In conversation with Strava support I have found out that when Zwift rides appear on Strava, they act as “normal” rides and therefore contribute to any challenges that one has entered. Normally stationary trainer rides do not count to the strava challenges (and rightly so).
To overcome this, one flags the ride in Strava as stationary trainer, but then all the segment detail is lost.
So my question to the Zwift team is, has there been any conversation with Strava technical team to “flag” zwift rides as they are imported into Strava such that the zwift achievements can be kept and rides contribute to leaderboards etc but not contribute to the strava challenges.
Sorry I should add, that the reason this came about is because I have had two of my Zwift rides flagged by strava because they are “stationary Trainer” rides but not listed as such. Therefore “illegally” contributing towards the challenges etc.
So I am faced with the choice of either deregistering from any strava challenge or flagging my zwift ride as a stationary trainer which loses all the segment data and therefore do not appear on the leaderboards/segment splits etc.
If you succeed in excluding Zwift rides from Strava challenges (even though there is no actual way to “cheat” on the challenge since you still have to put out the same power and time) then it would alienate a lot of people.
Trainer rides have been excluded from mileage-based challenges because nobody can guarantee that the speeds indicated are anywhere near reality. I can cruise at 27mph on my rollers for a very long time. Zwift doesn’t do that. It’s based on real world numbers.
Trainer rides have no business being excluded from climbing contests because you don’t gain even a single darn foot on a trainer. Zwift elevation gain, however, is just as real to your legs as outside stuff.
This is coming from someone who has formerly participated in lots of Strava challenges, including being the first American to finish one of the climbing challenges back in 2012.
Maybe you can convince them to do this, but I wouldn’t be very happy when I sit in my trainer room looking at mountains of snow and arctic temperatures for months at a time.
I have tried the unflag but keep getting it back. I raised it to strava support and was told that zwift rides are classed as stationary trainer rides and should be flagged such. I am happy if this is not to be the case.
I think your points are good points but at present I can’t do both. It’s either challenge or zwift ride.
I don’t think there is a good way to so this besides having ‘virtual trainer’ rides like Zwift in their own category. Everyone has their own standards for logging. For example, if I workout at 1am, I’ll count that workout towards the previous day. Many people I know will disagree with this.
If there was a special tag, then you could filter the Strava leaderboards exactly to your standards. I personally think time, IF, and TSS are better measurements to use when measuring workouts rather than distance or elevation. Plus, even riding outside, wind and weather conditions can play a huge role in segment times. I once did a century ride 2 hours quicker on the same course, with a lower power output, just based off wind.
In the end, Strava is just there to make you train harder. If there were actual prizes for winning a challenge, I would want an even playing field. But because it’s just motivation, I think people should be able to log their workouts according to the standards they personally believe in, and leave it up to others to interpret them as they want.
Riding on the flat is different from climbing, even for the same power output: the force profile is different, when climbing you push on the pedal for more of the stroke. It feels different and uses your muscles in a different way. This is why some time triallists don’t make good climbers even if they have a good W/kg. Riding on a turbo is somewhere between riding on the flat and climbing. Each turbo is different. But riding on turbo trainers can’t be compared to actual climbing. And I say this despite not being a great climber so someone who would probably do better on virtual climbing challenges than would be fair. It would be ideal if Strava had a Zwift ride type as has been suggested.
I think rides on something like zwift and on a trainer should count towards challenges. For gods sake!! It’s not like the challenges are for $ or anything. Actually, if anything, it’s more about Strava selling jerseys than anything else.
If you want to be that competitive and it matters that much then you should really start racing.
As for cheating on a trainer, you can do that anytime on the road if you really want. Go for a slow drive with your Garmin on!? Have someone else wear your Garmin up a climb or on their rides also!?
If you have a variable resistance trainer then all the more reason it should count towards a challenge. If needs be it would not be too hard to differentiate between work done on an 'intelligent" trainer and ‘real’ world riding and work done on a non variable resistance trainer. Strava can group results accordingly but the climbs etc should count to challenges which are a personal effort anyway.