Add A Little Motivation With Strava | Sports & Recreation

The roads around the Inland Northwest have always been filled with bike riders, but now there's something that's making many of those riders go just a little faster.

The lonely rider climbing Hatch Road from Highway 195 to 57th Avenue on Spokane's South hill appears to be just that, a lonely rider going up a large hill.

But what you don't see is that he's in a race and trying to become the King Of The Mountain, or KOM. All alone, he's racing against other people who've ridden the hill using the Strava app.

The innovative app allows riders and runners to use their smartphones to track their rides and create segments using GPS coordinates.

The information is then uploaded to the Strava website that gives users a look a mileage, elevation gain, power output and many more options.

What motivates many riders is the feature that allows you to compare your times on a certain course to other riders.

Knowing that riding just a little harder might get you into the top 10 on popular course adds a lot of excitement to an otherwise boring ride.

Strava calls it "social fitness."

Try it out and you may soon find yourself racing against and encouraging other riders, that you've never even met.