As fantastically innovative as Strava is, there are a few features that regular users have been crying out for, and others which clever third party developers have created anyway. Features that you didn’t even realise you needed!
The official Strava request board lists many, many suggestions from users, and the good news is that some of this desired functionality is already out there, from third party developers who have built apps using the Strava API. Clever people!
Major update
I’ve developed a new way of listing Strava add on sites. You can submit new sites to the list, and even write reviews and ratings for each resource. Go check it out.
Export other people’s rides/runs with CosmoCatalano
This seems to be a very popular request, and understandably so. You see a route that appeals to you, you want to download it so that you can follow it yourself using a Garmin for turn by turn directions. The Strava site itself doesn’t give you the option to do this.
The only way to do it at present, is to use the CosmoCatalano tool. Here’s a quick tutorial.
The Strava Integrator
The Strava Integrator, by Chris Schiffner, is a tool for embedding your ride data on your own website. As such, it requires some basic installation, so it’s not strictly a simple web based tool. It allows you to customise the number of rides to display, and generates attractive looking maps with key data about the ride. Click one of these, and a lightbox overlay showing segment details appears. Chris is still developing it, and there’s a premium option to purchase for a small fee, as well as a free version. Definitely one to watch.
Strava multiple ride mapper
The Multiple Ride Mapper pulls in all of the rides you’ve ever logged on Strava and displays them on one map. Simply copy and paste your athlete number into the box and be amazed as it pulls in every ride and maps it. If you’ve ridden certain roads many times, you will end up with a darker line, whereas roads you’ve only ridden once will be more pale. The map is clickable, and the list on the left hand side takes you back to the ride screen on strava.com
Update: Here’s a brief tutorial showing you how to use this great site.
Strava KOM Notifier Service
Created by the same author as the multiple ride mapper above, Jonathan O Keefe, the KOM notifier service will give you detailed notifications about any changes to your KOMs, or indeed any changes in the top 10 positions.
Segment details
Yet another brilliant bit of coding from Jonathan again, Segment Details can be accessed separately as a standalone thing, but it is also linked from the Strava Notifier Service, above.
This one is really useful for tracking the history of a segment – who’s been KOM in the past, when did so and so take it, how many people have ridden it, what’s the average time taken etc.
RaceShape.com
RaceShape is essentially about analysing the differences between two people riding a segment. Say you lost your KOM to someone – you can use this tool to analyse where they were quicker, and so help you to develop your strategy. It works by analysing how the gap changes between two riders, and works with segment data from Strava or Ride with GPS.
SNAP – Strava Needs A Polish (also from Raceshape.com)
SNAP could be a fantastic little tool for users of phones with poor GPS tracking (ahem, iPhone users) which result in spiky tracks where the signal has been erratic.
Tip: Ditch the phone and get a proper bike GPS instead.
It allows you to load up your track, tweak it to iron out the imperfections, and then save a polished version, to upload to Strava.
EREA (also from Raceshape.com)
This one’s a little obscure. I couldn’t think of a reason for ever wanting to use it, but since I came across it, and it fits the topic, it’s included anyway.
Paste in the URL of your ride, and EREA tells you the area inside your ride , in square miles. Hmm, ok.
StravaViewer.com (Update: evolved into VeloViewer.com)
StravaViewer.com seems to be a relative newbie – you have to email them to get your data to show up on the site.
UPDATE: The site has evolved into the very appealing www.veloviewer.com.
It gives you more numbers to play with than you might ever want. Start digging around and you’ll discover a great new way to explore the segments you’ve done, and get ideas about which ones you want to revisit.
Tip: Click the table column headings to sort on that column. E.g. clicking the Distance field sorts the data into the longest > shortest climbs, and so on.
You’ll discover segments you’ve already done, but never realised were there, prompting you to think about targeting them for a serious effort.
Did I miss anything?
Please post your favourite Strava related API tools in the comments!
Excellent Post! Thanks so much. One tiny correction: the link you gave for the KOM Notifier is the same as for the Multiple Ride Mapper. The correct link is:
http://www.jonathanokeeffe.com/strava/notifier.php
Thanks Paul, now fixed.
I’ve also added one more tool since the article was first published. StravaViewer.
Unfortunately, it seems SNAP doesn’t work with STRAVA runs…
That’s a shame. My run tracking seems much worse than my rides and I was hoping for a fix.
Thanks for adding StravaViewer to your list. As you say, I only knocked this site together a couple of weeks ago and is very much in a beta phase! Getting there though and hopefully when all the back end process is sorted I can make it a bit prettier and start doing some useful data visualisations.
The Relative Power is my favourite bit of data as it takes into account the height, length and your elapsed time to attempt to take into account wind resistance and so give you a good indication of how hard you were trying on each segment, and also compare that to the current KOM. Also ordering by the time you are behind the KOM is useful as maybe on one segment you only need to improve by 5 seconds to jump 10 places to KOM whereas others you may be in 2nd place but still 2 minutes behind.
