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Strava Rolls Out New Local Legends Feature: Here’s how it works in action

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Strava has rolled out a new feature today to a subset of the population that lets all Strava users earn a new type of crown equal to that of the KOM/QOM, simply for doing a given segment more times than everyone else. If you, like me, aren’t likely to take the KOM anytime soon – then you too can win an award for failing the most times.

And yes, that’s exactly what I did earlier this week on a nearby Col (the term for a significant European climb). But more on that in a moment.

The new Local Legends feature operate on a 90-day rolling window and awards the individual who did the most attempts of that segment a new crown, which is in the form of a laurel. As with other Strava Segment crowns, there’s both an overall top spot and a women’s top spot. As noted this feature is available to all Strava users (free and paid), though there’s a very slight difference in the additional data that free users don’t get (but really, it’s a tiny difference this time).

I’ve been trying out the new feature for the last week or so, which basically means I’ve been stalking which nearby segment I could take the new crown on in the easiest possible manner. All in the name of science of course. But ultimately, while there was a segment directly out my doorstep with a mere 6 attempts, I decided to kick it up a notch and attempt the Col du Amsterdam Bos, which would require besting 23 attempts of the arduous climb.

Here, let me explain:

Still not clear after the video? Fear not, I’ll explain it below with a ton of text and photos.

How it works:

First off, for approximately…umm…most of you, you won’t be able to use this feature today – even if you’re already a Strava paying subscriber. That’s because it’s only rolling out to select geographies for a while, specifically the following areas:

June 10th (today): US users in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and Texas.
July 2020: US (entire country), UK, France, Spain, Germany, Brazil, Japan
Sometime in the future: Strava doesn’t have any date on when rollout will finish, other than they’ll decide after the July rollout list.

Strava says this lack of global rollout is to be able to refine the feature more before rolling it out more broadly. I guess that’s true, though, they did find a way to turn off features pretty darn instantly for everyone a couple weeks ago.

Also, if you meet that list, then ensure that you’re on the most recent iOS or Android app, which were released on Monday, and are versions 154 or higher.

To begin, you’ll need to find a nearby segment that has a Local Legend designation. My understanding is not all segments will get this, but specifically the most popular ones. You can try your regular segments to see if there’s a new Local Legend option, or, you can search for Local Legend segments by first toggling “View Local Legend Segments Only” in the iOS or Android search settings (the little controls icon to the right of ‘Segment Explorer’ text below), then go to Explore > Segments and search for the segments nearby a given location:

2020-06-10 12.19.29 2020-06-10 09.22.01

When choosing a segment you’ll see the new ‘Local Legend’ designation right next to the KOM and other similar winner circle records below it. It’s interesting to me that the Local Legend is now top of the list over the regular leaderboards:

2020-06-10 09.25.17 2020-06-08 12.31.28

If you tap into it you can see the current record holders for overall and women:

2020-06-10 09.25.26 2020-06-10 09.25.29

And then down below you can see your specific attempts, and notably, the comparison of efforts in the last 90 days you’ve had versus the top dog with this new histogram.

2020-06-10 09.28.29 2020-06-10 09.28.04

Now for the most part, in looking at piles upon piles of segments nearby me – almost all the winners seem to be using the segment in question for:

A) A daily commute
B) A nearby stretch outbound/inbound from their starting point to elsewhere

Of course, as you get further from the city, then those numbers drop a bit and you get what are essentially regulars on a route, which, I presume is Strava’s goal here. Because commuting by bicycle is so overwhelmingly common and popular here, a substantial portion of the Local Legends are indeed just commutes – even in the middle of nowhere. Whereas my guess is if you did this same test on random segments in other locales, you’d get more workout-driven rides. Note that it matters, this is a trophy for iterative participation, not for hard efforts (that’s the point of the KOM).

2020-06-10 09.31.10 2020-06-10 09.30.58

However, one important note here: Private activities don’t count towards Local Legend totals.

This is probably a good example of where the whole ‘commute’ tag breaks down. Right now I don’t record or upload my daily commute. Meaning, I don’t think my 15,520 Strava followers want their feeds filled with my 1.8mi/2.9km ride each direction to the office. There’s only so many ways I can photograph that section of bicycle path. Had I recorded that daily and made that public, then I’d easily win the local legend on the plethora of segments between me and home. I’m guessing there’s lots of folks like me that might make their shorter commutes public if Strava had a way to turn those off (or not display them) in followers feeds.

