Following a Strava Route on your mobile phone

Often on our rides, a leader will post a Strava link or other GPS tracker route to show where they plan to go. This is very useful as it can allow those who may wish to join a ride to see the route in greater detail as it gives distances, elevations and gradients and allows a potential participant to assess whether this ride would suit them.

It also can be useful when you are on the ride to show you the way. Hopefully junctions are marked by the riders but nevertheless having the route on your phone can be extremely reassuring.  

This is a simple guide for those who wish to try following a route, whether on a CTC ride or just by yourself.

If you fix the phone to your handlebars, it works well and you don’t need a Garmin or other device.  If you don’t fix it to the handlebars, you can still follow the route, but you will need to take the phone out of your pocket at regular intervals to make sure you are still on track.  There are lots of phone mounts available online and your local bike shop will be able to help.

So why not try the first few steps next time a leader posts a Strava link?

• Download the free Strava app to your mobile from your app store and create your account with your email and password and login.
• Go to the leader’s email on your phone and open the route. Make sure you are logged in.
• The route will appear. Look for a star- probably bottom right. Click it and the star turns red. This route will now be saved in your ‘saved routes’. The icon for your saved routes is a squiggly line with a circle at either end. If you don’t see the icon, click on your profile and scroll down. You will see it there. You can click on ‘see details’ to get the distance, elevation etc.
• When you plan to ride, cycle to the point at the start of the ride. Open up Strava, go to your saved routes, and open up the route. This time click 'use route'. Click on the compass icon which is a circle with 4 points. This will show you where you are as a blue dot.
• Click on START. You will now see the route as a bold blue line for you to follow. At the end of the ride click to stop and FINISH. Strava will have tracked your movements and you will see it in the home page.

*Be aware that your phone battery will run out after a while but for short routes it should be fine.  Some folk carry a small phone charger and charge up during lunch/coffee.

Ok -that’s you started, but lots more fun to be had once you get used to it and lots of folk in our group will be happy to help!