Defines the route: geometry, elevation, surfaces, and segments that will be used for the simulation.
Source & Trim: Load from .gpx / .fit / .csv (also .fit.gz), then (optionally) Trim course to the connected race portion.
Segmentation: Split the route into analysis units.
Automatic: the Segmentation selector offers Coarse / Medium / Fine (Medium is the default).
Manual: select segments with the checkboxes to Split / Merge with previous / Merge with following / Move end. Once you've edited segments manually, the selector shows Custom.
Surface: Per-segment Smooth / Normal / Rough to inform rolling resistance. New segments start as Smooth.
Name: Give individual segments a recognisable name (max. 20 characters).
Official courses are public race courses provided by Swiss Side. They are read-only. Duplicate one to add an editable copy to your collection, or create an optimization for it directly.
Custom courses are the ones you upload. How many you can keep depends on your plan.
To plan for a specific race day, link a course to an event.
Use collection courses as bases you plan to reuse.
Inside an optimization, you can safely tweak (trim, segmentation, surfaces) without cluttering your collection: “Changes made here are specific to this optimization and won't affect courses in your collection.”
If a tweak should be reusable, promote it back as a new course with Save as course (in the … menu of the course card in the Event & course step).
Once an optimization has results, its segmentation is locked. To change it, Duplicate the optimization.
Grouping is defined inside pacing optimizations to collapse many segments into a few groups (e.g., Climb, Flat with headwind).
Groups don’t modify the course; they tell the optimizer how many power targets to use. See Grouping segments — Concept Overview.
Name courses clearly: Event – Year – Discipline (e.g., “IM 70.3 Switzerland 2025 – Bike”).
Start with Medium segmentation; refine only where terrain/wind meaningfully changes.
Keep surfaces honest — Crr assumptions depend on them.
Switching back to Coarse / Medium / Fine after manual edits replaces your segments. You can return to your edits by choosing Custom in the same selector — but only until you save or leave the page. It also removes the segments' group assignments.
Over-segmenting early, then fighting a noisy pacing table later.