Route planning apps show elevation profiles — the graph that runs along the bottom of your route map. Learning to read them properly will change how you plan rides and how you pace yourself on the day.
What the Graph Shows
The horizontal axis is distance. The vertical axis is elevation (height above sea level). The line shows how your altitude changes as you ride. A spike upward is a climb; a downward slope is a descent. Flat sections appear as horizontal lines.
Total Elevation Gain vs Peak Elevation
These two numbers mean very different things:
- Total elevation gain (also called “climbing” or “ascent”) is the sum of all the uphill meters across the whole route. This is the number that tells you how hard the ride will be. 500m of climbing is a moderate day; 2,000m is serious.
- Peak elevation is the highest point you reach. It affects temperature and air thinness at altitude, but isn’t a good indicator of how hard the ride is overall.
Gradient Percentage
The steepness of a climb is measured as a percentage. A 5% gradient means you rise 5 meters for every 100 meters of forward travel. What the percentages feel like in practice:
- 0–4% — barely noticeable, casual effort
- 5–8% — steady effort, most fit cyclists can hold a conversation
- 9–12% — challenging, breathing gets heavy
- 13–18% — steep, most riders slow significantly
- 18%+ — very steep, some riders may need to walk
Watch for Cliff-Like Profiles
Sometimes an elevation profile looks like a gentle hill, but that’s because the vertical and horizontal scales are different. A climb that covers 20 km looks much gentler on the graph than a 2 km climb to the same height. Always check the actual gradient percentage or the total gain — don’t just look at the shape of the line.
Planning Your Effort
Knowing where the climbs fall in a route helps you pace your energy. If the hardest climb is at kilometer 60 of an 80 km ride, you need reserves. If the big climb is early, you might be fresher for it but tired for the rest.
Apps like Komoot, Strava, and RideWithGPS all display elevation profiles clearly. Komoot also gives a difficulty rating based on the profile, which is useful for gauging routes you haven’t ridden before.
Practical Tip
Before a new route, mentally note the two or three biggest climbs, their approximate length and gradient, and where they fall in the day. This simple step prevents the unpleasant surprise of a steep climb when you thought the ride was almost done.