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2018 Strava recap finds world’s favorite segment, more women riding & coffee love

2018 Strava Year in Sport, a look back at the data collected, year in review activity summary
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December is fast approaching and Strava has once again dug into their activity numbers to see what trends pop out for cyclists, runners, and other active athletes. What stands out among the 36 million athletes over 195 countries might be 3.6 billion kudos, more cyclists out riding further together, or what Strava calls the Year of the QOM with even bigger efforts by women via their social sports platform.

2018 Strava Year in Sport, a look back at the data collected

2018 Strava Year in Sport, a look back at the data collected, year in review activity summary

There is plenty of other interesting finds in the data crunching.  Out of all the rides recorded, the most popular cycling segment in the world with at least 500’/150m appears to be Box Hill in Dorking in the UK with 492,520 attempts. The top ride in the US alone isn’t far behind – the Central Park Loop in NY, NY tallied up 425,262 attempts.

2018 Strava Year in Sport, a look back at the data collected, year in review activity summary

If you join a Strava club, on average you end up recording more than three times as many activities as those not in clubs. I guess that reinforces that peer pressure and camaraderie can be good motivators to stay active.

2018 Strava Year in Sport, a look back at the data collected, year in review activity summary

Looking across activities, it seems that cyclists who ride a lone tend to spend more time on the bike. But the benefits of the pack are pretty apparent – group rides averaged more than 70% greater distances. Also, it looks like we are more active across all sports – 1.2% longer time spent and 21.4% more distance covered than last year.

2018 Strava Year in Sport, a look back at the data collected, year in review activity summary

Also it looks like snowshoers are kicking our butts in at least one category. A third of all snowshoe activities share photos, while less than a tenth of us cyclists do.

2018 Strava Year in Sport, a look back at the data collected, year in review activity summary

Runners talk about beer most of all in describing activities. We cyclists talk most about coffee (leading by a long shot overall), but we still manage to out-talk those runners about beer for our second most important post-ride pastime.

2018 Strava Year in Sport, a look back at the data collected, year in review activity summary

There’s big improvements in the number of bike commuters year-on-year as well – up 42.8% globally and 30.8% in the US. There’s plenty more promising commuting data both by runners & cyclists, with big gains in several states you might not think of.

There is even more interesting data available in the full report (like the fastest riding day of the week… hint: it’s Tuesday for some reason.) So far it doesn’t look like Strava has shared the full Year in Sport report for 2018 publicly yet. When it goes live, it will be on Blog.Strava.com.

2018 Strava Year in Sport, Strava Best Photo of 2018, UTMB 2018 Sophie Power photo by Alexis Berg
courtesy Strava, photo by Alexis Berg

In the meantime, read about Strava’s best photo of 2018, highlighting how women athletes are still fighting (hard) to get an even share in sport.

Blog.Strava.com

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adilosnave
adilosnave
6 years ago

Regarding the Box Hill and Central Park segments, are those only the real-world segments or does it include the Zwift versions too?

gfurry
6 years ago
Reply to  adilosnave

I would bet good money those are mostly Zwift riders.

Tom Hughes
Tom Hughes
6 years ago
Reply to  gfurry

You should see Box Hill on a Sunday morning, I have no doubt that is correct!

JBikes
JBikes
6 years ago
Reply to  adilosnave

Only if you include virtual beers

Greg
Greg
6 years ago
Reply to  adilosnave

Not sure about Central Park, but Zwift Box Hill doesn’t appear anywhere near the real Box Hill on the map, so I’d guess those two are distinct.

hleogr
6 years ago

If most of the Strava users are like me, those stats would be complete useless. I use Strava only for manually uploading some very specific activities which I would like to share with others. All my other activities are for my eyes only using Garmin Connect.

JBikes
JBikes
6 years ago

I’m assuming the increase in commuters is an increase in commuters using Strava right? You could have 100 people commuting with 10 recording on Strava. Next year, only 90 are commuting, but 15 record it on strava.

Crash Bandicoot
Crash Bandicoot
6 years ago

I’d genuinely be interested in the number 1 non-zwift segment on Strava. Not to knock zwift but I’m highly suspect of any KOMs on zwift segments.

Greg
Greg
6 years ago

Regarding Box Hill, the virtual and actual Box Hills don’t actually line up on the map. In Zwift, you’re magically transported there when you ride down through the underground station. In real life, Box Hill is 15ish miles outside of London. The segments also don’t line up in Strava.

Longbeard
6 years ago
Reply to  Greg

Came here for this question. You hath delivered.

reubenmc
reubenmc
6 years ago

“If you join a Strava club, on average you end up recording more than three times as many activities as those not in clubs. I guess that reinforces that peer pressure and camaraderie can be good motivators to stay active.”
this looks like a classic example of wrongly assuming causal relationship…. I’d venture to say instead that people who post to strava 3x more than average tend to join strava clubs. I’ve joined some clubs…. but honestly can’t point to a single ride they’ve added to my year. maybe that’s not typical…

Steel Rider
Steel Rider
5 years ago

So is my 2018 Strava Year In Sport done? I wanted my last ride this weekend included.

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