor combined with a pedal counter. If you want to get into the rankings, it's the clear and simple minimum requirement. Stop 

[Aguia77]

Power meter verified rankings for uphill segments would be the way to go. Keep the non verified rankings as well. Strava could ask power meter makers for funding or sponsorship of that feature cause I bet it would cause a spike in power meter sales. But in this day and age, uphill segments mean litle to nothing with so many e-bikes out there.

[k1zmt]

I keep thinking that Segments should have 2 leader boards: verified ones, with hr+power+subscription and unverified. By default verified will be shown, and everyone has to click to see unverified ones.

This will address all the non-sense that appears as top when someone on e-bike or with bad gps destroys real people who puts work to be on the top.

If you see a real competitions you must go through qualifications rides etc.

I don't know why Strava doesn't care about this so much.

First, all the GPS garbage can be filtered out right away by simple check if average speed above maximum. This is impossible but I have seen it so many times.

[rosetto]

Exactly, I totally agree with you. hello

[redmtn]

To Jane (Strava Moderator)

Your response that includes the following "Each Strava athlete is responsible for the content they upload and we expect all athletes to contribute positively to the Strava community by following our uploading guidelines" followed by having Strava users flag rides - is likely known everyone here.

However, the policy seems outdated or lacking effectiveness because E-bike data are taking over KOM leaderboards. I see a history of customer requests asking Strava to address the issue. Viable and test worthy solutions have been offered by the community.

[JPStrategy]

That's a really bad idea

[redmtn]

Seems that there is a consensus for leader boards with power meter, cadence, HR i.e providing ride data. This should be an opt-in choice for those that have the data and open to sharing it.

Those that do not have the data should not and do not have to opt-in. This would be the non-verifed data leader board. E-bikers often do not select the ride type to E-bike so creating a space for real bike riders is now necessary. 

Sträva please give paying customers a new solution and option. The old flagging policy is no longer effective.

[PeterH]

I agree.

Default leaderboard = verfified. Option is full leaderboard. This could also add another KOM/QOM: a trophy icon with a small 'verfified' tick added.

[rosetto]

I agree with you both for the separate rankings and for the request to the Strava programmers to do something. To date nothing has been done and I have already cancelled my subscription. There is a lack of seriousness </span;>

[Aguia77]

I fail to understand other members objection to some form of requirement for segment rankings be it power meter or HR if there would be a verified ranking and unverified one where everyone, even cheaters on ebikes, can take part in. Some say the strava app doesn't connect to power meter, but one crucial premium feature of strava is precisely the power curve and data. That argument doesn't make sense.
Segments are one of strava best features, if that is broken it kind of ruins the purpose of the app. Its not just about cheating and e-bikes, by the way. My main focus is trail running and I'm apalled to see how so many first place in segments come from people forgetting to turn off the gps watch and driving or obviously bad gps data that should be easily detected automatically.

[Jan_Mantau]

This "verified" leaderboard wouldn't be much worth because too few activities would count for it. I don't need a KOM because I'm one of the only 5 people who had uploaded rides with a powermeter and especially not if I was under my personal best but that best time I had done without a powermeter.

[Malcb]

I see problems with heart rate having to be displayed, personal information some might not share.  I also see problems with hr being used to verify efforts but that might be solvable.

if Strava had a way of filtering leaderboards, which has been requested so all segments are sinking to cycling and just filtered by sport type you could add filtering for verified efforts or efforts with hr.

[redmtn]

The point of an opt-in leaderboard is that you make the choice to share your data i.e HRM+power meter.

By default, Strava has us competing against people on E-bikes. Strava's response is an outdated policy that has users flag other users or relies on users to change the ride type. This is not working.

I would rather compete on a leaderboard with 5 people who share data versus 30 people with no-data on E-bikes.

[Malcb]

As well as a power value you still have to do some filtering and that is not even done for the gross errors from GPS data, seconds to cover a segment that takes eveyone else a twenty times as long - no problem KOM.

Power meters are not 100% accurate but are OK, a biger problem is some riders wont have weight correctly entered or current so W/kg isn't going to work and that is just for non-ebikes.

My ebike will provide reading for my input as well as the motor, actually it is harder to record the motor contribution, it only gives an overall % of input.  So if I ride and don't enter it as an ebike ride, do a climb and use relatively little power I could be a 55 kg climber on a lightweight bike, if I climb some hills in ECO my input is quite high and could easily cross with another rider bike combination without a motor.