Strava has taken aim at leaderboard cheats by removing 4.45 million activities in a bid to “rightfully restore KOMs and QOMs to reflect true performances”.
Announced as part of a raft of app updates, Strava says it has fast-tracked the application of the machine learning model launched in February to “reprocess the top 10 spots on ride and run leaderboards”.
February’s update was designed to protect the integrity of Strava’s leaderboards by identifying unrealistic speeds, GPS errors and "other anomalies that could skew leaderboard results”.
Strava says every activity is now automatically analysed by a machine learning model, which looks at 57 different factors, such as speed and acceleration.
“Strava is reinforcing its commitment to helping athletes compete fairly and perform at their best,” reads Strava’s latest press release. “The updates allow users to push harder this summer, with the confidence that leaderboards reflect true performances.”
Other key app updates include:
- New AI-powered routes
- Tappable points of interest
- Point-to-point routing
Strava says the updated route functionality, which, like leaderboards, is only available to premium subscribers, now utilises AI to “offer smarter, intuitive suggestions by leveraging Strava’s global heatmap, so riders can run, ride or walk like locals wherever they go”.
The result, according to Strava, is routes that are more flexible and reliable, based on where existing cyclists ride. These can be generated from your current location or a custom starting point.
Strava has also introduced tappable points of interest, such as cafes, restrooms and viewpoints. Strava says you can tap to discover more information, generate a route there, or suggest a route that includes the point of interest.
Elevation, distance and estimated time of arrival will be present, and the points of interest will be accompanied by photos uploaded by Strava users “within the maps tabs in the Strava mobile app”.
This feature, available from June, brings Strava a little closer to Komoot, one of its competitors and rivals for the crown of best cycling app. Komoot enables riders to add photos to user-generated highlights, as well as tips describing the highlight.
Finally, new point-to-point routing will, according to Strava, provide “the most efficient, activity-specific route from A to B”. This, Strava says, is based on a new routes engine, informed by the global heatmap.
“Starting in July, simply drop a pin and go with point-to-point routing on mobile,” Strava says.
