Getting started with bike route planning
Every time you head out, whether it is one of your usual loops or something new in the Pyrenees, there is planning to do. Food, wind, all of it. Sometimes, me first, we get too clever and assume we know it all. We should not. I have it as a routine by now. Riding without checking the wind, for example, is what separates a ride you enjoy from one you just endure. I am writing this for the cyclist who wants to plan a route well, whether it is 40 kilometres on Saturday or 200 in a sportive, and really understand how the wind shapes what happens out on the road.
Planning a route well goes beyond the wind. There is the start time, the direction if it is a loop, the clothing, the food and drink in your pockets, who you ride with, whether rain or heat is coming. But of all those, the wind is the one you learn least from experience and the one that can wreck your day if you skip it. So this pillar starts there.
See the wind at every kilometre of your next ride, before you leave.
Plan your route with MoguWind →This is not theory. I have been chewing on this for years, first as a cyclist who took a beating from the wind without knowing why, and then building MoguWind Plan, the free tool thousands of cyclists now use to see the wind kilometre by kilometre before they leave. Here I explain why wind weighs so much, how to read it, how to pick the time and the direction, and how to get a ride with no surprises, without drowning in data.
Bike route planning guides
Below you have the most recent guides on the blog about planning bike routes around the wind, and at the end the most read articles. All aimed at getting you to the road better prepared. You do not need to be a meteorologist or an engineer, if something gets taken for granted I explain it first.
Why wind weighs more than climbing on many rides
Most people think the key variable of a route is total climbing. It is, in the mountains, yes, but away from long climbs the wind does more damage than the hills. A steady 20 km/h headwind on the flat matches the effort of a constant 3 to 4% climb. Sounds odd, but it has been measured.
The practical difference is that you see the climb coming on the elevation profile and you would load it into Strava or Komoot. The wind you would not. And yet the wind is what decides whether you hold a 28 km/h average or sit stuck at 22. So good planning starts by knowing what wind you will get, not just where the route goes. It took me a while to get that.
Headwind, tailwind and crosswind in cycling
Meteorology has many variables. A cyclist only cares about three, and all three come from the wind component relative to your direction of travel.
Headwind. The one blowing against your progress. It burns energy because you have to break through it with your body. Aerodynamic drag grows with the square of relative speed, so a 15 km/h headwind against your 25 km/h pace makes you pedal as if you were going 40 km/h in still air. It is brutal and it does not forgive.
Tailwind. The one blowing the same way you ride. It lowers relative speed and therefore drag. With a well aligned tailwind you can roll at 35 km/h for the same effort as 25 in still air. It is the gift of the day when it shows up.
Crosswind. The one blowing across your travel. It does not slow you like a headwind but it unsettles you, above all on deep wheels and on descents. And in a group it forces echelons to shelter.
Most routes do not have a single kind of wind the whole way. Over 4 hours the direction changes, and what you feel changes on top of that because you are turning along the roads. That is why the analysis by time of passage matters so much, and why the usual weather sites are no use here.
How to know the wind at every kilometre of your route
Any weather app tells you the forecast wind at 11 across the whole area. The problem for a cyclist is that you are not across the whole area at 11. You are at kilometre 40 at half past 11, at kilometre 60 at 12 and at kilometre 90 at one in the afternoon. And at each of those points the wind can be different.
This is what MoguWind Plan does, without trying to shove the product in front, but this is exactly it. It takes your route, your start time and your average speed, and works out the forecast wind on each segment at the moment you pass through. Analysing a 4 hour route is more than 100 different values, each with its own time window. I do not know another free tool in Spanish that does this. If you know one, tell me.
See the wind at every kilometre of your next ride, before you leave.
Plan your route with MoguWind →The best time to ride based on the wind
A classic mistake is always leaving at the same time out of habit. I used to. In many parts of Spain the wind builds through the day, so early on you get less wind but also less light and more cold. In other areas the sea breeze shifts the direction mid morning. In Catalonia the tramuntana can kick off in the afternoon and you end up with a different day than the one you started.
The right way to pick the time is to simulate your route at several start times and see which gives the best wind profile. I do it with the "best time to leave" heatmap in Plan, which shows the next 24 hours at a glance and filters out the hours with no light. But you can do it in any tool that lets you compare. The point is to decide with data, not out of habit.
How to choose the direction of a loop ride
If your route is a loop, you can ride it one way or the other. The gap between them can be 5 km/h of average aero feel and 20 minutes of total time. Worth a pause before you head out.
The intuitive rule is to finish with a tailwind. Leave into the wind at the start, when you have the legs, and come home pushed along once you are tired. It does not always work that way because the wind changes during the ride. A direction comparator shows you the real difference between the two options with the forecast for your time, and that is where it often surprises me that the obvious way is not the best.
Rain, gusts and temperature in route planning
Wind is king but it does not ride alone. A 4 hour ride with a 60% chance of rain needs different planning, different clothing and sometimes a different start time. Gusts above 50 km/h are a safety matter, not a comfort one, especially on descents. Temperature decides what you wear and what you take to eat and drink.
In the Plan analysis all of this shows up together, so you save opening three separate apps. The recommendation at the top of the card sums up whether the day is good, acceptable or better moved. I always check it before deciding. Sometimes it tells you the obvious, other times it saves a ride.
How to plan a bike route step by step
This is the process I follow for a ride of 80 kilometres or more. Change it if you have a better one, but as a base it works.
First, define the route as a GPX. You can build it in Strava, RideWithGPS, Komoot or Bikemap, or download a public one. I keep my classics saved in Strava and import them with one click. You can also go to Plan and build the route straight on the map, it centres on your area and you drop the points.
Second, upload the GPX or paste the link. Within seconds you see the route coloured by forecast wind (green for tailwind, yellow for crosswind, red for headwind) and the summary metrics. I look at the wall of colour before the numbers.
Third, look at the best time heatmap. Try three or four start times and keep the one with the best profile. Sometimes the best time is 7 in the morning, sometimes 4 in the afternoon, there is no fixed rule.
Fourth, check the direction. If the route is a loop, see whether it is worth riding in reverse.
Fifth, look at the rain alerts and the gusts. If water shows up between kilometre 50 and 70 at the time you would be there, adjust.
Sixth, share the link with the group. Every route generates a public URL you can send over WhatsApp so everyone sees the same analysis. It saves a lot of last minute debate.
Run your GPX through the planner and see the wind before you leave. Free, no account.
Plan your route with MoguWind →How to plan a sportive around the wind
For big events like the Quebrantahuesos, the Cyclotour du Léman or any fixed date ride, planning changes. You do not choose the date, only the start time (if it goes off in waves), what to carry and how to spread the effort.
The further out the date, the less reliable the point forecast. That is why we publish specific guides for the best known events where we explain what wind tends to blow on those dates (historical climatology) and what to expect from the typical patterns of the area.
The community, where this is heading
The "Inspírate" section in Plan is where other cyclists share their routes anonymously. You can discover new routes in your area and see the typical wind there. Sporting altruism, sharing the route so it helps someone else, without anyone knowing who uploaded it. The first and last 2 kilometres of every shared route are hidden automatically for privacy.