You have a free Saturday, three hours of daylight, and a vague idea that you want to ride south. Thirty minutes later you're still staring at a map, second-guessing every turn. Sound familiar?
Here's the thing nobody tells you about great rides: the quality of the experience is almost always decided before you clip in. The best riders I know — the ones who always seem to find the quiet lanes, the perfect loops, the roads where the surface is mint and the traffic is nonexistent — they're not lucky. They're just better at planning routes.
And the good news is that the tools for doing this well have never been better. Between Komoot, Ride with GPS, Strava's route builder, and Garmin Connect, you can build a ride in ten minutes that would have taken an hour of squinting at an Ordnance Survey map a decade ago. But most riders either don't know these tools exist, or they're using about 10% of what they actually do.
Let me break this down.
Why Route Planning Actually Matters
This might seem obvious, but I want to be really clear about it: a poorly planned route doesn't just waste time. It changes the entire ride.
I've done routes where I hit an A-road with no shoulder at rush hour, 40 kilometres in, tired, with lorries passing at arm's length. That's not a training ride. That's a survival exercise. I've done routes where I didn't check the elevation profile and put 800 metres of climbing into the final third when my legs were already cooked. Both of those situations were entirely avoidable.
A good route means you know what's coming. You know where the climbs are, where the descents are, what the surface is like, and whether the roads are cyclist-friendly. That knowledge changes how you pace, how you fuel, how much you enjoy the ride, and whether you actually want to do it again next week.
The riders who ride consistently — the ones who string together months and years of training — are usually the ones who have five or six tested routes they can pull up without thinking. Saturday morning, pick a route, clip in, ride. No faff.
The Four Apps You Should Know
Komoot
Komoot is the strongest option for mixed-surface riding and gravel. Its standout feature is the surface-type layer — it shows you exactly what each section of road or path is made of. Tarmac, gravel, cobblestones, singletrack, sand. That matters enormously if you're on a road bike and don't fancy discovering a gravel section 50 kilometres from home.
The routing engine is intelligent about surface types, too. Tell it you're on a road bike and it will avoid unpaved paths. Tell it you're on a gravel bike and it actively seeks them out. This sounds basic, but it saves real headaches. The number of times I've built a route on Google Maps only to discover a 2-kilometre section of farm track in the middle is more than I'd like to admit.
Komoot's free tier gives you one map region. If you ride in multiple areas, the one-time world unlock at around $30 is solid value. Komoot Premium runs about $60 per year and adds offline maps, multi-day planning, and sport-specific routing refinements. For most riders doing weekend rides from home, the one-time purchase is plenty.
Ride with GPS
Ride with GPS is the workhorse for road cyclists. Its route builder is clean, precise, and gives you excellent cue sheets — the kind of turn-by-turn directions that actually make sense when you're reading them off a head unit at 30kph.
Where Ride with GPS really stands out is the level of control. You can snap routes to roads, drag waypoints to refine the exact lane you want, and see cumulative elevation as you build. That last feature is crucial for anyone training for an event. If your target sportive has 2,000 metres of climbing, you can build training routes that match that profile exactly.
The free tier is functional. The paid tier (around $50 per year for the basic plan, $80 per year for premium) adds offline maps, better re-routing when you go off course, and integration with more head units. If you're a road cyclist who plans routes regularly, the basic paid plan is worth it. If you ride a handful of routes repeatedly, free is fine.
Strava Route Builder
Strava's route builder has one killer feature that the others can't match: the Global Heatmap. When you're building a route, you can overlay the heatmap data showing where cyclists actually ride. Roads that glow bright orange are heavily used by cyclists. Roads with no heat data are either hidden gems or places no one wants to be.
Here's where it gets really interesting. In an unfamiliar area — a holiday destination, a new city, anywhere you've never ridden — the heatmap basically gives you a local's knowledge in seconds. The popular roads are popular for a reason. They tend to be quieter, better surfaced, and more scenic. Not always, but often enough that it's an excellent starting point.
Strava's routing engine uses this heatmap data to suggest routes, too. Tell it you want a 90-kilometre ride with moderate climbing, and it'll build something based on where other cyclists actually go. The suggestions aren't always perfect — sometimes it'll route you through a busy junction because that's where the heat data concentrates — but as a first draft, it's brilliant.
