Here’s the best bike apps to max your ride and fitness

Here's our pick of the apps that offer everything you need, from route mapping and calorie-counting to keeping track of distance, speed and pace.

Icon of Strava app (Courtesy: Strava)

Plan your cycling expeditions while keeping track of your exercise goals with our pick of the apps that offer everything you need, from route mapping and calorie-counting to keeping track of distance, speed and pace.

MapMyRide Free iOS, Android and Blackberry

With more than 120 million bike routes around the world, MapMyRide is ideal if you like to cycle during your travels. It allows you to share your routes, track nutrition and train like a competitive biker. In fact, it turns your smartphone into a cycling computer, offering features such as GPS route mapping; distance, pace and elevation profile; calorie counting; route navigation; and nutrition, food, diet and weight tracking. All this, plus real-time stats during your workouts.

It also syncs with heart rate, speed, cadence and power sensors from various makers.

The app tracks in the background, which means you don’t have to have the interface on screen, leaving you free to access your device’s music player or any other app.

CycloMeter Free iOS and Apple Watch

Frequently touted as the best cycling app for the iPhone, CycloMeter tracks your workout using your phone’s on-board sensors, and provides detailed feedback about your performance.

It tracks each ride and compares it with previous workouts, providing speed, distance, elevation data and so on. You can use it for running, too.

It’s simple to use, will not drown you in information, and provides integration with Strava, MyFitnessPal, and of course, Facebook and Twitter.

It is light on the battery and includes built-in alerts so that you don’t have to take your eyes off the road to know how you’re doing. Safety first.

BikeBrain Free iOS

This one is a favourite of habitual cyclists looking for an all-encompassing app. From GPS mapping and in-app picture uploads to heart rate monitoring and training-mode features, BikeBrain does it all.

It automatically archives the details of all your rides, is consistent and seems to think of everything before you do. It also optimises battery life, so pulling up your archived routes won’t deplete your battery.

Bikemap.net Free iOS, Android and Windows phone

With 900,000 biking routes around the world and the option of searching for a route near to home – or places you plan to visit – this app is perfect for anyone eager to share their cycling accomplishments on Facebook. It updates – in real time – to show your location and share it with your friends.

Strava Free iOS and Android

We’ve said this before: Strava is one of the best apps for tracking rides. It uses your device’s GPS and allows you to access key stats, including average speed and distance, pace, elevation and calories burnt.

Strava also adds a bit of a competitive edge, allowing you to see how fast you can climb the “leaderboards” and how you rate against your friends, or even pros. You can join a monthly challenge, and take things online by sharing your activities on Facebook and Twitter. An added bonus: it lets you keep a log of all your rides.