Strava adds ‘Local Legends’ awards that recognize repetition

The new Local Legends system ranks riders based on how many times they ride a given segment, with the top woman and the top man getting the Local Legend laurel.

Ride a segment more than anyone else in a 90-day window, and Strava will bequeath unto thee a laurel, the icon for its new ‘Local Legends’ competition.

The social fitness app has long collated and ranked riders based on time over a marked segment of road or trail, awarding KOM/QOM trophies for the fastest rider. The new Local Legends system instead ranks riders based on how many times they ride a given segment, with the top woman and the top man getting the Local Legend laurel.



Strava recently moved to a subscription model for many of its features, including the timed segment leaderboards. While all users will be able to see their count of efforts and that of the Local Legends, only subscribers will be able to see the full leaderboard.

Local Legends rolls out today in seven states (CA, CO, FL, IL, NJ, NY, and TX), before opening to all of the U.S., plus the U.K, France, Spain, Germany, Brazil, and Japan in July. Strava said the phased roll-out was designed so its team could iterate on and improve the experience.

Where you can find it, and how it works

For now, Local Legends can only be seen on the Strava mobile app in seven states. The full website functionality is expected to be added by mid-July.

Just like KOM/QOM and other time-based icons and notifications, the Local Legends will pop up in a Strava user’s activity feed, in the ride details page, and on the segments section.

Unlike the KOM/QOM rankings which are based on all-time best efforts, Local Legends has a rolling 90-day window. Rides older than 90 days are dropped from the count.

There are leaderboards for the overall Local Legend, and the women’s Local Legend.

Private activities don’t count towards or show up on Local Legends.

Another difference from the time-based competitions is that Local Legends’ leaderboards only show the single name at the top, and then just a numeric ranking of where the user slots in compared to others.

If you’re a Strava user, you can now click on ‘My Segments’ at the bottom of your profile to see Course Records, KOM/QOMs, and Local Legends. You can also view Local Legends segments from the Explore tab.