Leaderboards - automatic re-categorisation of performances to 'E-bike'

[Likesahill]

I am an athlete who has always used leaderboards as a motivational tool.
As I get older, I have focused more on the age-related boards. Having crossed the age boundary into 55+, all the hills that I target are heavily populated by mis-categorised ebike rides. 
I appreciate that the AI tool is looking for obvious cheats/mistakes, perhaps a KOM in a car.
For the E-bike problem I see, I suspect it is largely about more casual riders and ignorance of the rules. I see consistent patterns in the data: Low athlete activity levels, recorded on a phone, no HR/power data, cups on hills (but no other segments) slow times on all key metrics 5k, 10k, etc. 
My suggestion is that you set a performance threshold and automatically recategorise all rides that meet it. For example, given the E-bike issue (in Europe maybe not the US) is largely around hills, it would be simple to set a transparent rule that if you acheive, say, a VAM of over 1,000 on a segement and you don't meet certain criteria, then your ride will automatically be converted to an ebike ride. You could send a notification that this was happening and the athlete would then have the option of converting back to a normal ride. This would leave flagging for the hardcore 'cheats' and sort the problem with recreational riders who aren't aware of the issues they are causing on leaderboards.

[Jane · Accepted solution]

Hello @Likesahill 

Thanks for your post. Happy to hear you're enjoying segments on Strava. We have an existing automated system that detects invalid segment efforts (including E-bikes categorized as ride activities)

Although we do not catch all invalid efforts, we do detect and prevent many from ever reaching leaderboards.  We continue to iterate on our detection mechanisms and algorithms. 

Last month at Camp Strava we announced that we are working on AI-enabled Leaderboard Integrity, will harness machine learning to automatically flag irregular, improbable, or impossible activities recorded to the platform. Trained by millions of activities, this feature allows all users on Strava to play fair and have more fun.

Check out the Camp Strava announcements here

In the meantime, if you do see what appears to be invalid efforts on segment leaderboards, you can use our activity flag tool, or for repeated violations, report cheating.  Details here

[Whip]

Hi Jane – I could not agree more with the commentor above… In my area there is a woman who rides an ebike, her bike is called domain + and her descriptions, she talks about using the lowest setting on the e-bike And she is on the top 10 (even top 3) on a bunch of leaderboards - local routes I ride. Like the original commentator segments are very important to me for training motivation at 58 years old. I was out of Cycling for 16 years after quitting racing and missed the rise of everything new in cycling but was excited to see that now even though I’m riding alone, there’s still a way for me to feed my competitive spirit. I was crushed when I discovered a female rider on the top of multiple leaderboards was not self reporting that she’s writing an E bike. The problem is that ebike riders will ride at a pace that is very similar to regular riders and even if they turn their assist off to do a segment, part of your ability to do a segment well is what the rest of your ride was like. Granted I will sometimes go out and do a warm-up and do hill repeats on a segment, but I’m not doing it on an eBike and when I earn a top 10 it was really hard for me to do that. Meaning, I really earned it and I’m proud of myself and just feel people using ebikes should not be earning top tens and especially not top threes… This woman talks about coming back from some medical condition but all of us in our late 50s are not as fast as we used to be in most cases and have struggled with medical conditions and life stuff BUT what she writes makes me feel just awful thinking about reporting her, yet I really want to because I think she should be competing in the eBike not road ride category. Can you explain why Strava does not know she’s riding an E bike? She’s keeping it at the general speeds the top 10 are at. Is that why Strava doesn’t know? thank you so much! PS I don’t want to be mean about this and that’s why I’m having trouble just reporting her but as the original commentator said some of us take these segments very seriously and they really help us in our training or give us a taste of the racing that we used to do… and It’s so great that segments exist (would be so bummed if they didn’t) and I feel they matter to a lot of people like me… So again I don’t want to be mean and report her. AND ESPECIALLY IM WORRIED ABOUT STRAVA RAMIFICATIONS/like being flagged for abusing reporting when I’m not. I just don’t understand why Strava can’t tell she’s on an e-Bike simply from certain data although I’m not sure what that would be since she keeps her speed where other cyclist are she goes on group rides essentially. If there is no way for Strava to tell Does a real person look at rides or accounts that have been flagged by someone AI so they can actually read that she’s talking about eBike and has her bike listed as an e-bike? Because if I do report it and AI is the one to check, they’re likely not going to think she is on an e-bike. In a way I’m looking for a little safety in making a report and curious what Strava’s perspective is because I would hate for something to happen to my account or relationships on Strava because I flagged someone’s activity. Thanks again! Sorry for the long message just very frustrated