Also of note is that at this time the Local Legend status cannot be seen from the web, only the smartphone apps. Strava says they’re working out the plans for that still.

As for free subscribers, they’ll see whether or not they attained the local legend, as well as your current attempts in the last 90 days, but you won’t see a histogram of your past attempts. From Strava, here’s what you’ll see:

Free-Users1

Honestly, there’s not much lost for free users here. As long as you know how many efforts you’ve done, then most of the other stuff is just noise.

Got all that? Good, let’s give this a whirl.

Becoming the Legend:

2020-06-08 15.38.20

Of course, I couldn’t settle for not having a screenshot of me as the reigning Local Legend of something. And while I could have picked one of the random segments that only would take a mere 6 attempts of a 300m long section, I decided I needed to step it up a notch.

So, I found the biggest climb near me. The tallest of tall, the most grandeur of European ascents: The Col du Amsterdamse Bos

Unofficial estimates put the total ascent here at just over 1,100cm at an average gradient of a painful 4%. I mean, just look at this climb:

image

The current Local Legend on this segment has completed it some 22 times in the last 90 days. My current standing in the last 90 days?

Just one attempt.

vlcsnap-2020-06-10-11h44m12s603 vlcsnap-2020-06-10-11h45m11s708

Clearly, I’ve got my work cut out for me.

So, I got the segment favorited and loaded on my Garmin, then plotted a quick route to the climb. As the crow flies its barely 2KM from the DCR Cave. But I added another 6-7KM as a proper warm-up. I couldn’t go into this ill-prepared.

My plan was simple: Ride it 27 times.

Why 27? Because I figured I’d screw up counting. So 27 gave me enough of a buffer to screw up at least a few times and not have to go back out again to top off the tank.

Off I went on the wet dirt path towards the legendary summit – complete with occasional competitors:

2020-06-08 14.53.23

Up…and…down…and…up…and…down…and…up…and…down…and…up…and…down…and…up…and…down…and…up…and…down…and…up…and…down…and…up…and…down…and…up…and…down…and…up…and…down…and…up…and…down…and…up…and…down…and…up…and…down…and…up…and…down…and…up…and…down…and…up…and…down…and…up…and…down…and…up…and…down…and…up…and…down…and…up…and…down…and…up…and…down…and…up…and…down…and…up…and…down…and…up…and…down…and…up…and…down…and… wait, am I done yet?

Roughly an hour later I had completed 26 times (I thought I had done it 27 times, but not so much apparently).

Most of the time I just cruised to the top and back. Though, I did throw down a few half-hearted attempts at the KOM, usually to be stymied by a random dog or dog walker. Still, I did manage to break myself into the top 10 leaderboard:

image

On a quiet dry day I’m pretty sure I could snip this KOM.

But I wasn’t here for the KOM. I was here for local legend status. And, upon completing the ride and setting the activity to Public, I rightly received the golden laurel designation I came for:

2020-06-10 11.55.38 2020-06-08 19.26.21

And inside that Segment details I can see my efforts that day:

2020-06-10 13.03.09 2020-06-10 13.03.23

Lastly, if I go into my Strava profile I can see my Local Legend titles there alongside my other KOM’s and running CR’s:

2020-06-10 01.39.43

And with that, my legendary quest is complete. As an interesting side note – this particular climb for the women’s leaderboard would only require two attempts to take the local legend status. My guess as to why? The women among us are smart enough to have gone to the top once, and realized there was no justification for going up there again.

I’m sure someone will take this crown back in no time, which is the point of the Local Legend status. In 88 days time my record will be erased, even if nobody decides to waste their time going up and down a climb less than most highway overpasses in Texas. Like sandcastles to the tides, or Strava features from free members.

Wrap-Up:

Overall this feature is cool, but not earth-changing. Though, it was fun to find some of my friends as Local Legends on nearby segments, which obviously I’ll work to dethrone if it takes…umm..minimal effort.

