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    News

    Strava Announces Major Changes to Virtual Segments

    Eric Schlange
    By Eric Schlange
    April 10, 2020
    109

    In a support post this morning, Strava announced big changes that will drastically reduce the number of segments showing on Zwift activities. Here is how Strava summarized the changes:

    • The least popular virtual ride segments have been made private, but none have been deleted. Any segments you’ve created can be found on the Strava website by selecting Dashboard > My Segments > Created Segments.
    • Any newly created virtual segments will be private.

    In Strava’s words, these changes should “… remove clutter and noise so athletes can experience the segments that matter the most.” Let’s dig into this a bit more…

    Some Background

    Virtual segments, and specifically Zwift virtual segments, have been putting a strain on Strava’s systems for years. Strava was designed with real-world segment traffic in mind, and that is very different from the sort of traffic Zwift brings. In the real world, riders are spread out and so are the segments. On Zwift, riders are concentrated into small areas, with tens (hundreds!) of thousands riding each day.

    This strain has become clear in recent months, when we haven’t been able to create Zwift Insider verified segments for routes of any substantial length due to Strava timing out in the “Check for Duplicates” step of its segment creation workflow. It appears there are simply too many public segments for Strava to compare against.

    Additionally, the sheer the number of Strava segments for Zwift courses is just silly. And Strava’s automated systems for choosing which segments to display or hide have never worked well on Zwift.

    New Segments=Private Segments

    With this change, all newly-created virtual segments will be private, meaning only the creator can see the segment.

    Note: at the time of this post, this change doesn’t appear to be fully implemented. There was still a checkbox in the segment creator tool to “Make this segment private”.

    Existing Segments Made Private

    Strava says “The least popular virtual ride segments have been made private”. They aren’t disclosing just how many segments were switched to private with this change, but from what I’m hearing it’s a “significant portion of existing segments.” When I asked Strava what sort of “signals” they are using to decide which segments stay public and which ones are switched to private, they said:

    We’re reviewing segments based on engagement post-activity upload and understanding whether athletes look at the segment analysis and leaderboards. Segments with lowest engagement are made private.

    Sounds sensible to me. Odd that they didn’t mention whether or not people have starred a segment, but my guess is this is included in their engagement metrics as well.

    Private segments are only visible to a segment’s creator, meaning they aren’t matched against the activities of other riders. So switching many public segments to private means two good things: less processing required in terms of segment matching for Strava, and fewer segments showing up in activities.

    Of course, Zwifters can still see their own results on any segments they’ve created on their ride activity details page.

    What About Zwift Insider Verified Segments?

    Strava and ZwiftHQ reached out to me at Zwift Insider with news about this change, because they recognize that our large set of “Zwift Insider verified” Strava segments are important to the community and should be kept public. I was grateful for that! So it sounds like our segments will be kept public.

    In the short-term, creating new Zwift Insider verified segments will require an extra step or two of reaching out to Strava to get the segment made public. But I can deal with that.

    What About My Segments?

    In my chats with Zwift, it is clear they are well aware that the community has created many bespoke segments that are used to track various events. It is unclear how many (if any) of these segments will be switched to private, but hopefully between Strava’s automated triggers and Zwift’s communication with Strava the useful community segments will stay public.

    When I asked Strava what the process was for “forcing” a segment to be public, they said:

    …if the Zwift team recognizes a segment as important or significant and lets Strava know, then Strava will make it public.

    Wrapping It Up

    A few weeks ago, Strava rolled out new algorithms to catch impossible efforts upon uploads. They say today’s change is the next step in “making the segment experience better for athletes”. I agree!

    As I said over 3 years ago, “I don’t care if I got a PR on a random .2 mile section of London titled ‘your mom smells like donuts’! Reducing the clutter will make it much easier for athletes to track their progress on segments they actually care about.

