Strava 'Local Legends' update changes how segments work

New feature looks to reward people for how often they run a segment, rather than how quickly

Two joggers run along Albert Park Lake on an Autumn day with high-rise and apartment buildings in the city in the background on June 16, 2017 in Melbourne, Australia (Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

Strava has made a major change to how its famous "segments" work, seeking to reward effort.

Traditional segments – which give achievements for quickly completing certain stretches of road – will still exist in the app, and are unchanged.

But they will appear alongside the new feature, which aims to reward people for how often they do a certain segment, not how fast.

Runners and cyclists will no longer have to be the fastest person to be at the top of the leaderboard, but to do the most efforts on that particular segment.

The changes come as Strava makes major alterations to its platform in an attempt to encourage users to join its paid tier, as part of a plan to make more money from subscriptions. Users can now only see very limited information about segments unless they pay for the premium membership, for instance.

Strava has become incredibly popular – and sometimes controversial – as the world deals with lockdown, as a way to keep up with friends' activities and race against other people over segments, while not being able to physically meet up to exercise.

The local legends feature aims to make those competitions less reliant on speed, and rather reward people who most consistently

The new efforts feature works on a rolling 90-day calendar, meaning that segments will be probably be regularly rotated.

When somebody does win the "local legend" leaderboard, they will be given a small laurel crown, rather than the medal that athletes get for being the fastest on a given segment.

Users will also see an alert if they happen to become the local legend for any given segment.

The feature will gradually roll out across the world, and will go live in the UK on 15 July, Strava said.

The local legends are accessed by heading to an activity and looking at the results for any given segments. Users can see how they compare against the community, as well as a chart of how often people tend to run or ride that segment.

It can also be found by going to the explore tab on the app, and searching for segments. Users can then look at the segments in any particular area, and find out who currently holds the laurel crown, as well as how many efforts would be required to win it back.