Strava: 2015’s most popular segment revealed

Dodge deer in a Royal Park and crush the competition

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Published: January 4, 2016 at 1:30 pm

The Strava stats are in for 2015, and they’re mighty impressive: globally, we clocked up over four billion kilometres. That’s nearly enough for a one-way trip to Neptune, the farthest planet from the sun in our solar system.

So where was the world’s most popular segment? That would be Full Sawyers Uphill in London’s Richmond Park, with 33,226 individuals attempting the climb in 2015. Surrey’s Box Hill was also very popular though, with 32,485 attempts in 2015.

Related: 10 of the UK's most iconic road climbs

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Do you commute by bike? Then you’ll be interested to hear that a pacey average of 23.7 km/h ensured UK riders made it in on time, tackling an average 15.9 km door-to-door. But commutes by bike halved over winter, so if you kept riding through then good on you.

Related: London crowned as Strava's most active cycling city

In the UK, the average male Strava user recorded 41km for each ride, with an average speed of 24.3 km/h and ride time of 1:59hrs. Women averaged 34km per ride, at a speed of 19.8 km/h and ride time of 2:04hrs. Strava has again invited users to plug in their stats and create a highlights video – head here to create yours.

Is your favourite strava segment on here?:

Is your favourite segment on here?

UK regions

In regional terms, London was (predictably) the most active Strava location in the UK, with 3.5m rides logged over the course of last year – a considerable margin over West Yorkshire, its nearest rival, where they totalled 795,836 rides logged. Cambridgeshire and its great swathes of fenland produced a similarly expected statistic, mustering only 119m of climbing as it earned the title of flattest average ride.

Related: Strava and Zwift take the edge off winter training

Lincolnshire emerged as the fastest county with an average speed of 24.4 km/h, while Pembrokeshire took the title of longest average ride with 39.8 km. Merthyr Tydfil in Wales had the hilliest average rides, pushing its riders to average 630m of climbing per ride.

Finally, Strava says that the UK’s hottest day (June 30th) proved its most popular for a bike ride, despite temperatures reaching 32.5°C in places. With bike retailers attributing disappointing annual sales to a washout summer, let’s hope the sun returns for 2016.

Did you beat your annual Strava stats last year? Let us know in the comments below!