But beyond that, I don’t personally tend to focus too much in Strava on collecting titles/crowns. Except in hard to get places like random running routes in Accra (Ghana), the eastern provinces of Saudi Arabia, and a tiny bridge connecting Norway and Finland in some unknown town. In which case I’m all-in, because that’s about the only place I can manage to defend a KOM/CR. Anything where I think there’s a substantial chance it’ll take years for someone to best it, I’m there!

It makes sense that this feature is visible to all Strava users (even if the analysis portions are reduced for free users). After all, this crown is all about doing something numerous times without being the fastest. And my guess would be that frequent KOM/CR holders and hunters would be more likely to have a paid Strava subscription than not.

Now, the only thing that I think would be valuable here would be that device makers could leverage this new leaderboard position in Strava Live Segments. How cool would it be if my Wahoo/Garmin/Karoo/whatever device popped up a message that said ‘You just became the Local Legend!’, just like it does for taking the KOM? Or, if when you crossed over it, it said ‘5 more times on this Segment to become the Local Legend?’. That would be cool, and might make me actually game the ride a bit more, especially for loop-type scenarios if I was close.

With that, go forth and start defending your local legend titles, and thanks for reading!

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96 Comments

  1. Steve

    This makes me miss the old days of Foursquare and being the Mayor of my local coffee shop

  2. Derek Chan

    If you did it 805 times you could be the local legend AND grab the Everesting record for Col du Amsterdamse Bos.

  3. Frank Bauer

    One more reason to go ahead with my planned everesting – no matter the outcome, at least I am going to be a “local legend”… of sorts ;-)

  4. Paul Tomblin

    Sigh, yet another Strava feature that it’s available to activities other than cycling or running (and sometimes swimming). Even our Strava Club for our paddling team doesn’t count paddling activities in the club leaderboard.

  5. Miika Takala

    Its Norway-Finland segment ?.

  6. 6co

    Does not seem to work in Texas yet

  7. Joel White

    So it appears there is none of this functionality able to search / view / etc via web browser, this is strictly only via the phone apps. Is there any indication that this functionality will be available via web browser?

    Seems strange that the web and phone app clients functionality has diverged.

  8. Frans

    Frits Barend is a true local legend, google him :)

  9. Robert

    It’s a bit wonky in Canada. The “View Local Legend Segments Only” option is available in Segment Explorer, it mostly finds no segments if the option is selected – consistent with the feature not being implemented here yet. However, it sometimes shows segments I’ve done (last year), with the little laurels thingy on them. Then drops them.

    Looks like Friday afternoon code-a-thon stuff.

  10. Ian

    Well, it’s a start. It’s not every segment.

    I suppose it will become a commuter cup.

    But this will be an incentive for riders who are local but who will never be the fastest. A bit?

    Like I said. It’s a start. Maybe other things are coming. Remember how they reset the KOMs one year so everybody riding on 1st January came home with lots of cups? Maybe they’ll redo that. Or Monthly ones?

  11. JL

    Should/could have used Polar Grit X’s Hill Splitter to count reps. Perfect use case for that functionality :)

  12. Justin B

    Ray do you know if you also get notifications if someone takes the Local Legend status away from you? That would be pretty cool

  13. Steve

    When will they as features that users actually find useful? How about being able to compare all the segments you have with one of your followers so you can compete against each other. This has been requested multiple times and you used to be able to do it with a third party app until Strava disabled it

  14. Dmitry Pupkov

    1. how did you get this working in AMS?
    2. Stupid today Strava was unable to roll out the feature to all regions. We’re paying the same $ but not getting this feature. Kind disappointing.

  15. DerLordBs

    I got the feeling that this kind of feature is US centric. In Europe commuter who are using the bike for the way to work and getting their lunch will earn the title.

    • mjc iv

      Believe it or not, some Americans also commute by bike. Many in-town segments will be dominated by commuters, I agree. I don’t think that’s a problem.

      Most of the interesting or contested segments in my area are far less likely to be on someone’s commuting route. Even so, if some dude is riding up Alpe d’Huez every morning to go work at the pâtisserie…chapeau. He deserves the title (and he would already be a “local legend” in real life).

  16. Stanislav

    Since we are talking about segments and you mentioned syncing a local legend segment to your device, can you comment on Strava’s decision to not sync downhill live segments to devices.

    As a trail runner, to my surprise, I realized that that applies to running segments too, and that seems like a fairly recent change. I remember earlier this year following a downhill segments on my Fenix, but it seems now all downhill running segments are gone from the watch.

