Know the feeling? It could be on a blistering hot sunny day in the fields, a snowy epic over the hills, or on a dawn blast around deserted city streets. It’s that perfect road, that perfect moment, and the knowledge that it is the very best place to be. It’s a feeling we’re all searching for as cyclists.
But what if you’re new to riding? Or exploring a new area? Or stuck in a lockdown-loop of riding the same old local roads day after day? That feeling isn’t always so easy to come by.
Route-planning app komoot provides a guiding hand to help uncover those hidden treasures when you’re looking for that spark of inspiration. It's ‘Tour recommendations’ function is now available to users in the UK, bringing together local knowledge, providing inspiration and making it easy to go out and experience those moments yourself. A few clicks and you’re away.
Locals know best
We all love poring over maps to plan a route from scratch, but sometimes we don’t have the time or the local knowledge to do so. Tour recommendations is a free feature on komoot that streamlines and expands your route-planning with pre-ridden routes that can start right from your doorstep.
With Tour recommendations you can filter by sport type (road, touring, mountain-biking, even hiking and running) and filter by duration and difficulty. Choose your starting location and komoot’s digital brain taps into the collective expertise of the local community of thousands of riders to suggest hidden gems you might never have otherwise known existed.
Say you’re visiting friends and family in a new part of the country, you’ve got a couple hours to explore, and you don’t want to be exhausted by the time you come back. Tour recommendations will use your mobile device’s location to offer routes starting right where you are; simply use the filters to select an easy, two-hour ride and off you go.
Perhaps you’re planning a new bike-packing tour. You can use komoot to explore the UK’s long-distance cycling routes and be inspired by following the antics of riders like round-the-world Scottish cyclist Mark Beaumont and ultra-endurance legend Lael Wilcox.
Or maybe you’re new to cycling and you’re looking for the best local treasures to get out exploring. Use the map function to search around particular locations and explore Tours filled with details from elevation profile and surface types to photos and points of interest like the best café stops.
It’s no surprise that riders know where to find the best sweeping curves, the quietest traffic-free lanes, the most breath-taking views, and of course the best places to stop for a coffee and a cake. Using ride data and images, the Tour recommendations algorithm automatically ranks routes to put the most popular and suitable Tours right at the very top.
You can even type in a postcode or a place – including train stations if you’re taking public transport – and Tour recommendations puts the best routes at your fingertips. Choose a Tour, download it to your device and off you go exploring. Just like any other komoot tour, you can re-route on the fly.
An indispensable tool to open up your local area, inspire your next adventure, and get the most out of your cycling, Tour recommendations will help you uncover those moments of perfection that we’re always searching for.
Five ways to find route inspiration with komoot
Head to ‘Discover’ feed
If you’re planning an epic trip, looking for news ideas, or simply heading out for a little spin, komoot’s ‘Discover’ feed is the digital base camp for your next adventure. Find Tour recommendations, curated content and mouth-watering images at your fingertips.
Browse the ‘Collections’
To find that spark of inspiration for your next ride, have a look at komoot’s ‘Collections’ – a selection of curated adventures with all the information you need to go out and explore them for yourself. It features great routes and trips on or off-road, both in your local area or across the UK and Europe.
Follow other adventurers
Scroll through the Discover feed to see interesting routes in your region and a list of ‘People you might like’ to follow. These are often komoot ambassadors, Experts and Pioneers (though we’re sure they’d be good company in the pub too) who share lots of photos, tips, insights and Highlights (see below).
Search for Highlights
Maybe it’s a tip-off for the best gravel road, a hidden gem of a café or a heads up about a challenging climb or tricky descent; these community recommendations are called Highlights. Go prospecting on the map for unique or new Highlights (which appear as red dots) and see komoot suggested Tours that include a particular spot.
Customise your route
Adapt and customise an existing Tour on the web or on the komoot app. Move the starting point around the Tour to match where you’ll be setting off. Maybe you don’t have time for a coffee or it will be too dark to see the views; edit the route to fit your particular requirements before you head off.
If you're new to komoot use our Cycling Weekly voucher code to get an offline region map bundle for free. Head to komoot.com and enter the code WEEKLY.
Valid until 31/12/2021.
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Alex Ballinger is editor of BikeBiz magazine, the leading publication for the UK cycle industry, and is the former digital news editor for CyclingWeekly.com. After gaining experience in local newsrooms, national newspapers and in digital journalism, Alex found his calling in cycling, first as a reporter, then as news editor responsible for Cycling Weekly's online news output, and now as the editor of BikeBiz. Since pro cycling first captured his heart during the 2010 Tour de France (specifically the Contador-Schleck battle) Alex covered three Tours de France, multiple editions of the Tour of Britain, and the World Championships, while both writing and video presenting for Cycling Weekly. He also specialises in fitness writing, often throwing himself into the deep end to help readers improve their own power numbers. Away from the desk, Alex can be found racing time trials, riding BMX and mountain bikes, or exploring off-road on his gravel bike. He’s also an avid gamer, and can usually be found buried in an eclectic selection of books.
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