Segment Leaderboards
Got a competitive itch? You don’t need to be a pro to compete on Strava! Segment Leaderboards are a great place to go head to head (virtually) with others or measure your own progress.
How to access the feature
Mobile: Find Segments either from the Maps tab or from one of your activities > Segment Details > All Leaderboards
Web: Find Segments either from the Explore tab or from one of your activities > Segment Details > Leaderboards
01 Segments
Strava Segments are community-sourced portions of road or trail that people run, ride, walk, hike, ski, or travel across. When you upload an activity to Strava with a GPS track, you’re automatically matched to any segments you may have done! Then in addition to the stats for your whole activity, you also get info and insight into how you performed on that segment, called your segment effort. Segments in popular areas to ride or run may have a lot of efforts and even communities around competing on them!
You can find segments either by visiting one of your activities and seeing the matched segments, or by exploring segments from the Explore tab on the web or the Maps tab on mobile.
Let’s take a look at some popular segments.
Manitou Incline
The Manitou Incline in Colorado is a popular hiking area. With 2744 stairs taking you in a perfectly straight line up the mountain, the trail gains 1,904ft (580m) in 0.8 miles (1.3km). Naturally, The Incline attracts a lot of attention from hikers who want to test themselves. Finishing the incline is a feat in and of itself but some people also like to see how quickly they can do the incline. As of writing this article, the incline has seen almost 73,000 attempts on Strava and the current record is 17m 25s
Central Park
New York City is full of runners and cyclists, and Central Park certainly draws a lot of attention. There is a Strava Segment for the 5.5 mile (8.9km) loop around the park that has almost 215,000 attempts!
Col du Tourmalet
The Col du Tourmalet is one of the highest paved mountain passes in the French Pyrenees and is an iconic climb in Le Tour de France. This year’s Tour saw Tadej Pogačar set a new fastest time on the climb!
Now while some of these segments may seem like a big deal or an impossible feat, if you live in a relatively populated area there are probably segments near you for runs and rides as simple as around the block or stop sign to stop sign (and if there aren’t you can always create one)!
02 Let’s get Competitive!
Now that you’ve found your favorite segment, let’s get competitive! You don’t have to be contending for the top 10, though if you are you’ll get a fun trophy icon on your activity. On the segment detail page, either in app or on web, check out the Leaderboards section. There you can see overall leaderboards, leaderboards filtered by gender, age group, your followers, clubs that you’re in, or even just your own efforts.
03 Strava Royalty
If you are so speedy as to take down first place on a segment, you’re rewarded with a virtual crown and a bit of Strava-celebrity status among your local Strava community. The top spot overall receives the CR (Course Record) and in cycling segments the top men’s effort is the KOM (King of the Mountains) and for women it’s the QOM (Queen of the Mountains).
There’s also a special leaderboard that doesn’t require being the fastest! The Local Legend is the person who has traveled a particular segment the most times in a rolling 90 day window. So even if you’re not in contention for the fastest time, you can still earn yourself the golden laurel crown by being consistent!
If you do end up in the top 10 on any segments or get yourself Local Legend status, you can check out a bank of your achievements by visiting your profile and looking under the “KOMs / CRs / Top 10s” and “Local Legends” tabs.
Now let’s go! Set a personal best, find some new friends to compete with, and start climbing those leaderboards!
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