    • Yeah, it impacts all downhill segments from -0.25%. That said, I do agree it seems like a silly restriction in running.

      The point of it in cycling likely stemmed way back when to that lawsuit around the issue. But I have a hard time seeing how that would apply to runners here.

  17. Michael

    I really hope/wish Strava figures out a compelling value proposition. I quit my sub over #chronological and their recent changes to the free features have only lead me to turn to opening Garmin Connect from time to time to see what it offers these days. As it stands, Strava’s paid analysis tools are weak, especially if you don’t have a power meter, and their social/gamefication features are also sort of blah. The only reason I still upload is that it happens automatically through the Garmin API and I’m too lazy to turn it off.

    • Dan G

      Well they fixed chronological.

      Tbf they’re offer is pretty strong, in that you have to pay to use the heart of the platform (segments). I decided it wasn’t value for money for me, but most people I follow signed up.

    • skyrun

      it’s $5/month… you get a ton for that. why do people expect everything to be free?

    • Dan G

      I didn’t say you don’t get a lot :-). I just judged it not worth £50 a year.

  18. tim

    is the barf emoji allowed on this website?

    • Sure, though, I think it’s interesting to see the range of of what people want or don’t want.

      Literally everyone has said over the last while some variant of “KOM’s are useless because I’ll never get one”. So, this solve that to a different degree. You still have to put in work, arguably a lot more work in some ways.

      Of course, as I and others noted, it’s hardly perfect. The challenge here is that it basically becomes a commuter challenge, except that means you’re setting to public more commutes. Which in and of itself wouldn’t be an issue, but lots of other feedback indicates people don’t want to flood their friends with commute rides every day (especially if shorter).

    • tim

      Our local legend is presently the guy who is working on covering all >3,000km of local roads guided by the wanderer.earth app dealio. it is fascinating to see his rides snaking through residential streets.

    • Michael

      I suppose the algorithm based feed could alleviate that to a degree. Better yet a few filter for commutes, virtual, and possibly other ride categories..

    • RE: Commute filter

      Yeah, in my mind it could work very similiar to Facebook. There’s an option there when I post that allows me to select whether or not people see it in their news feed (photo attached).

      So, perhaps when you check the commute option then this will show a pop-up offering to set this checkbox (easily unchecked) for future commutes or such. I mean, it’s really not a hard UI to figure out. If it can work for Facebook with their billions of users, Strava could figure it out for their 50 million.

    • Jeffrey F.

      “it basically becomes a commuter challenge” — true for segments that are common on folks’ commutes, but those are generally not the kind of segments that cyclists do for pleasure/sport, so they’re not the kind of segments that cyclists would look to conquer… KOM, QOM, or Local Legend.

  19. Coach Buttermaker

    just spit-balling here on KOM/QOM virtual awards – every 2 yrs on Jan. 1, let the current KOM/QOM expire so that everyone has a shot. Some are so old that they do not even pop up any more. Or every year. If Strava desires to be a social platform – then make it fun and rewarding for those that earn it and continue to improve and reach goals. IMHO – this local legend status/award is not very valuable to me as a paid subscriber. Thank you DCR – you are awesome and love your contributions !

    • Yeah, they tried a variant of that a number of years back. It went over like a lead balloon.

      I think I’d rather them focus on de-cluttering segments and figuring out how to remove even more anomalies from the segment leaderboards (I know they do a lot of work there, but there’s still more work to be done – especially when you talk speeds like 110KPH on something).

      That said, in playing with Karoo’s implementation of Strava Segments, they’ve got some cool ideas – notably the carrot and wolf concepts, which I really like: link to support.strava.com

      I’d love to see them do something around that with the Legends. As many have said, the value on Segments for me is almost never the KOM, but trying to pick-off a friend.

  20. Phil D

    So, they’re only just catching up with mapmyride’s course ‘guru’ feature?
    (I just logged in to my seldom used account only to discover that courses have disappeared. Googling tells me it was deprecated Aug ’19. More googling reveals it launched in 2012. Shame, I was guru on a few stretches of my 12 mile commute!)

