Hey folks,
At some point I noticed that SYSTM rides that are getting uploaded to Strava are showing up categorized as “Ride” as opposed to “Virtual Ride.” Maybe this started happening in June? I know I can edit them in Strava, but is it possible to get this fixed on the SYSTM end?
Thanks
They get tagged as “Indoor Rides”, but that’s not the same thing. It would be nice if they’d go back to how it used to be.
Strava seems to have removed the option to mark any ride done on a trainer as a Virtual Ride. Anyone else seeing this?
The option to tag them as an indoor ride is still there though. But all my virtual rides are tagged as such. This seems to be new behaviour on Strava’s end.
On syncing with Veloviewer, the rides done on Systm are marked as a Ride (Trainer) this is messing with the stats! 
@DavM Yes and it seems to be different for the app versus the web too. I have give up caring about it at this point.
Yes! Mine are all marked as ‘Rides’. Used to be able to go in and change it to a Virtual Ride but within last month or so that ability has vanished.
I thonk that virtual ride is going away. In it place will be indoor ride.
I’m experiencing the same issue. All Wahoo SYSTM workouts are being uploaded to Strava as Ride with the Indoor Cycling tag, but this still assigns the activity to my outdoor bike instead of my KICKR Bike. It becomes inconvenient, as I rely on Strava to track mileage separately for each bike.
Interestingly, when I record an indoor session using the Polar watch’s Indoor Cycling mode, Strava correctly categorizes it as a Virtual Ride, but Wahoo SYSTM does not. Would it be possible to revert this behaviour? I’m not aware of any advantage to labelling these activities as Ride instead of Virtual Ride.
It’s my understanding that “virtual” is an indoor activity that has fake GPS - Zwift, EXR rowing, or a route simulated in the Wahoo App.
Indoor is for, well, indoor activities that don’t simulate position. This would include everything SUF.
@richie_engineer I see what you mean, but that logic would make more sense if “Virtual” were just a tag rather than a full activity type in Strava. In practice, other platforms don’t treat it that way. For example, Polar syncs Indoor Cycling sessions to Strava as Virtual Ride even though they contain no GPS data at all.
There’s also a practical consistency issue: when I sync my Strava activities to other services either directly or through tools like FitnessSyncer or HealthSync, Polar’s sessions are correctly recognized as Indoor Cycling, while Wahoo SYSTM sessions come through as regular Cycling. That makes it difficult to keep equipment mileage accurate.
Maybe the original intention behind the categories was as you described, but the de facto standard across platforms seems to be that Virtual Ride is used for indoor cycling, with or without simulated GPS. Aligning with that would make Wahoo’s behaviour more consistent with the broader ecosystem.
From Strava’s documentation, I don’t see any requirement that a Virtual Ride must contain GPS data. What Strava specifies is that the activity has to be originally recorded as a virtual activity using a supported virtual trainer or treadmill.
The way I read it, the GPS aspect is relevant only in the opposite direction:
If a virtual‑trainer activity includes simulated GPS data, then Strava classifies it as a Virtual Ride so it doesn’t interfere with outdoor segment leader boards. But that doesn’t imply that Virtual Ride activities are required to contain GPS data in the first place.
See the FAQ:
How do I change the sport type on my activity to Virtual Ride or Run?
To classify an activity under a virtual sport type, the activity must be originally recorded as a virtual activity using a supported virtual trainer or treadmill. Performing this action will ensure that your activity file uploaded to Strava has the correct sport type information included. Athletes are not able to classify activities manually as virtual.
https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/articles/216919587-Virtual-Trainer-Activities-on-Strava