Since I haven’t really done anything with Strava other than plug my Garmin into it and download some of my rides, I didn’t really have much information on the whole deal. I’m not a premium member, I don’t even know what extras you get for that, so I pretty much just get the same thing as what you have downloaded at Garmin Connect. The extra you get is the ability to see the times and routes of what other people that used Strava have done.

So, I wrote a little about looking at some Strava segments while I was out in California last week. A few of the segments that I compared my times to were total BS. They must of put their Garmins in their pocket while on a motocycle, because the KOM’s and descending times were not close to being realistic. But, most of segments had pretty legitimate information.

Anyway, I saw this article at Velonews.com about a family that is suing Strava for contributing to the death of one of their family members. Turns out the guy was trying to reclaim a Strave segment record for some descent in Northern California, lost control, crashed and died. Obviously, it turned out badly for the guy.

But having the family sue Strava for this is ludicrous. The family says that somehow Strava is at fault, “claiming negligence and that the website encouraged him to speed.” The article has a quote from the families attorney say, “They don’t put cones out. They don’t have anybody monitor and see whether a course, or a specific segment, is dangerous.”

Wow. They don’t cone the segments? Maybe the family and/or attorney doesn’t realize that every road in the country is potentially a Strava segement. Maybe every road in the World, I don’t know. So, for the website to monitor every “course” they record times for is obviously not gonna happen.

There are lots of good comments at Velonews about the whole thing. It makes me wonder what the United States is all about with all this litigation happening everytime someone or something gets hurt. I wish people would just take some responsibility for their own actions. Not everything is someone’s fault, shit just happens. Bad luck. Wrong place at the wrong time. Trying to set a Strava segment record and falling.

I just saw this title to an article at Velonews.com. – Christian Vande Velde training and hoping ahead of Tour de France

I had to click on it to see it was all fluff and bullshit about how these guys are climbing a ton before the Tour. Whatever, they are professional cyclists and the Tour is the biggest race of the year. What are they supposed to be doing, laying on a beach somewhere, drinking margaritas?

Where is the question about why he opted out of an Olympic slot along with Levi, George and Dave? Why isn’t anyone reporting on these guy’s requests to decline to ride in the Olympic games. In an earlier article reporting the riders decision to withdraw their names from potential Olympic slots, they said “USA Cycling will not speculate on the reasoning behind their requests and will not have further comment on this topic; any questions related to their decision should be directed to the individual athletes.”

So, when is someone going to direct their questions to the individual athletes? I can’t believe that Velonews writes an article with quotes from Christian Vande Velde and there isn’t one mention of what we all want to know, why he doesn’t have his name in the hat for the Olympics, along with the 3 others. Christian’s team mate, Teammate Dave Zabriskie, who also is one of the guys not wanting to ride the Olympics was also at this little, impromptu training camp. I guess they didn’t feel it was important asking him either?

Christian is a great guy. Dave too, for that matter. And the guys at Velonews might be their friends, but as an cycling publication, they have an obligation to ask them the tough questions. Eventually it is going to be addressed, but it seems everyone is going to play nice before the Tour.

It is just shoddy journalism, plain and simple.

I guess once you make the cover of Velonews, that gives you a get-out-of-jail free card when it comes to uncomfortable subjects?