  21. Rick DeLacy

    I was a strava member for 8 years but recently they decided to back the terrorist groups like Black lives matter and antifa so I can no longer use your app I don’t believe in any of that and I think it’s very dangerous for our country shame on you guys for making this a political app itwas just an exercise app to have fun with very disappointed.

    • The Real Bob

      I am neither going to agree or disagree with your statement.

      I just want to you to think about one thing. The reason many people get upset about politics in sports is because sports is meant to unite us. The best person wins in a sport, regardless of race, creed, color, or sex. There is no racism or affirmative action in a race. If you are the fastest, you win.

      So, you came to a page on sports and you brought in the politics. Those groups you mentioned are not helping the situation but dividing us further, but do you think you are helping the situation?

      I have nothing but friendship for you, so take no ill will in my post.

    • Waking up and seeing this/catching up.

      Let me be crystal clear: Black Lives Matter is not a terrorist group. Period.

      It’s a concept that says literally, Black Lives Matter. And it’s 100% correct. 100% overdue, and 100% something not just Americans need to focus on. Period.

      I won’t stand for racism here – implied, obvious, or otherwise. If folks don’t like that, there’s an entire other side of the internet to go find. I will ban accounts, immediately, for racism laced comments. Let this be the one and only warning I’m going to post anywhere. And finally, if for some reason someone believes there’s somehow something to debate on the topic, they can do it elsewhere.

      Thanks.

    • Michael

      As a person of color I thank you for this statement Ray.

    • Jim Sigafoos

      Amen

    • Curtis Repen

      I think you were already awake (I won’t use the hip new grammatically incorrect term, cuz it would sound weird coming from a 50+YO bald white dude).

      Here’s hoping guys like this run out of apps to use very soon.

    • DerLordBs

      Thanks Ray.

    • Marc Salvia

      Perfect answer. Thanks.

    • Gerard

      Hear hear.

      Ray, I think you gave the absolute best response-comment one could have given

      thank you

    • Bob Log

      Where’s the Kudos button?

  22. Ed Enriquez

    I watch many of your videos here, thus no functionality to Like offered by YouTube. Same occurs when I watch videos on my news feed from Android… Ray time to throw your weight around for Google enhancement :)

    • I’m still waiting on Google to pay me the 80% of my ad earnings they’ve incorrectly tagged as invalid the last few months. If I succeed there (unlikely), I’ll move onto the improved Like button situation. :)

  23. Toby

    So first Strava broke the wonderful “The Most Laps” and then they implemented in on their platform in less elegant fashion. Nice.

    link to themostlaps.com

  24. Andrew

    If Strava want more paying customers they need to concentrate on fixing the existing bugs or features that have been requested for the last 10 years. As Ray said this new feature will be full of commuter rides which can’t be hidden from the news feed. Individual segment times should be reset every 1-2 years from the date they were set. Strava seem to now have the mindset of trying to introduce new features that people will pay for but this is not one of them?

    • Todd Tannenbaum

      Hi Andrew, I am a paying subscriber, and just curious to know what I should be annoyed about :) Specfically, what are some existing bugs/features requested in the past 10 years are you referring to?

      The ones everyone always historically pointed at was inability to increase (or, gasp, decrease!) your FTP without changing analysis info for all past rides, and the inability to simply sort your feed by date. Both of these have been fixed in the past few months.

      I guess my list is I wish they would just license the same TrainingPeaks metrics as everyone else (TSS, IF, Normalized Power, etc) instead of using their own “similar” numbers, but stravatsscalculator.com takes care of that. And as a Wahoo Bolt user, I guess I’d like their route downloads to include turn-by-turn cues (like Komoot does)…. but otherwise I’ve been pretty satisfied.

    • Andrew

      I never used the word “annoyed” but I’d say there are plenty of frustrated users whose feature requests have fallen on deaf ears. Have you forgotten about the chronological feed which still doesn’t list activities by the actual activity date/time?
      Here is a couple of long requested feature requests that Strava have no interest in implementing.

      link to support.strava.com
      link to support.strava.com

    • DerLordBs

      I am a paying customer at strava. This feature is now implemented. Since a few weeks I guess.

    • DerLordBs

      I mean the FTP feature requested

    • Todd Tannenbaum

      And the chronological activity feed is also implemented. You have to go into profile->settings and select it, but it works for me. One point where people may think it looks out of order is the feed shows the start time of the activity, but the sorting is based on completion time.