    My only concern is that useful, community-created segments will remain public. I’m sure we’ll hear from the Zwift community if that doesn’t happen, but I’m hoping Strava has implemented the auto-privatization of existing segments so it’s all quite painless.

    What Do You Think?

    Does this change seem like a good one? What are your thoughts? Share below!

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      Eric Schlange
      Eric Schlangehttp://www.zwiftinsider.com
      Eric runs Zwift Insider in his spare time when he isn't on the bike or managing various business interests. He lives in Northern California with his beautiful wife, two kids and dog. Follow on Strava

      109 COMMENTS

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      Rory Lade
      Rory Lade
      2 years ago

      Ahh now I can’t see if I PR’d 352 segments in a 20mi ride. lol

      34
      Reply
      David
      David
      2 years ago

      Great idea. Zwift rides have too many segments on them

      28
      Reply
      Linda Messinger
      Linda Messinger(@lmessinger)
      2 years ago

      This is a great idea. Most of the time from the Strava map, it’s hard to see exactly where the segment was anyway.

      11
      Reply
      Ryan Shank
      Ryan Shank
      2 years ago

      best change ever to strava in a while

      18
      Reply
      Michael Snasdell
      Michael Snasdell
      2 years ago

      Phew, thank heavens for that. Some of those micro segments drive me nuts. Love the official Zwift Insider ones though. So thanks for those 🙂

      26
      Reply
      Mitchell
      Mitchell(@mitchell)
      2 years ago

      Great move, now if they could just remove everything except the ZwiftInsider verified ones that would be wonderful.

      27
      Reply
      Jon Wakefield
      Jon Wakefield
      2 years ago

      Perfect! I’ve spent so much time going through the ‘hidden segments’ to unhide the only segments that matter – the ‘Zwift Insider Verified’ ones of course 🙂 … so this should make reviewing segment times and efforts a lot easier… Good stuff.

      15
      Reply
      Pat
      Pat
      2 years ago
      Reply to  Jon Wakefield

      “control F” (text finder) is your friend there, makes it very fast to pull up the only ones i care about (zwift Insider) and then hide everything else.

      4
      Reply
      Jelle
      Jelle
      2 years ago
      Reply to  Jon Wakefield

      Haha, been doing that consistently over the last year… Only one annoys me “Shanes third nipple” or something like that, wtf?

      0
      Reply
      Denzyl O'Donoghue
      Denzyl O'Donoghue
      2 years ago

      Zwift rocks! Absolutely awesome, you are keeping me sane in a 100% lockdown! Thank you.

      3
      Reply
      Brandon
      Brandon
      2 years ago

      Ive never understood why people at Zwift don’t work with Strava directly. Instead of

      Watopia showing up in a read world location Strava should have created a virtual map for Zwift. Zwift should have then created accurate routes for all the routes, sprints and climbs. I then won’t have let individuals create their own public segments.

      this change will be a good one, if the segments you rely on remain and are populated by all riders

      13
      Reply
      Brandon Johnson
      Super Member
      Brandon Johnson(@brandon_j_585)
      2 years ago
      Reply to  Brandon

      Nice change on Strava, and I Agree 100%, Brandon. Further, I don’t know why Strava and Zwift don’t join forces on all levels. I would love to have a SINGLE platform where I could track all of my outdoor and indoor rides and have the community. Zwava? (kidding)

      1
      Reply
      Jelle
      Jelle
      2 years ago
      Reply to  Brandon

      Veloviewer is doing exactly that in a very nice way. Combined with the leader board, I’m happily paying for that service.

      1
      Reply
      Kyle Bredesky
      Kyle Bredesky(@kylebredesky)
      2 years ago

      Yes!!!!

      1
      Reply
      Neil Owens
      Neil Owens
      2 years ago

      love this change, so annoying having to hide all those silly segments. Just keep the zwift insider ones!

      4
      Reply
      James Daley
      James Daley
      2 years ago

      Hallelujah!

