What is Strava? What is it for? If you haven’t yet connected to cyclists’ favorite app, here we’ll explain how it works and how you can benefit from it.
Basically, Strava is an application that allows you, through a subscription, to record your physical activity. In this case, cycling. It doesn’t matter if you do road cycling, mountain biking or gravel. As a starting point, you can use it to save basic data from your training: route, distance, and duration. It has many more features, which we’ll discuss later.
It allows you to compete with other cyclists on short sections within a route, called segments, as well as measure your performance, both after the ride and in real time.
But Strava is much more than that. The huge number of users makes it a platform with a strong social component. Here we present some of its main functions, with their most important features. We’ll also give you some tips so you can make the most of the app that’s trending among cycling fans.
👉 Here you can join the Tuvalum Club on Strava.
How Strava works
There are two levels of access. There is the option to open a free account and the premium option, which requires paying a monthly subscription fee, with a discount if you subscribe annually.
Let’s first review what Strava offers in its free account, and then analyze some advantages of its paid formula.
Free features
Here are some of the things you can enjoy. Simply go to Strava and create a free user account.
1. Activity recording
The activity recording (cyclists, in our case) is the reason for Strava's existence. You can record a route through the mobile app. It features a user-friendly interface, with a recording button at the bottom of the screen and a map of our location.
It is possible to delete a previous route from Strava, but you need a paid subscription to use the route creation feature.
The free subscription allows you to connect a sensor to the app (a heart rate monitor, for example). It also includes the Strava Beacon safety feature, which lets you share your real-time location with up to three designated contacts while riding, as long as you record your activity with the mobile app.
Once you have completed your activity, you can add videos and photos at any time. In the case of videos, the duration is limited to 30 seconds.
2. Synchronization with other devices
In addition to Strava's own activity recording, you can link your Strava account to accounts associated with almost any other device, such as Garmin Connect or Wahoo Elemnt. That is, you can record a route on a bike computer or a smartwatch. Once finished, it will be uploaded simultaneously to the external application as well as Strava.
Whether you use the Strava mobile app or a device like Garmin or similar, your activities will always be grouped in Strava, with records such as distance, elevation, moving time, and the track of the route on the map. You can check this information both in your app and through the website.
Once your route is downloaded, you can analyze your performance. If you have a heart rate monitor and/or a power meter, you can check your speed along with other metrics such as temperature, heart rate, cadence, and even power. And if you don't have a power meter, no problem; Strava will make an estimate.
Strava can also be connected with indoor training apps like Zwift or Wahoo X, allowing you to record your activity on the trainer or a smart bike. In fact, Zwift includes Strava segments on its platform, which we will discuss below.
3. Strava Segments
The segments are clearly what make the difference on Strava, generating passion and competitiveness among cyclists.
What are segments? They are sections within a larger route where you can time yourself to compare with other runners. You can define a segment yourself. To do this, you must determine the following: a starting point, an end point, and a sequence of intermediate locations.
Unless you plan a segment in a strange place, you will probably find a few already defined by other cyclists along your route. Segments can be a few hundred meters or several kilometers long. To create one, it is essential that it is part of a route that already exists in your activity log. Let's just say you can't create one out of thin air.
In order for you to create a segment, it is essential that it is part of a route that already exists in your activity log.
You can star segments published by other athletes that you find interesting. You can also explore segments and analyze them on a map.
A recommendation for creating a segment is that it should be at least 500 m long, since on shorter segments the GPS could have some error. Once you have it set up, you can make it public or private.
Segments allow you to compare your time with that of other cyclists and also with your own previous records. The prize for the best time on a specific segment is a KOM (King of Mountain) or a QOM (Queen of Mountain). I'm sure that sounds familiar.
On the other hand, the last thing you’ll want is to receive an email from Strava informing you that someone has just beaten your KOM/QOM. In the same message, you'll be invited to go out there and try to get it back.
A free account will allow you to see the top 10 male and female times on a segment. You will also be able to know the Local Legend (LCL), which is the title given to the cyclist who has ridden the segment the most times in the last 90 days, regardless of speed or time. This is marked with an icon resembling a laurel crown next to the segment.
If a segment is potentially dangerous, you can flag it so that other cyclists are alert. And if someone posts an unrealistic time on a segment, you could also mark the result as potentially suspicious. Trickery on Strava is also present. In other cases, the error may be due to a simple oversight, such as forgetting to end the recording of a section while driving a car, for example.
