Frequently Asked Questions

Enthusiastic about our app?

Are you excited about the myCols app we have created? Do you enjoy it before, during and after your ride? Then we have a special way for you to support us!

For the price of a tube, a glossy magazine or a sandwich, you can become a supporter of the myCols app. Your contribution will enable us to continue to improve the app, add new features and make the user experience even better. New features in the future will be available only (or first) to our supporters.

Features you will get at the moment:
✅ Prio handeling of your rides
✅ Cool badge at you profile picture
✅ See if a col is open or closed
✅ Hide your incorrect rides with their efforts
✅ Get access to our beta release of our Route Planner
✅ Thumbs up from us 👍🏻

So if you like our app and want to contribute to its growth and development, please consider becoming a supporter.

To become a supporter, open our app, go to your profile -> Settings -> Supporter

Together we can make our app even better! Thanks you for your support.

Can I suggest new "Cols"

Yes you can, we even made a special page for this 🙂 Go to the ride in the app with the climb in it (profile->rides).

Once we receive your suggestion, we will make the necessary adjustments after a thorough check. There are several reasons why we may not add them:

- They are already part of an existing climb.
- The segment starts too late or ends too early.
- The segment is inaccurate (the elevation profile is incorrect or does not follow the path correctly).
- We only receive the name of a climb without a specific segment. This makes it difficult for us to accurately identify the correct climb/route.

Because it's all done manually, it may take some time before we add the climb.

Hide rides/climbs

We get a lot of requests to delete a ride that was accidentally uploaded to Strava, Garmin or Wahoo incorrectly. This caused us to spend less and less time developing, and more and more time answering these questions. We have built in an option to do this independently. Go to your profile -> Rides and then you can hide your rides, so they are no longer included in your statistics. Free users can set the last 20 rides to ‘hidden’. Supporters can edit their entire history.

Delete account

If you want to delete your account, you can only do so through the app. Go to the myCols app, navigate to your profile, click on 'settings' (top right), then on 'privacy', and finally on 'delete account'. We have implemented a 30-day waiting period before an account is permanently deleted. We do this for several reasons:

1. We want to give users the opportunity to reconsider their decision. Within this period, they can log in again, and their account will be automatically restored.
2. We have noticed that some users in the past deleted accounts and immediately recreated them. They believed this would help them receive rides faster. However, this caused unnecessary delays in fetching rides from Strava for all users. By introducing a 30-day waiting period, we discourage this behavior, and it appears to be effective.

How long does it take to see my last cols in the app?

Patience pays off! It can take between 5 minutes and 2 hours for your recent ride to be analyzed, depending on the workload, and during busy summer months, it might take a bit longer. For your initial sign-up, it could even take up to 24 hours for everything to be processed. We receive a maximum number of rides per hour from Strava, so it may sometimes take a while before your ride is processed. Supporters are given priority, followed by active users from the past 30 days, and finally, inactive users who haven't opened the app for more than 30 days.

Why is my time not visible on a known climb.

There are a few things that could have gone wrong:

- You may not have completed the proposed route entirely, or you may have stopped too early or started too late. We focus on one route (unlike Strava, which has many routes) and we calculate whether you have completed it fully.
- If your GPS was inaccurate and made erratic jumps, it may have deviated from the climbing route too often.
- Your time may also be incorrect because you circled around after reaching the top, or later passed by the endpoint again. As a result, that last moment is considered the moment when you reached the top.

But don't worry, if your climb wasn't recorded, you can always manually ‘claim’ it in our app.

Why can I only upload 3 photos at a time?

Photos are getting bigger and bigger. An average device quickly captures photos of 5 MB each. That's fantastic, but sending them can often be problematic over a slow or unstable internet connection. We've noticed that sending a large number of photos at once can cause issues. That's why we've decided to limit it to a maximum of 3 photos per post or climb for now. So, choose your best photo and share it in our app. Also, add a nice message for other users.

Why aren't my climbs appearing on Strava?

It's one of the most popular features of our app: automatically displaying climbs in your description of a ride. If you don't see them, it could be because you haven't connected to Strava within our app, or perhaps you did so before the end of 2022. If you want to use this feature, connect with Strava from our app. You may need to first disconnect first. On your next ride with climbs that we recognize, they will be automatically added to your description of the ride.

Sometimes, it may happen that other apps overwrite our climb data in the description. Unfortunately, we have no control over that; it's up to those other apps. So, make sure to check which apps within Strava you gave permission to do that.

How do we calculate times?

We calculate the times for a climb based on GPS data. However, we are not referees, so there might be times listed that you could question. Tracking times is not our main focus (that's what Strava is for); our primary goal is discovering exciting new climbs. We aim to provide you with extra information about these climbs that is important for cyclists.

To ensure the most accurate timing, make sure to follow the route closely and avoid doing extra laps at the top.

Cheating

Cheating is your own responsibility. We're not Strava, and we don't aim to crown a King of the Mountain. Ultimately, you're only cheating yourself.

Facts of the Col

What do the numbers next to a climb mean? They indicate the highest point and the elevation gain for each mountain. Elevation gain is based on actual climbing meters, which helps calculate the average gradient. This average might be slightly higher if there's a descent in the climb. The maximum gradient is calculated over a segment, as GPS data tends to fluctuate too much, especially in altitude.

The first gray diamond on the graph shows the category, the second green-blue diamond indicates the average gradient, and the brown diamond represents the maximum gradient.

Jerseys

In cycling, jerseys are awarded for various achievements, like the famous yellow, pink, or polka-dot jerseys. In the myCols app, you can also earn virtual jerseys by climbing specific cols.

Each Jersey challenge has a start and end date. So if you think you've already climbed a col, check the dates carefully—you might have done it too early or too late.

Some sponsored Jersey challenges offer great prizes, like a yearly magazine subscription or a real jersey. So keep an eye out for them!

Help us translate