The route builder requires a Strava subscription (around $80 per year). If you're already paying for Strava for the segment and training features, the route builder is a strong bonus. If you're only interested in route planning, the subscription is hard to justify on that feature alone.
Garmin Connect
Garmin Connect is the route builder that Garmin head unit owners get for free, and most people dramatically underuse it. It's not the most sophisticated planning tool, but it has two things going for it: direct sync to your Garmin device, and the Trendline Popularity Routing feature, which — like Strava's heatmap — uses aggregated rider data to suggest cyclist-friendly roads.
If you own a Garmin, Garmin Connect should be your finishing point even if you plan elsewhere. Build the route in Komoot or Ride with GPS, export it, push it to Garmin Connect, and let it sync to your device. That workflow is more reliable than trying to sync directly from third-party apps, especially if Bluetooth is being temperamental.
Garmin Connect's course builder itself is adequate for simple routes. For anything with specific distance or elevation targets, you're better off in Ride with GPS or Komoot and then importing to Garmin.
How to Read an Elevation Profile
Let me be really clear about this: learning to read an elevation profile is the single most useful route-planning skill you can develop. A screenshot of the elevation graph tells you more about what the ride will feel like than the distance, the average gradient, or the total climbing number alone.
What to Look For
Distribution of climbing. A route with 1,500 metres of climbing spread evenly across 120 kilometres is a rolling ride. The same 1,500 metres packed into 40 kilometres of the route is a mountain stage. Same total climbing number, completely different ride.
Gradient spikes. Most elevation profiles show gradient as colour changes — green for gentle, yellow for moderate, red for steep. A short section of 15% gradient in the middle of a long climb changes the character of the entire effort. You need to know that's there, because that's where you'll want to have eaten something 20 minutes earlier.
Where the climbing sits. Climbing in the first half of a ride, when you're fresh, is a different proposition from climbing in the last 30 kilometres. If you're preparing for an event, look at where the organisers put the climbs and build your training routes to match.
False flats. These are the gradients between 1% and 3% that feel flat but drain your legs over distance. They don't show up dramatically on an elevation profile, but 20 kilometres of false flat into a headwind is harder than most people expect. Look at the overall direction of the profile — is it gradually gaining elevation even when it looks flat?
The Numbers That Matter
Total elevation gain tells you the volume of climbing. Maximum gradient tells you the steepest moment. But the number that most riders miss is the average gradient of individual climbs. A 5-kilometre climb at 4% average is a gear-change and a steady effort. A 5-kilometre climb at 8% average is a different kind of session entirely.
Surface Quality: Knowing What You're Riding On
Surface matters more than most road cyclists think about. A route that looks perfect on a map can be ruined by one section of broken tarmac, loose gravel, or a farm road that turns to mud in the rain.
Komoot's surface-type layer is the best tool for this. It classifies road surfaces and shows you, section by section, what you'll be riding on. For road cyclists on 25mm or 28mm tyres, any section marked as gravel or worse is a problem. For gravel riders, the surface indicators help you decide between 40mm and 50mm tyres before you leave the house.
Ride with GPS shows road classification — whether a section is a motorway, A-road, B-road, or minor lane — but doesn't have the same granular surface data that Komoot offers.
In the absence of app data, satellite view in Google Maps is remarkably useful. Zoom in on a section of road and you can usually see whether it's paved, loose, or something in between. It takes longer than using Komoot, but if you're not sure about a specific section, it's a solid backup.
Using Heatmaps to Find Good Roads
The heatmap is one of those tools that, once you start using it, you can't believe you ever planned routes without it.
Strava's Global Heatmap shows aggregated ride data from millions of cyclists. Roads where lots of people ride glow bright. Roads where nobody rides are dark. The interpretation is straightforward: bright roads are usually good roads for cycling. Quiet, well-surfaced, scenic. Dark roads are either undiscovered gems or roads that cyclists have collectively decided to avoid.
How to Use It
Turn on the heatmap layer while building a route. Look for bright corridors between your start and destination. Route along those corridors. Simple as that.
