Cycling GPS units, also called cyclocomputers, from manufacturers like Garmin, CatEye, Lezyzne, Sigma Sport, Wahoo Fitness, Polar, Magellan and others have become ubiquitous. Almost every road cyclist I see has a GPS unit on their handlebar, or on their wrist.
Those that do not often rely instead on a GPS app from the likes of Strava, Cyclemeter, Ride With GPS, Map My Ride, or Endomondo, running on a mobile phone.
Not many of us use our cyclocomputers or mobile phones to navigate whilst riding, although units with mapping capability are invaluable when you get lost. Instead we use these devices to keep a record of where we have been, when, and how fast we rode.
As soon as we can after a ride, we download the ride data from our cyclocomputers to a website like Strava, Garmin Connect, or Ride With GPS. Those using mobile phone apps or a wireless capable cyclocomputer just wait for their devices to do the uploads automatically.
Strava is very popular ride tracking site. Cyclists log into to Strava to look at ride statistics. What was our average speed? How much climbing did we do? Did we set any PRs? Did we bag any KOMs? Shown together with the ride statistics is a map overlaid with the route we just rode.
Screen Capture courtesy of Strava
An exciting newcomer to the ride visualization scene is Relive.cc.
Rather than just displaying a static map of your ride, Relive.cc takes the ride data from your Strava account and creates a movie of your ride. This is the Relive movie of my ride last weekend.
Much more interesting to look at than the Strava map above.
If I had attached geotagged photographs to my Strava ride record, those photographs will have displayed at the appropriate spots in the movie.
Now that I have linked my Strava account to Relive.cc, I get movies of my rides within an hour of uploading my ride data.
You’ll be seeing more of those movies in my ride reports from now on. For “reliving” your rides, this app is
Graphic courtesy of designyoutrust.com
Old Roots, New Routes 