Documentation

Segments only appear when you zoom in to zoom level 10 or higher (roughly city-district scale). At lower zoom levels the map shows no segments — there would simply be too many to display usefully.

Even at zoom 10+ the map shows up to 1 000 segments at a time. In very dense areas not every segment may be visible — try zooming in further to narrow the area.

KOMpass only knows about segments that have been ridden by connected users. When a connected athlete finishes a ride, Strava notifies KOMpass and the segments from that activity are added to the database. If a segment you expect to see is missing, it may simply not have been ridden by any connected user yet.

Wind conditions are fetched automatically based on your map location and updated as you move around. Data is sourced from WeatherAPI.com and refreshed roughly every hour.

Wind forecasts let you plan ahead: free users see the next 3 hours, Pro extends the lookahead to 72 hours.

Wind readings reflect conditions at the nearest weather station, which may be kilometres away. Valleys, forests, and urban canyons can create local conditions that differ from the reported wind.

Each segment shows an effective tailwind speed — the wind component aligned with the segment's direction, in km/h (or mph, if you've switched units). Tailwind is positive, headwind is negative.

The figure is the projection of the wind vector onto the segment bearing — only the part of the wind that pushes you along (or against) the segment counts. A strong crosswind that blows exactly perpendicular to the segment reads 0.

effective_tailwind = wind_speed × cos(wind_direction − segment_bearing)

• +12 — a 12 km/h tailwind pushing you along the segment
• 0 — calm air, or a pure crosswind (wind blowing 90° to the segment)
• -7 — a 7 km/h headwind working against you

Example: a 20 km/h wind blowing at 60° to the segment direction projects to 20 × cos(60°) = +10 km/h of effective tailwind. The same 20 km/h wind blowing straight at you (180°) reads −20 km/h.

Segment colours on the map follow the same number: red for strong headwind, yellow around zero, green for strong tailwind. The colour ramp is anchored at ±25 km/h.

The power analysis page uses the same raw wind data but applies an additional terrain shielding factor to model boundary-layer effects when estimating effort.

The filter panel appears when you are zoomed in to level 10 or higher. The following filters are available:

• Distance — slider from 0 to 7 km. The upper end ("7+") means no upper cap; use it to see all long segments.
• Elevation type — buckets segments into:
  • Flat — average grade < 2% and elevation gain < 50 m
  • Hilly — grade ≥ 2% or gain ≥ 50 m
  • Climb — grade ≥ 5% or gain ≥ 200 m
• Aligned with wind — toggle that hides segments below a minimum effective tailwind. The threshold defaults to 12 km/h and can be adjusted with the sub-slider. Disabled when no wind data is available.
• Exclude circular segments — hides loop segments whose start and end points are less than 5% of the segment length apart.
• Show only starred — limits the map to your Strava-starred segments. Only available when you are logged in.

Free users no longer have a radius cap on segment loading.

Use the map style switcher (bottom-right of the map) to change the base map and overlay layers.

Base map styles:

• Streets (Standard) — default for free users
• Dark
• Light
• Satellite — aerial imagery
• Hybrid — satellite + road labels
• Winter — high-contrast topographic style

Layer toggles:

• Wind particle animation — shows animated wind direction and relative speed; free
• Tailwind colours on segments PRO — colours each segment red→yellow→green by its effective tailwind
• 3D terrain — raises the map into a 3D hillshade view

The Dashboard (/dashboard, available from the sidebar once your Strava account is connected) is the home base for tracking wind opportunities on the segments you care about.

Right now — always available:

• Athlete header with profile + current location
• Current wind reading at your location
• "Best now" — the single Watchlist segment with the most favourable wind right now
• "Now opportunities" — a short list of currently-favourable Watchlist segments
• Mini wind map preview

Next 24 hours PRO:

• "Best window" — the single best upcoming wind window across your Watchlist
• Forecast wind chart with numbered markers for the top opportunities
• Ranked list of top forecast wind windows

The forecast group is blurred behind a paywall for free users. All forecast cards are powered by your Watchlist — they stay empty until you add segments to it.

KOM Finder is a search mode that ranks segments by how achievable a KOM looks for you given your FTP, weight, and the current wind. Open it from the sidebar or the toggle on the map.

Filters:

• Search area — radius around your current location (1–15 km), or — Pro only — the current map viewport
• Length — segment distance range
• Max KOM speed — filters out segments where the KOM is moving so fast it's effectively unreachable
• Popularity — based on the segment's effort count (hidden gems, moderately known, popular)
• Surface — paved or unpaved
• Terrain — flat, hilly, or climb

The result list is ranked by feasibility; the selected segment is highlighted on the map together with the search radius.

Free tier: full ranked list, radius mode only. Pro: viewport mode also unlocked.

The Watchlist is your personal list of segments KOMpass actively monitors for you. It powers the Dashboard forecast cards and is the pool that wind alerts are checked against.

Add a segment to your Watchlist from its details panel on the map. Manage entries from the Segments page — each row has a bell icon to open per-segment alert settings PRO and a trash icon to remove.

Free and Pro: unlimited Watchlist slots. Pro additionally unlocks per-segment custom alert thresholds (the bell icon on each row).

The Segments page provides a physics-based model that estimates whether you can beat the KOM on a segment given current wind conditions.

