I made a free local browser tool to race Strava Live Segments against your own or others' specific past efforts (e.g. Mud vs. Dry, Tailwind vs. Headwind)
Hi all,
I ride the same local trails and segments quite often and like racing against myself using Strava Live Segments. It adds a bit of competition to solo rides after a hard day behind a desk.
What frustrated me is that the targets available are fairly limited:
- KOM (impossible...)
- My PR (often set in perfect conditions or during a group ride, so not realistic on a normal day)
- Occasionally "Last" or "Recent Best," although those don't always seem to be available.
- Racing against a previous activity isn't a great alternative either, since a segment only covers a fraction of the total ride.
What I actually want is to race against a specific previous effort on that segment. For example:
- my best muddy and dry MTB rides
- my best tailwind and headwind ride for road
- my best solo and group rides
- or simply a ride from a particular date that I know is a realistic benchmark
Note: this currently only works for Garmin Edge devices, since it generates a Garmin segment FIT file. If you ride with a different head unit this won't apply to you, sorry.
Privacy & security: everything runs locally in your browser. There's no Strava login required, no account creation, and your FIT files or ride data are never uploaded to a server.
After digging into the technical details of FIT files, I made a Python script for my own Edge 530 that replaces the default segment targets with my own previous efforts. On my Edge I can now store historical segment efforts and give them labels like "Mud," "Dry," or a ride date instead of only PR/KOM, and I can pick which one to race before or during the segment.
It worked reliably on my 530, and a few cycling friends liked it too, so I thought there might be more riders who'd find it useful. The Python script wasn't very user friendly, so I made it into a simple free tool where all the processing is done locally in the browser — no need to upload FIT files.
The tool has two main options:
- Create a new segment from an activity FIT file. You can add other activities in which you rode the same segment and choose which historical efforts you want to include as targets.
- Modify an existing segment FIT file already on your Garmin. You can add targets from other activities in which you rode the same segment. One caveat with this option: if that segment is a Strava Live Segment and your Edge syncs with Strava, the sync can overwrite your custom file again — so you may need to re-copy it to your device afterward. This doesn't apply if you create a new segment from scratch.
I tested it on my 530 and my friends' 830 and 1040. I believe it should work on all models after the 520/820 generation, but curious if the latest generations might have compatibility issues.
I hope you have fun with it. If you try it, feedback, suggestions and bug reports are welcome, especially if something behaves differently on another Edge model.
You can find it at segmentpace.com