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Route Planner

The Route Planner is PeakLine's tool for sketching, previewing, and exporting routes — with weather forecast overlaid on the route, snap-to-roads routing, and proper elevation profiles. Built for cyclists who want more than Strava's basic route builder.

What it does

  • Snap to roads — click on the map to drop waypoints; PeakLine routes between them along actual roads using OpenStreetMap data.
  • Elevation profile — a smoothed altitude chart updates in real time as you edit.
  • On-route weather forecast — set a planned start time and see temperature, wind, and rain probability projected along the route.
  • Multiple map layers — street, satellite, topographic, and weather radar overlays.
  • GPX export — download the route as a GPX file, ready for Garmin / Wahoo / Hammerhead / any computer.
  • Save and share — Email and Strava users can save routes and share them via short URL.

How to draw a route

  1. Open Route Planner.
  2. The map opens at your last viewed area (or home location).
  3. Click anywhere on the map to drop your start point.
  4. Click again to add waypoints. After each click, PeakLine snaps the line to the road network.
  5. Use the undo button (or Ctrl/Cmd+Z) to remove the last waypoint.
  6. To close the loop, click near your start point. The Planner will detect proximity and offer to close the loop with a "Loop" button.

Routing modes

Pick a routing profile from the top toolbar:

  • Road bike — paved roads, avoid unpaved.
  • Gravel / MTB — includes gravel, unpaved, and singletrack.
  • Walking / hiking — footpaths and trails.
  • Straight line — no snapping; useful for off-road sketches.

The profile only affects how segments between waypoints are routed; it doesn't lock you out of any roads.

Reading the elevation chart

Below the map, the elevation chart shows altitude vs. distance for the current route. Hover anywhere on the chart to see:

  • The exact distance from the start.
  • The altitude at that point.
  • The local gradient (over the next 100 m).
  • A pointer highlighting the matching location on the map.

Colored bands on the chart highlight categorized climbs (Cat 4 → HC), so you can see at a glance how many hard climbs your route includes.

On-route weather forecast

Click the Weather tab in the right sidebar:

  1. Set your planned start date and time.
  2. Set your average speed (or accept the auto-suggested estimate based on terrain).
  3. PeakLine simulates your progress and pulls Open-Meteo forecast for each ~10 km bucket.

What you'll see:

  • Temperature curve — how the temperature changes over the duration.
  • Wind arrows along the route, showing direction and speed at the moment you reach each point.
  • Rain probability per bucket.
  • A summary like "Light tailwind for the first 40 km, crosswind from km 40, headwind on the final climb."

This is the killer feature for long rides. On a 200 km day, the wind at km 150 may be very different from the wind at the start — and that changes how you'd pace it.

Match the wind

On a loop with one long flat section, plan the start time so the wind is at your back on the flat. Use the planner's hourly forecast to find a good window.

Saving and sharing

If you're signed in (Email or Strava tier), the Save button stores the route to your account. Saved routes show up in My routes, with:

  • Name and description (editable).
  • Distance, elevation gain, terrain badge.
  • Date last edited.
  • Public/private flag.

A public route gets a shareable URL like peakline.com/route/abc123. The receiver doesn't need a PeakLine account to view or export the GPX.

Exporting the GPX

Click Download GPX at any time. The file:

  • Contains every waypoint and every snapped intermediate point.
  • Includes elevation in each <trkpt> tag.
  • Is named after your route (or auto-generated like peakline-route-2026-06-30.gpx if untitled).
  • Imports cleanly into Garmin Connect, Wahoo ELEMNT companion app, Komoot, Ride With GPS, and every other major navigation tool.

Use cases

  • Weekend ride planning. Sketch the loop you want, check the wind, pick the best start time.
  • Event recon. Build the published course in the Planner before the event and preview the climbs.
  • Avoiding traffic. Route through quieter roads by adding intermediate waypoints in residential areas.
  • Bikepacking. Sketch a multi-day route in segments; export each day separately.

Limitations

  • OSM data quality varies. In some regions (rural North America, parts of Asia), the OSM road network has gaps. The Planner will draw a straight line across the gap.
  • Forecast horizon. Open-Meteo gives reliable forecasts up to 7 days out. Beyond that, the data is provided but should be treated as a rough guess.
  • No turn-by-turn cues. The exported GPX doesn't include voice prompts — your head unit generates those from the geometry.

See also