What is Segment Explorer?
Segment Explorer is a map of Strava segments, cycling or running, that you can slice far more finely than Strava's own explorer allows. It lives on doogal.co.uk, Chris Bell's long-running site of UK maps and postcode tools, and he built it because he wasn't keen on Strava's segment explorer.
Pan the map and segments load as you go, each drawn as a line whose width reflects how many people have done it. A table underneath lists each one's distance, average grade, the KOM and QOM, athlete count, climb category, bearing and, if you share your location, how far each segment is from you.
Key Features
More filters than Strava's map
Ranges for distance, average grade, elevation difference and total elevation gain, plus climb category, compass bearing, athlete count, creation date and whether a segment has a Local Legend. The search can prefer popular segments or nearer ones.
A filter on how fast the KOM is
The speed filter works on the average speed of a segment's KOM or QOM, whichever is faster. Set a low ceiling and the segments where the top time is slow for the distance rise to the surface, which is about as close as a filter gets to a list of beatable segments. Pair it with a low athlete count for the quiet ones.
Today's wind
One button pulls the hourly wind forecast for the middle of the map, from the Open-Meteo weather service, and sets the bearing filter to the directions the wind will blow toward over the next 24 hours. What's left is the segments with the wind behind them, next to an hour-by-hour wind table.
Your own record, once you connect
Connect Strava and each segment shows your PR time and the date you set it. You can filter to segments you've tried fewer than a given number of times, and star or unstar a segment from its details. Segments where your PR is at or under the KOM time (the QOM, on a women's profile) get a gold marker.
Segment pages and files for your head unit
Every segment has a page with an elevation profile, Street View, and downloads as GPX, KML or a FIT file for Garmin devices. The FIT file can carry a goal time plus a rival's and a challenger's PR to race against. The segments in the current map view also download as a CSV.
Who It's For
- Segment hunters after a KOM, QOM or Local Legend within reach
- Riders planning around the wind, who want today's downwind segments near home
- Runners, since running segments get the same map and filters
What it doesn't do
It's a segment tool and nothing else. It asks Strava for no access to your activities, so there's no ride analysis or training history.
When it hits Strava's limit on how much it can fetch, the page warns that the data is incomplete. If you don't see many segments, move the map around; the table stops at 100 rows. It's a website only, free to use, with adverts that cover its running costs.
Do I need a Strava account to use it?
No. The map, the filters, the wind button and the segment pages load without connecting.
What does connecting Strava give it access to?
It can see your public Strava data plus your private segments, routes and events, and it can change your profile. Strava says that last one covers starring segments as well as updating your weight and FTP; the site uses it for starring. It asks for no access to your activities.
Why are some segments grey, and why don't my filters catch them?
A grey line is a segment whose full details haven't been fetched yet. The filters for athlete count, creation date, total elevation gain, KOM speed, Local Legend and your tries don't work on those, so click a grey segment to load the rest and it gets filtered like the others.