FTP and body weight are required to run an analysis — you'll be prompted to enter them on first use. They're saved to your profile and reused on every subsequent run.

Inputs you provide:

• FTP (Functional Threshold Power) in watts
• Body weight in kg (or lb)

The model estimates:

• The power needed to match the KOM time, accounting for the segment's gradient, distance, and current wind
• How much power you can realistically sustain for that duration based on your FTP
• The resulting time gap and a feasibility percentage

Advanced settings (bike weight, drivetrain efficiency, riding position, and terrain sheltering) are available to fine-tune the estimates to your setup.

Required wind to beat the KOM

Once a segment is analysed, KOMpass works the model backwards to answer: what wind do I actually need to take this KOM? Three outcomes are possible:

• Already faster — your fitness alone beats the KOM time, no wind help required.
• Realistic — KOMpass shows the minimum effective tailwind (in km/h or mph) that would close the gap.
• Unrealistic — even a perfect tailwind isn't enough; the KOM is out of reach at your current FTP/weight.

When the result is "Realistic" and the segment is on your Watchlist, a one-click button creates a wind alert at exactly the minimum tailwind needed PRO.

Free tier: the full analysis — power curve, pacing plan, required-wind, and advanced settings — for up to 3 unique segments per calendar month. Re-opening a segment you've already analysed this month doesn't count again. Pro: unlimited segments, plus custom per-segment alert thresholds from the required-wind result.

Each segment carries two extra attributes used by the KOM Finder filters and shown in the segment details panel:

• Surface type — paved, unpaved, or unknown. Inferred from OpenStreetMap data and cached for several weeks. Unknown is shown when OSM has no clear surface tag for the road the segment runs on.
• Effort count — the number of attempts logged on Strava. Drives the KOM Finder popularity slider, letting you choose between hidden gems and well-trafficked classics.

KOMpass can alert you by email or push notification when segments on your Watchlist have favourable wind conditions, configured on the Alerts page.

Free tier: one daily check covering current conditions on your Watchlist segments. Pro PRO: up to 72 h of forecast lookahead, custom per-segment thresholds, quiet hours, skip-forecast slots, and minimum-time-between-alerts controls.

How alerts work:

• Alerts are checked regularly throughout the day against every segment on your Watchlist.
• Only segments whose forecast effective tailwind meets your threshold (default 12 km/h, range 0–60 km/h) trigger an alert.
• You can choose to be alerted for current conditions only, or look ahead up to 72 hours to get advance notice of upcoming tailwinds.
• A minimum time between alerts setting (default 6 h) prevents repeated alerts during a prolonged tailwind period.
• Quiet hours — define a time window (e.g. 22:00–07:00) during which no alerts are sent, regardless of conditions.
• Skip forecast slots — forecast hours inside this window are excluded from the check entirely, so a great predicted tailwind at 03:00 won't trigger an alert even if it falls inside your lookahead range.

Quiet hours suppress the alert itself; skip forecast slots filter out the forecast hours before scoring — they work independently and can be combined.

You won't receive duplicate alerts for the same conditions on the same segment.

The Rides tab turns your real achievements into shareable posts that grow KOMpass — and the riders you bring in earn you free Pro Pass days. When you set a PR or KOM on a segment that also had a genuine tailwind, KOMpass spots it and writes you a ready-to-post Strava caption.

What makes a ride shareable:

• It's a public Strava ride (private and followers-only rides can't attract followers, so they don't qualify).
• You set a segment achievement on it — a PR, KOM/QOM, all-time top 10, or a 2nd/3rd-best effort.
• That segment had a meaningful tailwind in your direction of travel (a headwind or wrong-way pass doesn't count — the wind story has to be true). The achievement is the reason to brag; the tailwind is the story.

Detection is automatic: shortly after your ride uploads to Strava, KOMpass checks it in the background and, if it qualifies, the ride shows up on the Rides tab with a Ready to share chip. You don't need to open the app at ride time.

Sharing and verifying:

• Tap Copy & open Strava — the caption (segment name, the signed tailwind, and your personal link) is copied and your activity opens in Strava.
• Paste it into the activity description, keep the activity public, and save.
• Back in KOMpass, tap Check now. We re-read the description and confirm your personal link is present and the ride is still public, then mark the ride Verified. A background check also runs automatically, so a confirmed share is never missed if you forget to tap. (Verifying just proves your link is live — it's the riders who join through it that earn you Pro.)

The reward — Pro Pass:

• Everyone gets a 14-day full-Pro trial the moment they first connect Strava — no sharing required.
• After that, you earn Pro when riders join through your link: +7 days for your first, +3 days for each one after.
• Days stack, but are capped at a rolling 30 days ahead — so keeping the funnel fed keeps you continuously Pro.
• You have 7 days from the ride to share it before the window closes.
• Your Pro Pass status and days left are shown on your Profile page and in the top bar.

Already on Lifetime? Sharing still works and is appreciated, but you already have full Pro, so connections won't add days on top of your Lifetime access.

Tailwind KOMpass offers a free tier and a Pro lifetime plan (one-time purchase, no recurring fee). You can also earn temporary Pro for free by sharing rides — see Rides & Pro Pass.

Payment is handled by Polar. After purchase you receive immediate Pro access — no account setup required beyond your existing Strava connection.