Product news: "What isn't on Strava never happened." Winged words like these have been as much a part of cycling for a number of years as chain grease. Every day, tens of thousands of users of the social network for cyclists upload their tours to the platform for archiving and sharing. According to the company, there are currently over 3 billion tours from all corners of the world. The platform now uses this pool of data for the new Strava route planning. This promises tailor-made training routes and exploration tours in real time.
What is the Routes tool for Summit members?
Up until now, the data treasure, which was growing every day, was only available to the company itself. Now Strava users get access themselves. The function is particularly exciting for cyclists who like to discover new routes or who don't want to ride the same training route all the time. Based on the respective starting location, the app suggests three personalized routes for Strava users. These can also be filtered by topography, distance, activity and subsurface conditions. In addition, there are details such as the elevation profile and the Strava heat map, which reflects the popularity of sections in the Strava community. An estimated driving time is also determined based on the speeds driven by the user.
This is how the tool works in practice
Similar to the big competitor Garmin with its "Round Trip" function, Strava uses the map comparison with the map system Open Street Map (OSM). In practice, creating routes works quickly and reliably, even on tours of 80-100 kilometers. By starting the route search, new routes appear with each attempt. And that even if basic parameters such as the route are not changed. The only downside: It is not possible to distinguish between road cycling and mountain biking. Even if you can roughly filter according to the nature of the subsoil, there is a lack of specific information, for example on the difficulty of trails. Every cyclist has to find that out for himself when he descends. The routes can either be followed directly via the smartphone or transferred to a suitable GPS device.
However, this feature is currently only available to Summit members. Premium access costs EUR 7,99 per month or alternatively EUR 59,99 per year. It is currently unclear whether and when the route function will also be available in the free version.