Photo: A warning of live firing at the Hythe Ranges. Not the only red flag of the day.

Strava have recently deleted over 2 million rides to try and elimate e-bike riders taking over the segment tables and record times from those of us who only ever power our rides with our legs. This is to be commended but their enhanced analysis tool red flagged my latest ride with Tenterden Cycle Club.

I was pissed off to say the least. I felt like I’d been accused of cheating. I was not in a vehicle, nor was the ride incorrectly marked, nor was I on an e-bike (I don’t own one). I have never cheated. What’s the point? A knowingly false claimed performance is pathetic. Not my style. I have over 1,200 rides loaded in Strava. This was the first time a ride has been questioned.

I raised a support ticket requesting the flag be removed. This was the response.

The erroneous GPS data was during an 8km uphill section on my way to the ride start in Tenterden. It claimed that I rode at 101 km/h in two separate spikes. Definitely a GPS error. At over 63 mph it was faster than the speed limit for a motor vehicle on that stretch of road. I didn’t want to delete that section. I saw no reason to lose 8km worth of distance

I slept on it.

Today I found a solution. Using the Gotoes app I reloaded the ride to Strava using only one in three of the GPS points. This eliminated the two speed spikes. This restored the integrity of the ride, and mine.