"Strava activities are the only way I know some of my friends are still alive"

...or that Bernard is doing his weekly shop

- Michael Hutchinson

The Box Hill Stava KoM was broken last week, twice. First by Rory Townsend from the Q36.5 team, followed shortly afterwards by Dom Jackson from Foran CCC.

There was a lot of reporting of this. According to several websites, Box Hill is "an iconic climb", and "perhaps the most coveted Strava segment in the UK." It seems appropriate that while France has Alpe d'Huez, and Spain has Sa Calobra, the UK's icon of athleticism is a short, gentle climb, rounding two whole hairpins to a National Trust cafe.

On the other hand, my relationship with Strava has never really recovered from inventing the concept before the Strava guys, but then totally failing to actually create a product. It was the closest I've ever come to fully inhabiting the character of George Costanza from Seinfeld.

When Strava did appear, I got over my bitterness and used it for a few years. But then I drifted away. For a start, I don't flatter myself that anyone is interested in my rides. For another thing, if they are, I don't want them to discover that I'm so lacking in adventurous spirit that I have three basic rides and run them on a rotation.

I don't pay all that much attention to anyone else's activities either. I'm not giving my mate Bernard kudos for driving to the supermarket with his still-running Garmin in his pocket no matter how enthusiastically the app prompts me to. The only activity that I really notice is a friend I haven't seen for years who uploads an identical walk round his local woods every morning before breakfast. It'll stop happening one day and it'll be the only way I know he's dead.