StravaViewer is adding more and more functionally everyday, and is very useful and good program for being update on your segments regarding losing or gaining positions.
I use Strava everyday and StravaViewer everyday. Can highly recommend it.
It seems Cosmo’s Strava Exporter to GPX and Exporter to TCX is not working. (the page will not load at all) What happened? Are there any alternatives that do the same thing? I often export other people’s strava rides to GPX so I can enjoy new roads without getting lost. Thanks for your help!
It’s working just fine for me : http://cosmocatalano.com/strava/export/
The export usility is a tad naughty as the GPX it exports gives the whole route and ignores the strava users privacy settings.
On that basis I would think it better if you did not publicise it & wait for strava to create their own.
Hi Bill, Are you sure? I’ve just tested it, using the CosmoCatalano tool to export one of my own rides. I’ve opened up the GPX file in Google Earth, and it has retained the “exclusion zone” around my home postcode.
Not so much of a tool but http://www.stravatrailracing.co.uk uses the Strava API to run a regional racing series.
Loving all of this – though I hope it doesn’t become a distraction from getting out on the wheels. I hope there isn’t too much analysing and not enough pedalling – because I could get buried in all this data.
Know what you mean, sometimes the best rides are the ones where you leave the Garmin at home and just use the force!
Have a look at SUFFERvision, a tool for syncing and overlaying telemetry (GPS, power, speed, etc.) with video.
http://suffervision.appspot.com.
Works with data from Strava, Training Peaks, or Garmin Connect and video from Youtube or Vimeo (also has a dot-racing mode when there is no video). For Strava data it can display progress across a segment for one or more riders.
Al,
I have on addition to this nice list: Padvark.nl
Padvark.nl shows a simple graph based on your activity data from Strava, giving you instant insight in your performance compared to previous months / years / …
I found out about this site a few months ago but it didn’t seem to work properly at the time. I just checked it out again and it’s definitely been updated since I last looked. Thanks for letting me know about it!
Hey, the Strava Integrator, is a broken link, looks like he isn’t supporting it any more, do you know where I can find something similar?
I think he was one of many sites that Strava pulled the plug on when they changed the API last year some time. The choice of third party Strava ingenuity seems to have diminished somewhat, with a favoured few taking the spotlight. Rightly so, perhaps, when you consider the magnificence of the likes of http://www.VeloViewer.com
It does seem a shame though that where there was once a creative hotbed of third party enthusiasm, endorsed by Strava (after all, it probably helped them to grow in the early days), it now seems to have changed. They’ve gone all corporate and either shut services out or bought them in house (e.g. RaceShape) to amalgamate their functions into the Premium offering. It’s almost as if Strava used to be run by hippies, and then the businessmen took over…
I know this post is a bit old, but if you’re logging your runs in Strava and have any upcoming races, check out:
http://www.racepredictions.com
Connect with Strava and the algorithm behind the site predicts your race times based on your best efforts from your training runs.
Please check out https://perfecto.bike – We’ve integrated the Strava API into a marketplace for used bikes, so that sellers can quickly upload their Strava bikes, and buyers can see the riding history of the bike and get to know the rider and bike before they purchase.
I made a location based Game using the Strava Activities, where you can be the king of an area (couple of 100 square meters) if you have ridden most of all the Strava-Riders at this Area. So the time is not important, but how many of your rides went through an area.
On a Map you see who is the King of an Area, at which areas you are the king and how many points you are missing for being the king at an selected area.
On a LeaderBoard you then can be a King of a City/District/State/Continent/World, depending on the numbers of Areas where you are the king.
You can download it at:https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ateamsolutions.com.stravagame
I would be happy if you would try it and give me some feedback.
This page needs updating since most of these “apps” are no longer working with Strava’s API code.
VeloViewer is really super and really wort the £9,- it comes together with the Stravistix extension which you can add in chrome. I’m enthousiastic Strava user and just discovered these two add ons by the Stravistix extension
I Was used TO utilize SNAP a lot. Apparently is out of work, ad RaceShape.com
Does IT exist ah alternative tool?
I have written a small app (still in development ;-) to plot historical weather conditions for activity segments at :
http://52.49.96.139/stravaweather/
A funny app integrated with Strava is this one https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.inandio.komattacker
It tell you the gap when you are on a pre selected segment…nice to see how much a pro gain time on you each few seconds… :)
HI – I want to run a race series on Zwift and be able to see the riders data on Strava. Is there an app that allows me to see everyone that was in the race so I can post results? Thanks.
http://www.relive.cc Very cool!
http://stravaleagues.com for creating your own league/enduro/event. Create rounds by choosing a segment and the date you have to complete the segment by. Get 25 points for a win, 20 for second etc.
Thanks David, please consider submitting that site via this quick form, and it will then appear in the big list of Strava sites here