      The ticket about hiding rides tagged as “commute” from your feed but having them contribute to goals/aggregate stats is a great idea!!! I want!!

  25. Michael J Hassur

    I think this sounds sort of silly. It seems to encourage people to be compulsive rather than skillful… though I could be wrong. :)

  26. Santosh

    I’ve always been hoping they would roll out a leaderboard on who has held the KOMs for the longest duration or a KOM hall of fame as it were, like how TDF and other trophies are tracked

    • usr

      KOM timeline, yes that would be exactly the kind of OCD detail that would make an ideal subscription differentiator.

      But it could be a bit nasty on the tech side: either you make it a timeline based on activity dates, then you’d have to revise the whole thing whenever someone uploads a “new” old activity, deletes an activity (or hundreds, upon leaving the platform) or just toggles public/private. Or you make it a log of what was the visible KOM at a given time (deleted activities remain as deleted, like Lance on the Tour de France) based solely on upload times, but then you can’t recalculate the data from raw activity storage (without rewriting history wrt to deletions)

      A smaller, more pragmatic feature could be a personal KOM log that just stores the sequence of “uh, oh”- mails for that segment that you received and/or inflicted on others. Nothing big, but a nice OCD touch for subscribers.

  27. Pavel Vishniakov

    While the feature is nice and stuff, I agree with everybody stating that this will be a commuter competition. Too bad, Strava commuter toggle is pretty much useless, because you have to apply it to every single ride manually after the ride.

  28. Ash Driver

    Any idea if they are going to exclude downhill segments from the Legends feature?

    I ask because in order to limit their liability, Strava have apparently already disabled the ‘Uh Oh’ notification emails for having a downhill segment taken from you, and Live Segments don’t work on net downhill (or even almost flat) segments. This applies equally to running and cycling.

    (As an aside, the disabling of downhill Live Segments took me hours to figure out and I feel this should be made much clearer by Strava. Preferably they should allow users to opt in to downhill segments with a disclaimer. I have already suggested this to Strava via their feedback channel but only received a bland and disinterested response. More here: link to support.strava.com)

    • Stanislav

      @Ash Driver, I have also spent hours trying to figure out why not all of my live segments were syncing to my Fenix watch. I am a trail runner and have a good number of starred downhill segments.

      When I contacted support they just told me that that is how it is, with no further explanation whatsoever.

      That is super silly on Strava side because they only look at the elevation difference between the start and the end, not the actual amount of downhill. For example, it is OK to sync a roundtrip segment that goes to a local pick and back or a large loop segment that goes over multiple hills, but not OK if the segment finish just happens to be just a little below the start.

      I really don’t understand why this applies to running too. And I agree that should be a way to opt in by releasing liability.

  29. Thomas

    Rollout seems to be a bit buggy at the moment? At least in germany.
    It says that i am local legend at a Segment on my weekly afterwork mtb round. If i click on it, it states that no one has attempted that segment in the last 90 days?

    If i search for legend segments only, it does not show any. No matter where i search, including Amsterdam.

  30. usr

    That’s truly a weird feature. “I’m the guy with the most boring routine”, not quite sure if anyone should be happy to win that trophy.

    But good to see them back in the habit of throwing ideas at the wall, I just hope this one doesn’t cost them too much.

  31. Tom

    Why have separate male and female legends? Incan see why you would show males separately when power/strength is a main factor, but for just riding a segment repeatedly?

  32. has just appeared for a UK user who did an everest attempt yesterday!

  33. Dan G

    What a bizarre feature. I cannot conceive of how this can possibly be of interest to anyone

  34. Brian Hennessy

    Comparison is the thief of joy.

  35. David Walker

    Seems like a stupid “feature” to me. Why would I care that I ride some segment more than everyone else? How about fixing bugs and addressing long outstanding feature requests instead?

  36. Eric

    I don’t see this feature being super interesting for 99% of the segments. Although I guess there is always that legit tough climb where doing it a lot merits some street cred. What I would like to see is an average KOM leader board on segments. Take an average of a persons best 3 attempts or something. This would get rid of that one KOM that someone did during a hurricane force tailwind, or the obvious phone grab (bad gps) KOM, that is so far out that no one tries for the segment KOM anymore.

