October 20, 2026 · 6 min read

How to Ride a GPX Route on a Smart Trainer — Apps and Step-by-Step Guide

You have a GPX file of a route you want to ride next summer, or the loop from your door that just isn't happening in November. A smart trainer can recreate it: the resistance rises on the climbs and eases on the flat while you ride the same road in your living room. Here is what you need, which apps accept your own GPX, and how to prepare the file so the ride makes sense.

What you need

• A trainer that sets its own resistance. Riding a route takes a smart trainer controlled by an app, usually over Bluetooth FTMS. A basic magnetic trainer or rollers never receive the gradient, so they can't recreate the profile.
• A file with elevation. A GPX is a list of points: latitude, longitude and usually elevation. Without elevation the app has nothing to compute the gradient from, and the route comes out flat.
• An app that accepts your own file. This is the biggest filter. Many popular platforms only offer their own built-in routes. Zwift, for example, doesn't let you upload your own GPX.

Where to get a GPX file

The easiest sources are route planners and the services where your rides already live:

• Komoot, RideWithGPS — download a planned route as GPX.
• Strava and Garmin Connect — export both routes and your own activities. We explain how in our guide to exporting GPX and TCX from Strava and Garmin Connect.
• Official cycle routes — EuroVelo stages, for example, have GPX tracks on eurovelo.com, and many regions publish files for their cycle routes.

Before you start, open the file in any route viewer and look at the elevation profile. If it's a flat line, the file has no elevation. Get it from another source, or build the route in a planner that adds elevation from a terrain model.

How an app turns a GPX into resistance

The app cuts the route into short sections, works out each one's gradient from the change in elevation over the distance, and sends it to the trainer in simulation (SIM) mode. The trainer sets the resistance you would feel on a road of that gradient. How fast you go is up to you: your gear and your power.

Three things matter here:

• Progress by distance, not time. A good app moves you along the route by the distance you have ridden. If you climb more slowly than whoever recorded the file, the climb takes longer, just as it would on the real road.
• Elevation smoothing. GPS elevation is often jagged. Without smoothing, a single bad point can produce 30% for a few metres and the trainer suddenly turns into a wall.
• Trainer limits. Direct-drive trainers typically simulate 15–25% gradients, wheel-on trainers less. Descents have a limit too: the trainer can drop the resistance but can't push the bike, so a descent feels like easy riding on the flat.

Which apps accept your own GPX

Step by step in WattLog.pro

1. Open WattLog.pro in Chrome or Edge on a computer, or in the app. The account is free, and you can also start as a guest.
2. Go to Routes and choose import. Drop in a GPX or TCX file (up to 8 MB).
3. Check the preview: map, elevation profile, distance and climbing. If the profile is flat, the file has no elevation.
4. Pair your trainer and, if you like, a heart rate strap or power meter pedals.
5. Ride. The gradient changes every 50 metres of distance ridden, and after the ride you get the full analysis: power, heart rate, TSS and time in zones.

You can ride the route straight after the preview or save it to come back to later.

SIM or ERG — which mode when

SIM rides like the road: the gradient changes and you choose the gear and the effort. It's the mode for learning a profile before a trip or rehearsing your pacing on a specific climb. It has one drawback: a 160 km route takes as long as it takes, and on a weekday you rarely have that time.

ERG from a route solves that. In WattLog.pro you can turn a saved route into a workout: each section gets a share of FTP set by its gradient (descents are recovery, flat roads are endurance, steep climbs are threshold), the whole thing is compressed into the time you choose and capped at the zone you set. You get a one-hour workout with the rhythm of that route. For more on choosing zones, see our guide to cycling power zones.

Common problems

• The route is flat. The file has no elevation. Get it from another source or build it in a planner with a terrain model.
• A sudden wall. An elevation error in the file. An app that smooths elevation should soften it; if not, try another version of the file.
• The trainer can't cope with the steep parts. The gradient is beyond what it can do. On routes with sections over 15% a wheel-on trainer usually gives up, and a direct-drive trainer hits its own limit.
• The route takes too long. Turn it into an ERG workout compressed into the time you have, or ride just a section.
• The FIT file won't load. Export the route as GPX. Every major service can do that.

Where to start

Start with a route you know from the real road. You'll feel straight away whether the profile matches and whether the climb hurts the way it does in summer. If you'd rather have a named goal, try our list of 15 legendary climbs for your smart trainer, and everything about riding from a file is on our page on riding a GPX route on your trainer.

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