Completions are credited by matching your activity against the event's official route. The checks below exist to keep results accurate and fair for everyone — a little attention to the map before you set off is usually all it takes.
Pass through the start and the end point
The route has a start point and an end point, and your activity has to go through both. There's a deliberately generous radius around each one, to allow for the width of the road and for normal GPS drift — you don't have to hit an exact spot.
But if you cut through a parallel street, or you start or stop outside that radius, then as far as the system is concerned the attempt never started — or never finished — and nothing is recorded. Check both points on the map and make sure you physically ride through them.
Keep the route continuous
To keep things fair and rule out shortcuts, the system looks for a continuous sequence along the route. If you leave the route and rejoin it further ahead, that leaves a gap in the sequence — and the system can't tell whether you stopped for coffee or skipped part of the climb. Enough gaps and the attempt isn't credited.
Detouring for a view is fine — just rejoin the route at the same point you left it. The sequence stays intact and the attempt carries on as normal.
Follow it in the right direction
Direction matters: riding the route backwards earns no credit. Follow it the way it's defined.
Ride an up-to-date GPX
Routes get updated when things change on the ground. Riding an old file means following a route the system is no longer matching against, so download a fresh GPX shortly before you head out. You'll find it on the route's official page, or via Explore → the route's view.
Riding the same route more than once
You can cover the route several times in a single activity — the system recognizes each lap and keeps your best one, so a slower warm-up lap won't cost you anything.
If it didn't count
Work through My completion didn't show up — it covers the reasons and how to request a review.
How closely you need to follow the route is configurable, so it can differ from one event to another, and organizers can re-analyze activities with their own settings.
Related: Which activities count · Event format: Classic
