Download an activity as .gpx

From Garmin Connect

1. Open connect.garmin.com in a browser and sign in.
2. In the menu on the left, choose “Activities”, then “All Activities”.
3. Click the name of the activity you want to download.
4. Click the gear icon, at the top right of the page.
5. Choose “Export to GPX”. The .gpx file lands in your downloads.

In the same menu, “Export Original” gives you the file from the watch or bike computer: usually a .fit, sometimes inside a .zip archive. Sillage reads it as it is.

From Strava

1. Open strava.com in a browser and sign in.
2. Open the page of one of your activities.
3. Click the “More” button, the one with three dots.
4. Choose “Export GPX”. The .gpx file lands in your downloads.

In the same menu, “Export Original” gives you the file as it reached Strava, usually a .fit. Sillage reads it as it is.

GPX or original file?

A .gpx is enough to replay a race: it carries the GPS track, the time of each point, the elevation and, if they were recorded, heart rate and cadence.

The original file keeps everything the device measured, power in particular, as well as the segments a Garmin watch or bike computer timed during the activity. If you have the choice, take it.

On a phone, open the website in the browser rather than in the app. If the export menu does not appear, ask for the “desktop version” of the site in the browser menu.

Your whole history at once

Garmin and Strava will also hand over all your activities in a single archive, on request: you receive a link by email, and you drop the archive into Sillage as it is.

What next

Go back to the page you came from, your upload link or the import page of your account, and drop the file there.

Sillage accepts .gpx, .fit and .tcx files, on their own or in a .zip archive, however large: the browser opens it and sends the files in small batches, showing the progress. Only activities with a timestamped GPS track are kept: an indoor session without GPS cannot be replayed on a map.

To stop downloading anything by hand, a rider can also link their intervals.icu account, which receives their activities from Garmin and passes them on to Sillage every hour. Activities that came from Strava do not travel this way.

With a Garmin watch or bike computer, they can also link Garmin Connect from their profile: each ride they sync then arrives by itself, without waiting for the hour.