Free tool
Cycling pacing calculator
Power and time for every climb on any route, for your FTP and weight. Free, no sign-up, and your route never leaves your browser.
In short
Upload your route as a GPX file, or pick an event, and enter your FTP and weight. WattPlan's route model rides it for you the way a long ride is best ridden: harder on the climbs, where a watt buys the most speed, and easier on the flat, at an effort you can hold to the finish. You get your riding time, the power and time on every climb and when to eat. On the Fred Whitton Challenge course, a rider with an FTP of 230 watts weighing 75 kg rides it in about 8 h 38 min, and takes 24:20 on Hardknott Pass at about 174 watts.
1. Your route
or an event
2. You
| Climb | Top (km) | Length | Average | Steepest | Your power | Your time |
|---|
Train for it
WattPlan builds a plan to the day around the days you can ride. In the app, Premium paces this route from your own fade over long rides, adds the wind on the day and puts the targets on your bike computer.
How the pacing works
Every ride has a budget: the effort you can hold for its whole length. For an hour it is about your FTP; for a three-hour ride, about 85% of it; for a nine-hour day in the hills, about two thirds. WattPlan's model holds your ride to that budget, counting hard efforts more heavily than easy ones, the way your body does.
Then it spends the budget where it buys the most time. Uphill at walking pace almost all your power goes into lifting you and your bike, so every extra watt is extra speed. On the flat at 30 km/h most of it goes into pushing air, so a watt buys far less. The model rides the climbs harder and the flat easier, up to about 1.3 times the flat power on a steep climb, and never harder on a climb than you could hold for its length. Steep descents are for freewheeling.
The same model runs the app's Route analysis and the course on every event training plan page.
What you need
A GPX file of the route, exported from Strava, Komoot, Ride with GPS or Garmin Connect, or downloaded from your event's website. It needs heights: if it has none, export it again with elevation switched on. Then your FTP, the power you can hold for about an hour, and your weight. If you don't know your FTP, the free FTP calculator works it out from a 20-minute or ramp test, and the FTP guide explains what it means.
What the app adds
The calculator paces you with the fade a typical rider has over a long day. WattPlan's Premium Route analysis paces you from your own: it reads how your power holds up over your long rides. It adds the wind forecast for the day, handles laps, writes a pacing file with your targets for your bike computer, and asks the Coach for a race plan. And WattPlan builds your training to the day, around the days you can ride.
Questions riders ask
How long will my bike ride take?
It depends on your power, your weight and the climbing. Upload the route as a GPX file and enter your FTP and weight, and the calculator rides it on WattPlan's route model, the same physics the app uses, to give your riding time without stops. Add your stops on top.
What power should I ride on the climbs?
Harder than on the flat, but not at threshold all day. Uphill, almost all your power goes into lifting you, so a watt buys the most speed there; on the flat most of it goes into the air. The calculator spends the effort you can hold for the whole ride where it saves the most time, which on a long hilly day puts the climbs at about three quarters of FTP and the flat lower. On a shorter ride both are higher.
How do I get a GPX file of my route?
Export it from wherever you planned or found it: Strava, Komoot, Ride with GPS and Garmin Connect all let you download a route or a ride as GPX. Many sportives post their route as a GPX or a Ride with GPS link on their website.
Is my route uploaded anywhere?
No. The file is read and ridden in your browser on your own device. Nothing about the route is sent to WattPlan or anyone else.
How accurate is it?
It is an estimate from a physics model: your power, your weight, a road bike's drag and rolling resistance, and the heights in your file, which can be rough on narrow valley roads. Wind, traffic, stops and how you feel on the day all move the real time. It is a good guide to pacing and to the order of your day, not a prediction of your result.
Is it free?
Yes, with no sign-up. In the WattPlan app, Premium's Route analysis goes further: it paces you from your own fade over long rides, adds the wind forecast for the day, handles laps, writes a pacing file for your bike computer and asks the Coach for a race plan.
Event pacing and training plans
Times and power figures come from a physics model and are estimates, not predictions of your result. Your route is read in your browser and is not sent anywhere.