      1
      Reply
      .KR
      .KR
      2 years ago

      If private segments include only times for the owner (?), then they are substantially less useful – no ranking. Or, perhaps they include times for other riders, without those other riders being aware of it or seeing those segments?

      1
      Reply
      Eric Schlange
      Author
      Top Member
      Eric Schlange(@eschlange)
      2 years ago
      Reply to  .KR

      Nope–just times for the owner.

      1
      Reply
      Matt Bowman
      Matt Bowman
      2 years ago
      Reply to  Eric Schlange

      YES!! Insider verified are all I ever pay attention to. Thank you for your efforts.

      2
      Reply
      Sam
      Sam
      2 years ago

      I may get my strava premium back cause listen folk STRAVA IS BACK IN DA GAME

      4
      Reply
      Jonathan
      Jonathan
      2 years ago

      Will be interesting to see how well they strike a balance in keeping the “useful” segments public. Based on how well they have done in showing/hiding segments, I’m not super-optimistic.

      1
      Reply
      David Copp
      David Copp
      2 years ago

      Strava must be getting tired of handling all the flagged KOMs on Zwift segments where people are clocking in at 108 kph on a 2% uphill grade. Does Strava even deal with flagged Zwift segments? I wouldn’t blame them or be surprised if they don’t even bother with them.

      1
      Reply
      Matthew Franklin
      Matthew Franklin
      2 years ago

      Great news, but I do hope some of the more challenging milestone segments remain, like ones acheived at 200km

      0
      Reply
      Cris To
      Cris To
      2 years ago
      Reply to  Matthew Franklin

      Where to get this 200k achievement?

      0
      Reply
      P.Harris
      P.Harris
      2 years ago

      Amen! It’s about time!

      0
      Reply
      Rick Lewis
      Rick Lewis
      2 years ago

      Thats great, works for me, now if Strava would include the biggest climb achievement in Zwift on our Strava profile page that would be sweet. I don’t see myself in Hawaii anytime soon.

      0
      Reply
      Jon
      Jon
      2 years ago

      Makes sense. Now if they would just work with Zwift Insider to get a sensible set of segments available !

      1
      Reply
      Bryan
      Bryan
      2 years ago

      Hopefully this will help with trying to decipher which KOM is the real one since 18 segments show up for the same location 🤦

      3
      Reply
      Robert Barrett
      Robert Barrett
      2 years ago

      I only ever look at the ones that list immediately when I open the activity, and ignore the several hundred others. The only segments I would like to see regularly are the sprints and the full climbs. it’s not like I’m a KoM contender 🙂

      0
      Reply
      David
      David
      2 years ago

      About damn time!!

      1
      Reply
      Bob Schraven
      Bob Schraven(@b-schraven)
      2 years ago

      Perfect Idea!!

      1
      Reply
      Mick Such
      Mick Such
      2 years ago

      Brilliant idea n move.

      Now we just need Strava to allow us to record the sprint segments on Zwift that are normally to small to be recorded. 😋

      2
      Reply
      Eric Schlange
      Author
      Top Member
      Eric Schlange(@eschlange)
      2 years ago
      Reply to  Mick Such

      YES! (I’m actually in touch with some folks inside Strava about this. We’ll see what they say…)

      2
      Reply
      Jer Walker
      Active Member
      Jer Walker(@jerwalker)
      2 years ago

      Not really related, but I saw another change on my end this week. I can no longer filter any segment on a Zwift ride by people I follow. Only IRL rides provides this filter. Any feedback on that?

      0
      Reply
      Andrew
      Andrew
      2 years ago
      Reply to  Jer Walker

      I noticed the same thing in the Android app, it’s still there if you access via the website. I asked Strava support but they haven’t responded with an answer yet

      2
      Reply
      Gareth
      Gareth
      2 years ago
      Reply to  Jer Walker

      I had the same issue on iOS. Contacted Strava support and this was the reply…

      Thanks for writing in. We may temporarily disable some filtered leaderboards during peak upload times to improve athlete experience. You may notice that Virtual Rides have these (one or two) views turned off longer than other activities. We appreciate your understanding and patience.

      In the meantime, as you noticed, when these filtered leaderboards are disabled, you may be able to view this information on the website

      3
      Reply
      Jer Walker
      Jer Walker(@jerwalker)
      2 years ago
      Reply to  Gareth

      Thanks Gareth. That’s good info. Much appreciated.

      2
      Reply
      Henrik Roslund
      Henrik Roslund
      2 years ago

      I almost hide all Segments that are not tagged ”Zwift Insider”

      4
      Reply
      Brian Brophy
      Brian Brophy
      2 years ago

      This is fantastic! Most of the segments that have been made for zwift are totally pointless (to me I guess) and looking through the ride is so annoying. I wish the koms and sprint segments in zwift would be the only ones that show.

      2
      Reply
      John
      John
      2 years ago

      Zwift insider segments are great. I would like to see climbs of substantial length, loops, official courses, etc. The stuff that pulls up a clock in game to count your time matters, really nothing else does. Maybe like 5, 10 and 25 lap volcano loops too.

      0
      Reply
      Gerrie Delport
      Gerrie Delport(@gerriedelport)
      2 years ago

      This is good news, I have all the Zwift Insider segments starred, and hide the rest, but new random ones just keep popping up. Thanks Zwift, Zwift instder (Eric) and Strava.

      0
      Reply
      Tronny
      Tronny
      2 years ago

      People still use Strava?

      -5
      Reply
      Tony Beanie Richardson
      Tony Beanie Richardson
      2 years ago

      About time. The number of segments were getting stupid and who has the time to make these segments up….I for one couldn’t care less and am just glad they wont be clogging up my Strava Feed any longer.

      0
      Reply
      Eric
      Eric
      2 years ago

      Hoping there will be active discrimination between actual ZIV segments and the imposters…

      0
      Reply
      Alan Farnes
      Super Member
      Alan Farnes(@alan_taylor_farnes)
      2 years ago

      I’ve thought this from the day I started Zwifting. The segments should be the ones with Zwift start/finish lines and leaderboards and maybe a few others. The clutter is useless and annoying.

      1
      Reply
      Alan Farnes
      Super Member
      Alan Farnes(@alan_taylor_farnes)
      2 years ago
      Reply to  Alan Farnes

      And routes.

      1
      Reply
      Gareth
      Gareth
      2 years ago

      Another step Strava has taken is to remove segment comparison for people you ‘follow’ from iOS

      2
      Reply
      Gareth
      Gareth
      2 years ago
      Reply to  Gareth

      For virtual rides that is

      0
      Reply
      Gareth
      Gareth
      2 years ago
      Reply to  Gareth

      Reply from Strava support…

      Thanks for writing in. We may temporarily disable some filtered leaderboards during peak upload times to improve athlete experience. You may notice that Virtual Rides have these (one or two) views turned off longer than other activities. We appreciate your understanding and patience.

      In the meantime, as you noticed, when these filtered leaderboards are disabled, you may be able to view this information on the website

      0
      Reply
      Wesley Stocker
      Wesley Stocker(@ph4rout)
      2 years ago

      My VeloViewer score is likely to tank from this, but I’m happy to clear out the duplicates.

      0
      Reply
      Pat
      Pat
      2 years ago

      what??? no love for “2.98 miles from my start to finish” on the Innsbruck map???

      It’s actually about time this happened. Rode the Lutscher CCW today, hide 70 or so segments that are useless and another 6 that either describe most of the climb or the descent. Rather stick with the Zwift Insider ones as they are the most consistent of the bunch and I know are setup correctly.

      0
      Reply
      tempocyclist.com
      tempocyclist.com
      2 years ago

      Probably the best update Strava has released in, ummm, years!!

