Strava recently completed one of its biggest leaderboard cleanup efforts yet — removing over 2.3 million e-bike activities and 1.6 million vehicle or misclassified rides from its ride segment leaderboards.

The goal?

Make sure the folks listed on KOM/QOM or top-10 segment spots are there “for real efforts on proper equipment” not because their ride was powered by a motor, logged as the wrong sport, or accidentally recorded during a drive.

Hello, Machine Learning

Such a buzz word but accorinding to Strava, they used machine learning tools to dig into the top 100 activities on every global ride segment leaderboard, flagging activities that didn’t line up with what a human could legitimately achieve with just muscle power. That included, e-bike rides uploaded as regular rides, vehicle portions left in by accident (GUILTY!), and rides logged under the wrong sport type.

Once identified, those activities were removed from standard leaderboards — though they’re still part of the user’s history under the correct category.

As a result, an estimated 293,000 riders were returned to their rightful spots in the top 10 where their performances truly belong.

What This Means for You

If you actually earned your segment time — no motor assist, no GPS mistake — you don’t need to worry.

This cleanup is basically Strava saying “leaderboards should reflect honest effort.” And they have Machine Learning to do the job now, not some poor employees in a dark, smokey room combing through files like they we’re reading through Watergate.

But if you’ve ever been that person sitting around stewing because some random KOM beat you by a minute, here’s the real takeaway: Go touch some grass!

Do you really care? Are people way more obsessed about KOM leaderboards than I believe they are.

Leaderboards are fun but don’t let it define your progress, or fitness.

It’s one reason why I left the paid Strava app and rarely even pay attention to it. It’s cool to see what my friends are doing but at the end of the day, if you start using Strava and feel bad that “you’re not doing enough” then take a step back.

Train, compete, chase your goals — but don’t let a digital leaderboard dictate your worth. It’s just data. You’re an athlete who actually lives the ride. Keep it that way.