Strava - Garmin route, VP, toast, ridewithgps confusion...

Max P

Mr confused here - when using the 500 for basic navigation routes with cues and/or comparisons with virtual partner (either myself or other Strava users) what is the best route mapping software to use between ridewithgps and bike route toaster?

Do I need to export previous rides from Strava in .gpx format and then import into one of the above to obtain cue sheets/points?

I tried this on ridewithgps but I cannot seem to add cues? Or maybe I am getting confused between rides and routes??

Basically....help!

deadhead1971

If you import a gpx file into RidewithGPS from Strava, it will end up as a ride (a recording of a route you actually did) because it has time data in the GPX file.

In order to add cue points etc, you need to convert the ride to a route (or course, if you use Garmin Connect!).

If you need a bit more guidance, i recently described the process in this blog post (which contains a video tutorial too). The post is about how to reverse a gpx route but includes exporting from Strava, and converting from a ride to a route.

http://www.scarletfire.co.uk/reverse-gp ... cle-route/

I don't use bike route toaster so can't comment on that part of your question.

Hope that helps a bit!

Max P

Thanks Alan, I'll check it out - btw I was watching one of your videos and reading some of your Garmin articles last night - good stuff!

[Edit]

OK, I'm starting again with ridewithgps and imported one ride from Strava (gpx) - and I have copied this to my routes.

Two more questions!

1) Where/how is the option to add cue points automatically?

2) Presuming I manage to add the cue points I guess I then need to save/export as a .tcx file?

3) But will this also still contain the time info for use with VP? In short can I have cue points and VP ride/time data in the same file?

deadhead1971

Hi Max, Thanks so much for your kind words. I put stuff up on the site as I learn about it, and it's great when people say they found it useful.

1.It's been on my to-do list for ages to produce a guide to this, and your message has provided some incentive! Watch this space (or sign up to my mailing list)

2.Yes, you would need to export as a tcx in order to retain the cue sheet data.

3.Once you've exported a course/route, yes I'm pretty sure this will no longer contain the time data of the original gpx file, so if you wanted to use VP, it would only be to track against an average speed, and not related to your original data.

Hope that helps!

Max P

Thanks Alan, I did some more searching last night and the consensus seems to be that using routes created from rides is problematic expecially regarding adding cues and it is just easier to re-do routes manually on RWGPS which will add the cues automatically - so that is what I have done with some main routes today, pretty quick in the end.

These was a useful discussion I found too:

https://ridewithgps.zendesk.com/entries ... -cuesheet-

A last question - (I'm awaiting my Garmin but have studied the not too comprehensive manual) - when you chose a route or previous ride to do and press 'do course' or whatever do you also need to press the timer start when you reach the place you want to record that day's ride from?

ie so you are competing against the VP/following a course but at the same time recording the actual new ride stats for your activity log/record etc?