How many times have you wished for a tool to help you plan an epic group ride or share a favorite run with friends from out of town? We’ve all dreamed of this tool for a long time. Today, we’re very excited to announce Routes on Strava.

Not Your Average Route Builder

When we set out to create our own routing tool, we knew we needed to do it differently than everyone else. Our tool needed to be smarter and be built specifically for runners and cyclists.

The heart of the new Routes feature is the Route Builder. The power behind this tool is the use of real athlete data, which helps recommend the best roads and trails around the world that runners and cyclists use most often. It does this by tallying the “votes” cast by runners and cyclists each time they hit the roads and trails. Nearly 30 billion GPS points were used to now enable people to ride and run like the locals do, wherever they are.

With Route Builder, you can create running or cycling routes that fit your preferences, like routes that use Strava popularity, or a route that minimizes elevation.

Route Builder Available First to Premium Members

Premium members, we’re excited to preview this exciting new feature to you. Be the first to create routes, try the route creation preference tools, and share your routes with friends and followers. With your usage and data, we can make Routes even more robust and intelligent. In the coming weeks, access to Route Builder will be available to all users, but we’re enabling it first for our Premium members.

Share, Export or Print Out Your Route

Access the Route Builder by clicking the “My Routes” tab which will appear on your Dashboard. On the My Routes page, you’ll have access to all the routes you’ve both created and starred.

Once you’ve created a route, share it with your friends on Facebook, via email, or with your followers on Strava. You can also export a route to compatible GPS devices so you can navigate a new route you’ve created. If you don’t have a GPS device, we’ve also provided handy printer-friendly cue sheets that you can print out and share. They fold up neatly to be stowed away in a jersey pocket or jacket.

Strava Routes is in BETA

There’s so much more we’d like to do with Routes on Strava. For example, we’ll soon be adding a Strava popularity heat map so you can visualize where Strava athletes run and ride.

Over time, we’ll be improving our maps in order to make routing better and better. Sometimes you’ll find that the Route Builder’s maps are missing trail or road data and you won’t be able to create the route you want. This will continue to improve, but we want to hear from you when you’re having trouble. We’ve built an error reporting tool into the Route Builder so you can share information with us when things don’t go as expected.

This is just the beginning for Strava Routes. We’re eager to hear what you think and, as always, we’re listening to you feedback.

Enjoy!

-Sarah