Route plan turns a GPX file into a race pacing plan. Upload the course and WattPlan sets a power target for every climb, flat and descent from your own fitness, the physics of the road and how your power fades over a long day, then exports the plan as a GPX with a waypoint at the start of each segment, so it shows on your bike computer. Route plan is part of Premium.
Most riders pace by feel or glance at one number and hope, and neither accounts for what is coming next on the course.
Why not just pace by feel?
Pacing by feel works until it doesn't. The classic mistake is going too hard on the first climb because adrenaline masks fatigue. By the time you reach the final 30km, your legs are empty and the riders you dropped early are riding past you.
Even steady-state pacing, holding one number for the whole ride, isn't the fastest way round a hilly course. Putting out slightly more power uphill and slightly less downhill produces a faster overall time than riding at a constant effort. The question is how much more, and how much less.
What Route plan does
Route plan draws on two models, and it combines them.
Your fitness model tells it what you can sustain. Not just for 20 minutes or an hour, but for the full duration of the event, including how your power fades over multi-hour efforts.
The physics model tells it what the road demands. Gradient, air resistance, rolling resistance and your system weight determine how much power you need to hold a given speed on every segment.
By solving both together, Route plan produces a ride plan with a target for every section that your modelled fitness can sustain for the whole event. The targets come from a physics model, not AI.
What goes into the numbers
On the fitness side, Route plan uses your FTP, your Critical Power, your W' (the finite reserve of work you can do above Critical Power) and the fade rate behind your Durability Score, which estimates how your power fades over long efforts. On the physics side, it uses your system weight of rider, bike, kit and bottles, your aerodynamic drag area (CdA), the gradient read from the GPX elevation profile, and the rolling resistance of the surface you choose, from smooth tarmac to loose gravel. Give it the date you are riding and it adds wind, from the forecast when the day is close enough and from the prevailing wind for that place and month when it is not. For a circuit, set the number of laps. The physics of why these inputs shape pacing the way they do is covered in how to pace a hilly race.
How the ride plan works, segment by segment
Route plan divides your route into climbs, flats and descents based on gradient changes. For each segment, it calculates the following.
- Target power for that section, within what your modelled fitness can sustain
- Expected speed based on the physics model
- W' expenditure for segments that go above Critical Power
- W' recovery on descents and easier sections
- Your whole-ride budget, set by how your power fades over the length of the event
The result is a power profile that looks nothing like "hold 250 watts for 4 hours." Instead, you might see 270W on a 5% climb, 230W on the false flat that follows, 190W descending, and 250W on the rolling section into the finish. Each number is calibrated to your body and the road.
Following the plan on your bike computer
A plan is only useful if you can follow it on the road. Route plan exports your ride as a GPX route with a waypoint at the start of each segment, naming the power target on every climb and flat. Load it onto a bike computer that follows GPX routes and the targets appear along the way. With the Cheat Sheet button you can also download a race card that sums up your targets by terrain and your feed times.
Instead of guessing whether to push harder on a climb or save energy for later, you have a number to follow on every climb and flat.
Nutrition and hydration markers
Fuelling is the fourth discipline of endurance sport. Route plan adds a feed marker roughly every 45 minutes of predicted riding time, at the end of a segment, with a reminder of about 60g of carbohydrate and 500ml of fluid. The markers follow the clock rather than the terrain.
Treat the markers as a schedule, and eat on the next easy stretch after each one. For detailed fuelling strategies, see our race day nutrition guide.
Where will your W' run low?
A useful part of Route plan is its W' warnings. Where the plan predicts your W' will run low, it says so. A segment note tells you to avoid surges when predicted W' drops below 40%, and the GPX gets an ease-off waypoint where it falls below 30%.
Knowing where your reserve runs low is actionable information. It tells you whether you can afford to go hard or whether you need to dial it back to preserve matches for later. If the plan shows a steep climb followed by another steep climb 5km later, you'll see how much of your reserve the first one leaves for the second.
This is the W' balance model applied to a real course, with your real physiology, before you even leave the house.
Off-road considerations
Route plan treats an off-road surface as extra rolling resistance. Off-road conditions such as gravel, mud and technical terrain introduce variables that physics models cannot fully predict. Surface changes, tyre slip, technical sections requiring speed modulation, and variable traction all add uncertainty.
For off-road events, use Route plan power targets as guidelines rather than absolutes. The elevation-based segment structure and feed markers remain valuable, but expect to deviate from power targets on loose or technical surfaces.
How do you build a GPX pacing plan?
- Upload a GPX file of your target route
- Check the weight and FTP it takes from your profile
- Adjust your bike setup (loaded bike weight, CdA, surface)
- Download the pacing GPX and load it onto your bike computer
- Race with confidence
Route plan brings your own fitness and the physics of the course together into one ride plan, so you can build your fitness profile and plan your pacing for race day.
Sources
- A model for optimizing cycling performance by varying power on hills and in wind, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise