For the uninitiated, KOM stands for "King of the Mountain," a Strava designation for the fastest recorded time on a given segment. And look, pedaling up a 41% grade on a bicycle is genuinely nuts. As one SF resident put it, "41% is insane. I've done short segments of over 25% and it was incredibly hard." We believe it. Most people would struggle to walk up Bradford without stopping to question their life choices.

But here's where it gets a little less impressive: the segment in question is roughly 14 seconds long. That's it. You've spent more time reading this paragraph than this guy spent earning a record.

And that brevity matters more than you'd think. Strava itself has acknowledged that ultra-short segments are inherently unreliable. GPS rounding alone can introduce a margin of error of plus or minus two seconds. On a 14-second effort, that's a potential 14% variance — enough to make the leaderboard more of a GPS lottery than a true athletic competition. As one local cycling enthusiast noted, "There are much more coveted, highly competitive segments sprinkled throughout the Bay."

None of this takes away from the raw physical feat. Grinding up a 41% grade requires serious power, serious lungs, and a borderline reckless disregard for your knees. But calling it a meaningful KOM is a bit like sprinting across your living room and calling yourself a track star.

San Francisco's hills are legendary for a reason, and Bradford Street is a beast among beasts. If you want to be impressed, go try to walk up it. If you want to be really impressed, look at the cyclists tackling Hawk Hill or Mt. Tam segments where GPS actually works and the competition is fierce.

Still — respect to the Brit. Fourteen seconds of pure suffering is fourteen seconds more than most of us would volunteer for.