In any case, segments are not only used to compete against other users of the app. In fact, they are a great way to compete against yourself and see how your performance evolves.
4. Strava Live Segments
If curiosity gets the better of you and you don't want to wait until you get home to know your ranking after giving your all on a segment, the Live Segments feature gives you a provisional ranking on your bike computer. It works for the most popular segments and also for those you have marked as favorites, but not for downhill segments, no matter how slight the slope.
When you approach a segment, you will receive an alert on your bike computer and you will see your progress on a map. When you leave a segment, you will see the time you achieved. It's that simple.
5. Privacy on Strava
In recent times, Strava has improved aspects related to privacy. You can leave everything open so that everyone can view your profile and activities. But there are also options to restrict the information you publish. You can make both your rides and your segments private.
An important privacy option is that, by default, it hides the first and last 200 meters of any route. This allows you, for example, to publish a route near your home without anyone being able to know the exact point where you live.
In the past, thieves used the start and end points of some cyclists' rides to rob their houses while they were away. Strava activities have even been used to locate secret military bases.
6. The social dimension of Strava
Strava has managed to position itself as the social network for cyclists. You can follow other athletes, including some professionals, and give them access to follow you. In fact, the app itself will even suggest friends for you to follow.
You will be able to see where they ride, compare your statistics with theirs, etc. There is also a search function to locate them. You can even congratulate them and/or comment on their rides.
Strava allows you to add photos, videos, and comments to an activity. You can create clubs or join existing ones, with member leaderboards that include distance covered and speed.
You can also create or join a challenge on Strava, which usually sets a distance to be covered within a certain period of time. When you achieve it, you earn a badge or distinction. There are many open challenges you can join; often, they are sponsored by charities or brands related to cycling.
Strava Premium. Is it worth paying for a subscription?
The free version of Strava may be enough for the needs of a user without big ambitions. But if you subscribe to the paid or premium plan (around 60 euros if you sign up for a whole year), you'll have access to many more features. In this way, you'll turn Strava into a more powerful training tool, with options that go far beyond just tracking routes.
Let's look at an example.
1. Detailed Segments
You can analyze the evolution of your performance along a specific segment, comparing it with that of other runners in the same place. This will allow you to see in which aspects you were better or worse than them. You can also filter by factors such as gender, age range, or weight, to compare yourself with cyclists in your same category. Likewise, you could compare yourself to the cyclists you follow.
Another advantage is linked to the Live Segments feature, where cyclists can see their progress as they ride the segment, in relation to their previous best time and to the current leader.
The premium subscription to Strava also allows you to analyze efforts over time on a specific segment. In this way, it is possible to determine performance trends.
2. Route Planner
One of the most useful tools in Strava is the route planner, which allows you to create a route to follow. The app has a large number of users, so you can choose to follow routes based on heat maps that show the most popular routes in your area. This way, you might discover unknown routes.
The most highlighted and darkest-colored routes indicate greater cyclist traffic. You can also check your own heat map, which will reflect your most frequent routes.
Another available feature is the option to determine the type of terrain you want to plan your route on: paved roads, trails, etc... This way, you can broaden your horizons by adapting your routes for gravel or mountain bike. It is also possible to influence the elevation profile: by determining a starting and ending point for a route, the system allows you to display the profile with the least elevation gain. And vice versa.
Strava maps include points of interest. Likewise, you can follow a planned route through the app on your mobile or upload it to your GPS device or cycle computer.
Many of the most widely used electronic devices have their own platform for route creation. But most of them require you to know beforehand where to go. With the paid version of Strava, anyone can create a route from scratch on the computer, while the mobile app has a tool that designs the route based on the preferences set by the user (such as distance and/or total elevation gain).
3. Setting goals
Strava premium allows you to plan goals based on the speed and/or time you intend to complete a segment or route in. These goals can be supported by some of the training plans offered by the app itself, which include a calendar for proper tracking.
You will have plenty of information about your activities, which you can access through a convenient calendar view. The Fitness & Freshness function will help you stay in shape by tracking your training load and fatigue levels over time. This is very useful for identifying if you are overtraining.
Finally, if you have a power meter, you will be able to check the evolution of your wattage over time, so you can see how your physical fitness is progressing.