  37. Mark J.

    Don’t seem to have the View Local Legend Segments Only button. I have an iPhone running the latest Strava and iPhone OS. And looking through the local segments, there appears to be just one Local Legends segment in our area and it’s tiny. Just 1/3 mile in the center of our local campus. The current LL is a prof who rides to work virtually every day rain or shine or snow. I wonder how many recorded rides a segment has to have to be crowned with the laurel.

  38. Neil Jones

    I wonder if this is going to lead to a glut of new segments? Riders creating long, complex segments that are very specific to them just to ensure they get to be KOMs. I’m all for anything that motivates people, whether it motivates me personally or not, but even more random segments with names like “Richie K smells of Mice” is something I think the community could do without.

    • Dan G

      “Hide” them using the desktop website. If a crap segment gets hidden enough, it gets hidden automatically for other people from them on

  39. NY velo

    Biggest flaw in the rollout I see here in NY is that they didn’t bother to seed the initial ranking with past 90 days of ride data they already have. So now we have a feed full of new local legends with one ride. This is as dumb as annual trophies resetting Jan 1 vs rolling 12 months, and will surely lead to the exact same complaints.

  40. Bob

    Like foursquare. Fun, but not something I would ever pay for.

    I deleted my Strava account a couple of weeks ago and I thought maybe I would miss it. I realize I get way more analytics than I would ever need through Garmin Connect (I’m used to the UI and reports now) and it’s actually a relief to realize that my boring daily runs are not being uploaded anymore.

    • flokon

      Another useless feature for a service that’s at its heart a social platform. Despite variations on my daily route, the start and finish is always the same 1k-ish stretch. Since there are no other runners in my building, of course I’d get to be the “local legend”. But what exactly is the achievement in that? I think it borders on mockery, like so many “achievements” or “trophies” these days, that are handed out for the equivalent effort of showing up. Are people really satisfied that easily?
      I’m glad I deleted my Strava account some time ago.

    • Neil Jones

      If it motivates people to keep active, does it really matter?

  41. Phil S

    Hi Ray
    Any idea why Strava have dropped the ‘Following’ Leaderboard for Zwift virtual ride segments on the iOS app. They still appear in the web and still appear for outdoor rides.
    Been like this for months. It’s annoying as they’re the only segments me and my friends (who love miles apart) can compete on.
    Phil

  42. Roger

    In my area it seems fairly random in picking up rides in the last 90 days. Some segments show all my rides, others some or none. In any event for my two cents a fun feature for me, the only kom I am ever close on is in a few segments with over 70 year old riders. ?So this is a neat little competitive encouragement.

  43. Dan Lichtenberger

    Strava won’t let me post to their “forum” so not sure where else to put this. But is anyone else having major issues with Strava maps loading, route builder not working, and extremely slow segment updates? I lost 45 minutes creating a gravel route this morning that wouldn’t save and now I have to start over.

    • David

      I was/am having similar issues this morning with the iPhone App. Strangely Garmin sync to TP, MMR, and Strava were all significantly delayed. But the sync to SRAM AXS was near instant. So I’m not sure whose fault that might be.

    • Dan Lichtenberger

      my issue has been happening for a few months. I’ve been having issues on the desktop using multiple browsers and computers.

  44. Clark Lowe

    No Local Legends in Hawaii yet

  45. Nik

    Took me a minute but I figured out how to get to “Segment Settings” on Android device. In case anyone else is wondering… Click on the activity type at bottom left (shoe or bike). Then you’ll see option to “View Local Legend Segments Only”. Unfortunately there are zero eligible segments (running or biking) in my area.

  46. Warren Preen

    Utter waste of my subscription monies that has been spent by Strava on this. Every local segment is owned by a commuter or someone who lives near the start of the segment and passes through it every time they go cycling. So what’s the point of trying to get it? Yes we could go and ride the segment as you did, many times in one day, but the local or commuter would get it back within 90 days time just by going for their normal regular ride. If I really want this kind of crown I guess I should just create a segment from my front door to the end of the street (Oh the glory in that! How my cycling world is improved!!!!).
    There are so many more things Strava could have developed (or just fixed) instead of this waste of time. e.g. the routing creation functionality is so far behind RWGPS, why doesn’t Strava develop that???