How to ride your Strava routes indoors on a smart trainer
The Moveee team
Free coaching · a real route for every ride
Here's a thing more riders should know: that summer loop you love on Strava is, underneath, just a GPX file — a list of points and elevations. And anything that's a GPX file, you can ride indoors. So when the weather turns, you don't have to trade your favourite roads for a fictional island. You can ride your Strava routes indoors on a smart trainer, in 3D, with the real gradients pushing back through the pedals.
Why ride your own routes indoors?
- Motivation. An hour is far easier to face when it's a road you know and love, not a grey wall.
- Course recon. Entered an event? Ride its exact route indoors, corner by corner, weeks before the start.
- Specificity. Training for a hilly sportive? Ride the actual climbs, at the actual gradients, in your pain cave.
- Memory lane. Ride a holiday route again in January. It holds up surprisingly well.
How to do it, step by step
Export the route as GPX
On Strava, open any route (or a saved activity's route) and choose Export GPX. That file is the ride.
Open a browser app that reads it
Chrome or Edge on Mac, Windows, Linux or Android. Nothing to install.
Load the GPX and pair your trainer
The app rebuilds the route in 3D from map and elevation data, then connects your smart trainer over Bluetooth.
Ride it — with real gradients
Every climb and descent on the route drives your trainer's resistance. It's the road, not a random workout.
The bit that makes it feel real: gradient-linked resistance
Riding a route indoors is only worth it if the trainer responds to it. When the route kicks up to 8%, a smart trainer in simulation mode should get genuinely harder; over the top, it should ease and let you spin. That's what turns a GPX file from a line on a map into a ride you feel in your legs — and it's what separates riding your route from just doing a generic workout while a video plays.
Doing it for free, with nothing to install
This is precisely what Moveee Indoor is built for. Draw or import a route, and it rebuilds it in 3D from real OpenStreetMap and elevation data — the actual streets, buildings and climbs — then drives your smart trainer's resistance from the real gradient as you ride. It runs entirely in the browser, so there's nothing to install, it's free while in alpha, and the ride saves with full power data straight into your Moveee training log (and on to Strava).
Your favourite roads don't have to hibernate for the winter. Export the GPX, load it up, and ride them from the pain cave.
Keep reading
The best indoor cycling app for Mac (no download, runs in your browser)
Looking for an indoor cycling app for Mac that doesn't need a download? macOS runs a full smart-trainer session straight from a browser tab — pairing, ERG, real 3D roads and a Strava upload. Here's how, and the one thing to watch on Apple Silicon.
How to use your Wahoo KICKR without Zwift (a free browser app)
Your Wahoo KICKR doesn't need Zwift — or any subscription — to give you a proper session. Here's how to use a KICKR (or KICKR Core, Snap and Move) with a free browser app that controls resistance, holds ERG targets and saves to Strava.