Strava has replaced a pen and notepad as a cyclist’s training diary and it places a stack of user-friendly data at a rider’s fingertips.

Strava tracks weekly, monthly and annual mileage, the number of hours you spend in the saddle, and how many rides you record. It provides an online diary of your rides that you won’t lose in a mountain of paperwork – it’s always at hand and provides a fool-proof record of your cycling. If you want to embark of some secret training while still using Strava then you can set a ride as private.

The ‘training log’ feature provides all that data in an impressive visual format. You can also name each ride to record additional details. What type of ride was it? How did you feel on that day? What was the weather like?

For number-crunching riders who crave additional data, premium membership ($6 a month or $59 a year) gives you powerful training tools to further analyse your rides. If you use a power meter  or heart rate monitor then you can dissect your data to see exactly how long you spent in each zone.

Premium membership also allows you to set a weekly targets based on mileage or hours in the saddle. Need that extra bit of motivation to get out for a couple of hours on a drizzly Sunday morning? There you have it. You can find all the benefits of going premium here.