Why a Steady Board, not a leaderboard
Cycling has many faces: racing, cruising, thrills, big days out, KOMs. What I don’t see much of is a board for riding steadily.
Strava does the competitive side well. Segments, PRs, taking a KOM off someone. That’s great if you’re a competitive rider. I’m not, for sure.
So instead of a leaderboard for the fastest time over a stretch of road, I built one for how steadily you ride. Not how fast, not how far, not how fit. How smooth.
People often ask me how to get fit on the bike. You can get a coach and train properly for an event. Or you can just ride, often and steadily, and that gets you cycle fit too. There are different levels of cycle fit. I’m talking about the level that keeps you honest when you tell people you ride.
Doug, a rider from New Zealand (App creator)
Why steady matters
Steady riding is efficient riding. Every surge costs more than it gives back, and every fade is the bill for it. Ride even and the same ride takes less out of you: the climbs feel shorter, the last hour feels like the first, and you’re fresher tomorrow. That’s what makes a long day, or a long week on the bike, possible. It’s also how your body gets fit without you noticing, one even ride after another. Fast riders learn this the hard way. You can learn it from a number.
How the board works
Every ride you record in the app gets a Steady score out of 100. The app looks at your effort every 30 seconds through the ride, using power or heart rate if you have them, or working it out from your speed, the slope and your weight if you don’t. Then it asks four questions, worth 25 points each:
- 1 · 25 points
Was your effort even, or full of surges and fades?
- 2 · 25 points
Did you ride the second half like the first, or go out hard and fade?
- 3 · 25 points
Did you roll through, or stop and start a lot?
- 4 · 25 points
On the climbs, did you hold a steady effort, or sprint the bottom and die near the top?
Every answer compares the ride with itself, so a slow, steady rider scores the same as a fast, steady one. Your number for the week is the average of your rides, and the board starts fresh every Monday.
What counts
Rides recorded in the app while you ride, in the real world, at least 30 minutes of moving time. No uploaded files, no imports, no Zwift, and never a private ride. Downhills are left out, because coasting isn’t ragged riding.
Joining
Joining is a switch on your Home page. It shows your name, your weekly score and the week’s distance to other Secret Rides riders, and nothing else: no map, no route, no place. Leave any time. It’s free, and always will be.