      0
      Reply
      David G
      David G
      2 years ago

      Strava can change all they want, since they stopped working w Relive maps, I’ve seen over 20 cyclist switch over . They’re irrelevant. They’re trying to come back.

      0
      Reply
      Cris To
      Cris To
      2 years ago
      Reply to  David G

      Switch over to what?

      0
      Reply
      David Riley
      David Riley
      2 years ago

      I’ve literally spent minutes hiding all the stupid Zwift segments (not insider verified segments though). Now I won’t need to do that! Good job Strava.

      0
      Reply
      Rudolfo Poomp
      Rudolfo Poomp
      2 years ago

      Oh man! I hope the “I think this is where Anakin fell in” in the volcano survives!

      2
      Reply
      josh
      josh
      2 years ago
      Reply to  Rudolfo Poomp

      ok, that is the only stupid and short segment that i hope survives as well….

      0
      Reply
      Robin Eyre
      Robin Eyre
      2 years ago

      The only ones I care about are the “zwift insider verified” segments. They cover the most logical sections, such as official routes and timed sections like sprints and climbs. Anything else is.just noise and gets in the way. I’ve hidden loads, but more keep.aplearing. great move Strava! 😎

      0
      Reply
      .KR
      .KR
      2 years ago

      Not being able to create a public segment (if that is the change) seems like overkill. This would trash a feature I’ve enjoyed using — creating longer routes, for example. Still possible to create of course, but no ranking.

      Understood that segment clutter is a problem, but I’m afraid Strava may not have the right fix here. Setting up hiding to work better could fix the problem without breaking the usefulness of public segments.

      2
      Reply
      Tim
      Tim
      2 years ago
      Reply to  .KR

      Agreed. If they just had their code to decide which segments to hide in a better state we wouldn’t have this problem. Which makes me think that maybe there is another reason behind this change: they want to reduce the load on their servers.

      0
      Reply
      Dan Nicolescu
      Dan Nicolescu(@dan-nicolescu)
      2 years ago

      👍 Not too long ago I spent a lot of time hiding lots of segments and then looking through the hidden ones to unhide the Zwift Insider Verified ones along with some climbs I thought worthy of being shown. As a funny note, I was searching in the browser for the word “verified” to ease my task, and I found one segment referring to somebody’s third nipple, with “zwiftinsider verified” tag. See the missing space. I really hope Strava makes that and alikes private. The number of segments that overlap almost completely is insane. This change is welcome. Looking forward… Read more »

      0
      Reply
      Pete
      Pete
      2 years ago

      The zwift insider verified segments are the only ones I pay attention to so pretty pleased with this however quite often the segments don’t show up in Strava. I’ve done box hill twice this week and on both occasions that segment didn’t show up. All the rest of the stupid segments did…

      2
      Reply
      Peter
      Peter
      2 years ago

      You now can’t see how you stack up with riders you follow, so for me it’s a thumbs down

      1
      Reply
      R R
      R R
      2 years ago

      That’s great news. There were so many I didn’t care to look anymore for segment achievements. I only really care about the K/QOMs, sprints, complete routes and the segments the majority (Zwift Insider?) thinks are interesting. It makes it small races inside a race.

      0
      Reply
      mcsound
      mcsound
      2 years ago

      Not the Zwift related but I hope Strava will soon separate e-bike segments and standard segments in real life rides in order to stop endless holywars between athletes and electric KOM hunters.

      0
      Reply
      Matthew Whitwell
      Matthew Whitwell
      2 years ago

      Good news. I’ve been spending my time doing this manually already and only really value the zwiftinsider segments anyway.

      1
      Reply
      PAUL OZIER
      PAUL OZIER
      2 years ago

      Good!!! I really get frustrated when I look at segments after a ride and there are hundreds of them, 90% covering the same section of road.

      0
      Reply
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