A few nuances. The heatmap data is denser near cities, so rural roads may look dark even if they're excellent. In built-up areas, the heat concentrates on main commuter routes that might be busy and unpleasant for a weekend ride. And in tourist cycling destinations — Mallorca, Girona, the Alps — the heat data is incredibly reliable because thousands of visiting cyclists have collectively mapped every good road.
Garmin's Trendline Popularity Routing does the same thing but is integrated directly into the Garmin Connect route builder. If you're building routes there anyway, turn it on.
The Quiet Road Rule
Here's my general rule: if a road runs parallel to a main route and shows moderate heat on the heatmap, it's almost certainly a better ride. Main roads attract traffic because they're direct. Parallel lanes attract cyclists because they're quiet, and you still end up roughly the same place. The heatmap helps you find those parallel options quickly.
Avoiding Busy Roads
Beyond heatmaps, there are a few practical steps for keeping away from traffic.
Check the road classification. A-roads and dual carriageways are almost never worth riding on unless there's truly no alternative. B-roads are variable — some are quiet, some are essentially A-roads with a different number. Minor roads, unclassified roads, and lanes are where you want to be.
Think about timing. A road that's lethal at 8am on a Tuesday might be perfectly fine at 7am on a Sunday. School-run traffic, commuter traffic, and delivery traffic all follow predictable patterns. Route planning isn't just about where — it's about when.
Use local knowledge. This is where community matters. Local cycling clubs, group chats, forums, and the Strava heatmap are all forms of collective local knowledge. The riders who've been riding an area for 20 years know which roads to avoid. Tap into that. The Roadman Cycling community on Skool is full of riders sharing exactly this kind of local intelligence — routes they've tested, roads they've discovered, lanes they avoid.
Check for roadworks and closures. In the UK, one.network shows planned road closures. A 30-second check before you ride can save you from finding out the hard way that the B-road you planned to take is shut for resurfacing. In other countries, local authority websites usually have similar information.
Syncing Routes to Your Head Unit
This should be simple. It often isn't.
The Night-Before Rule
Always sync your route the night before. Not the morning of. Not in the car park. The night before.
Bluetooth syncing between phones and head units is unreliable at the best of times. Cold mornings make it worse. Low battery on either device makes it worse. Rushing makes it worse. If you're standing in a car park at 7am trying to get your Garmin to talk to your phone while six other riders are already clipped in and waiting, your ride is starting badly.
Sync the night before. Confirm it's on the device. Close the app. Done.
The Workflow
From Komoot to Garmin: Komoot syncs directly to Garmin Connect if you link the accounts in Komoot's settings. Build the route, save it, and it appears in Garmin Connect's courses within a few minutes. From there, sync to your device over Wi-Fi (more reliable than Bluetooth for course transfers).
From Ride with GPS to Garmin: Link your accounts, or export the route as a GPX file and import it to Garmin Connect manually. The direct link is cleaner.
From Komoot or Ride with GPS to Wahoo: Both apps sync directly with the Wahoo ELEMNT companion app. Routes appear on your BOLT or ROAM automatically once synced.
From Strava to Garmin or Wahoo: Strava routes sync to Garmin Connect if the accounts are linked. For Wahoo, you'll typically export as GPX and import.
The backup plan: Always have the route on your phone as well. If your head unit dies, if the course file corrupts, if something goes wrong, having the route accessible on your phone means the ride isn't ruined. Komoot's app navigation is good enough to follow from a bar-mounted phone in an emergency.
Building a Route Library
This is where the real time savings come from. Once you've found and tested a good route, save it properly. Name it clearly. Tag it with the distance and climbing.
The System That Works
Have go-to routes at three or four distance brackets. For most riders, that's 60 kilometres, 90 kilometres, and 120 kilometres. At each distance, have at least two or three options: a flat option, a hilly option, and something in between. That gives you nine to twelve routes that cover almost any training need on any given weekend.
Name them so you can find them instantly. "Home South 90km Rolling 800m" tells you everything: start point, general direction, distance, terrain, total climbing. You can pick the right route for the day in seconds.
Testing Routes
A route isn't a go-to route until you've ridden it. The first time on any planned route is a test ride. You're checking for surface quality, traffic levels, awkward junctions, and overall enjoyment. Make notes. Was the surface rough on that one section? Was there a busy roundabout at the 40-kilometre mark? Did the climb at 70 kilometres feel harder than the profile suggested?
