I don’t have the legs, or desire to plan for strategic segments strikes because I don’t have the legs, necessary to take most KOMs. But, that doesn’t mean holding a KOM, at least for a short while, isn’t in the cards. The trick? Make your own segment, post-ride, for a section of road you remember CRUSHING IT (no one has to know you had a tailwind ;)). Congrats on your crown, you earned it.

Of course it might be temporary, especially on a busy section of street, but there are a few tactics that can be applied to help you hold on to the honors:

1. Include a stop light, but only if you got the green. Stop lights are great, especially at the beginning of a segment because it adds complexity and probability to past “attempts”. Using this term very loosely because before you created that segment, there was no reason for anyone to really push for it. Stop lights are also great at the end of a segment; just put the end point on the other side of the intersection. Again, only if you got the green.
2. Include the turn you took at the end. There’s no rule that a segment needs to stop at an intersection (see above 👿). Keeping the turn you took in the segment should reduce the number of “competitors”. Turns also force the sane to shrug off some speed…
3. Getting lost can be a benefit. There’s definitely value in holding a segment with a massive number of attempts, but when the options are limited, maybe being 1 of 1, or… 1 of 10… isn’t such a bad thing. A KOM is a KOM, right? Besides, Strava has decided to embrace mediocrity, why can’t we?

I’m sure there are lots of other tricks to optimal segment, um…, design? Feel free to add yours in the comments… muhahaha