How to open a GPX file in Ride with GPS

Activity or Route — pick first

Same GPX file, two different destinations on RWGPS, two different results.

• Activity (recorded ride). Appears in your RWGPS activity feed, contributes to fitness stats, syncs to Strava if connected. The GPX should have realistic timestamps; without them, the activity shows zero moving time.
• Route (planned ride). Doesn't appear in activity feeds. Generates a cue sheet, supports head-unit push to Garmin and Wahoo, works offline on the RWGPS mobile app (paid tiers). Doesn't need timestamps — a route is a planned line, not a record.

The most common mismatch: someone uploads a planned-route GPX (no timestamps) as an Activity and ends up with an empty entry on their feed. If you want to follow the route, take the Route path.

Steps

1. Open viewmygpx and drop the GPX onto the viewer. Visit viewmygpx.com, drag the .gpx in. Verify the route looks right.
2. Click Open in: Ride with GPS. RWGPS's upload page opens in a new tab.
3. Sign in to RWGPS. Free account is enough for the upload itself.
4. Choose Activity or Route. The upload page presents both options.
5. Drop the file or click Choose File. RWGPS processes the upload. For Routes, this includes generating a cue sheet by matching the polyline to RWGPS's road database.
6. Add a title and description. The route page opens. The cue sheet, elevation profile, and surface classification render automatically.
7. (Optional) Send to a head unit. Click Send to Device → Garmin or Send to Device → Wahoo. The route syncs on the next device sync; find it in the device's Courses or Routes menu.

Cue sheets — RWGPS's signature feature

A cue sheet is a written turn-by-turn list — "Right on Hwy 1 at mile 12.4", "Continue straight at unnamed intersection", "Steep descent next 1.2 mi". RWGPS generates these automatically from the route polyline by snapping it to the underlying road network and detecting turn angles at intersections.

Cue sheets are useful for several things:

• Printable handlebar instructions. Click Print Cuesheet from the route page; RWGPS produces a print-ready page with distances, directions, and notes. Common in randonneuring, brevet-style rides, and group rides where some riders prefer paper.
• Verbal callouts on group rides. The lead rider reads the next cue from a phone or printout, calls it out at intersections.
• Edit-the-cues workflow. Click any cue on the route page to edit the text — useful for adding gas stops, regroup points, or warnings ("rough chip-seal", "loose dogs") that the auto-generation can't know about.
• Head-unit cue display. The TCX file pushed to Garmin / Wahoo includes the cue text, which the head unit displays as you approach each turn — useful supplement to map following.

For routes that follow well-mapped roads, cue accuracy is high. For gravel routes on minor roads or trails not in the road database, cues become sparser or get inserted at wrong places — edit them after import to clean up.

Sending routes to Garmin and Wahoo

RWGPS has direct integrations with both major head-unit ecosystems. The connections are configured in your RWGPS account settings under Account → Connections:

• Garmin Connect connection. Authorize once, then RWGPS can push routes to your Garmin Connect account as Courses. The Course pushes to your Edge / fenix on the next Garmin Connect sync. The cue sheet appears on the head unit as turn alerts.
• Wahoo connection. Authorize once, then RWGPS can push routes directly to the Wahoo cloud. They appear on your ELEMNT / Bolt / Roam within seconds of pushing — Wahoo's sync is faster than Garmin's.
• Hammerhead Karoo. Karoo's sync settings include RWGPS as a route source; routes appear on the device once authorized.

If you don't have a head unit, the RWGPS mobile app shows the route on a phone. The free tier requires a cell connection during the ride; paid tiers add offline maps and voice navigation.

Common pitfalls

Cue sheet has wrong turns

RWGPS snapped your polyline to a road that wasn't the one you intended. Open the route in the RWGPS editor and drag the anchor points back onto the correct path. The cue sheet regenerates automatically. For routes with many ambiguous intersections, manually editing the cue text is faster than re-snapping.

Elevation gain looks wrong

RWGPS recomputes elevation from its DEM by default. To use the file's own elevation values, toggle Use my elevations on the route edit page. Useful when the GPX came from a barometric altimeter you trust more than the DEM.

Send to Device fails or doesn't appear on the head unit

For Garmin, ensure the Garmin Connect connection is authorized and that the device has synced since the push. For Wahoo, ensure the ELEMNT companion app has been opened recently and the device has cell or Wi-Fi connectivity. Both ecosystems sync silently in the background; sometimes a restart of the head unit forces a fresh sync.

Cue sheet missing for off-trail sections

RWGPS can only generate cues where its road database has the roads. Off-trail or unmarked sections don't produce cues; the head unit shows "follow GPS" instead. Add manual cues at decision points if the route has critical unmapped junctions.

Alternatives

• Strava for activity logging and segments. Strava's segment leaderboards are unique; for fitness tracking and social feeds, Strava is the more common choice.
• Komoot for voice navigation on the phone. Komoot's turn-by-turn voice cues outperform RWGPS for hands-free navigation; RWGPS's strength is the cue sheet, not voice.
• Garmin Connect for Garmin-native users. If you ride a Garmin and don't need cue sheets, Garmin Connect is the simpler path; RWGPS adds the cue layer on top.