After the test ride, adjust the route if needed. Re-route around the rough section. Find an alternative to the busy roundabout. Then save the updated version. That tested, refined route is gold. It's a ride you know works, and you never have to think about it again.
Planning Routes for Group Rides
Group ride route planning has a few extra requirements on top of solo planning.
Share the File, Not Just the Link
A Strava route link is fine, but a GPX file sent to the group chat the night before is better. Not everyone uses the same app. Not everyone has a Strava subscription. A GPX file opens in everything — Garmin Connect, Wahoo, Komoot, Ride with GPS, even Google Earth if someone's desperate. Send the file. Everyone loads it. Nobody asks "which way?" at the junction.
Know the Group's Range
The weakest climber in the group determines the climbing. The slowest rider determines the pace. The rider with the least time determines the distance. Plan the route for the group, not for yourself. A route that's perfect for you but puts two riders into survival mode for the last 30 kilometres is a bad group route.
Mark the Regrouping Points
On longer group rides, mark two or three regrouping points on the route. A cafe, a junction, a known landmark. When the group inevitably splits on a climb, everyone knows where to regroup without any phone calls or confused WhatsApp messages mid-ride.
Café Stop Strategy
Build the café stop into the route at the right point — ideally between 40% and 60% of the total distance, and after a significant climb rather than before one. A coffee stop before a big climb is a cold start. A coffee stop after a big climb is a reward, and the sugar in the cake actually serves a fuelling purpose for the second half.
Free vs. Paid: What's Actually Worth It
Let me break this down by app.
Komoot free gives you one region map. Enough if you only ride in one area. The one-time world unlock at around $30 is the best value upgrade in any route-planning app. Komoot Premium at around $60 per year adds offline maps, multi-day planning tools, and sport-specific routing refinements. Worth it if you travel to ride or do bikepacking. Not necessary for most weekend warriors.
Ride with GPS free lets you plan basic routes. Ride with GPS Basic at around $50 per year adds offline maps and better cue sheets. Ride with GPS Premium at around $80 per year adds re-routing, better navigation, and extra planning features. The basic tier is the sweet spot for most road cyclists.
Strava requires a subscription (around $80 per year) for the route builder and heatmap features. If you're already a Strava subscriber, the route builder is a bonus. If you'd only subscribe for route planning, it's expensive for that single feature.
Garmin Connect is free for Garmin device owners. No tiers, no upgrades. The route builder and Trendline Popularity Routing are included. For Garmin users, it's free value that most people leave on the table.
For most riders, the practical recommendation is: plan in Komoot or Ride with GPS (free or low-cost paid tier), use Strava's heatmap if you have a subscription, and sync everything through Garmin Connect or the Wahoo app. You don't need to pay for everything. Pick the tool that matches how you ride and get good at it.
Putting It All Together
Here's the workflow I'd recommend. Takes about ten minutes.
- Start with the heatmap. Open Strava or Garmin Connect with heatmap data showing. Identify the cyclist-friendly corridors in your target area.
- Build the route. Switch to Komoot or Ride with GPS. Lay down waypoints along the heatmap corridors. Adjust distance and climbing to your target.
- Read the elevation profile. Check where the climbs sit, how steep they are, and whether the distribution makes sense for the effort you want.
- Check the surface. In Komoot, verify there are no gravel sections if you're on a road bike. On satellite view, check any roads you're unsure about.
- Save and sync. Give the route a clear name. Sync it to your head unit the night before.
- Share it. If it's a group ride, export the GPX and send it to the group.
That's it. Ten minutes of planning for three hours of riding that you know will be good. No wrong turns, no surprise A-roads, no unpleasant gravel sections, no guessing where the café is.
The riders who consistently enjoy their riding are usually the ones who treat route planning as part of the sport, not an annoying chore before the sport starts. Build the library. Test the routes. Know what's coming before you clip in.
And if you want to swap tested routes with other riders, share local road knowledge, or get recommendations for riding in areas you've never been — that's exactly what the Roadman community on Skool is for. Drop in, share a route, find a new one. That's how good route libraries get built — collectively.