When either weather, work or global pandemics! rule riding outside out, training inside can will get you fitter and faster.
Most indoor cycling apps serve a similar purpose – to make indoor training more enjoyable and effective – they can be split into categories depending on what you want from the experience, including Intervals, Racing and Interactive Training.
Zwift
What Zwift has done is absolutely nail it on the social interaction and stylised graphic elements of a video game. With group rides and races going on almost constantly, jump in with a group for an easy spin or an all-out slugfest. The racing aspect of Zwift has also taken off, with categorised races to join based on your power-to-weight w/kg ratio.
Platform: iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Apple TV
Cost: £12.99 per month
Free trial period: 7 days
Device compatibility: ANT+, Bluetooth
Primary features: Solo and social riding, virtual racing, training and structured workouts
Trainer Road
Pure training workouts that keep you right on track. The interface is clean and simple: just follow the targets for power (and sometimes cadence) for the prescribed duration.
No fluff, just fitness.
Platform: iOS, Android, Windows, macOS
Cost: £18.00 per month
Free trial period: 30-day money-back guarantee
Device compatibility: ANT+, Bluetooth
Primary features: Laser-focus on interval training plans
Sufferfest
Sufferfest started with pro-race videos, back before apps were a thing.
While the basic science is the same – intervals make you faster; do them – the execution is more playful.
In addition to the videos, The Sufferfest also offers downloadable training plans, mental training and even some guided yoga and strength training sessions too.
Platform: iOS, Windows, macOS
Cost: £14.00 per month
Free trial period: 14 days
Device compatibility: ANT+, Bluetooth
Primary features: Workouts and training plans, humour
RouvyAR
Rouvy offers a range of real life routes and augmented reality (AR) courses for you to ride on.
Unlike other apps that simulate virtual worlds and roads, Rouvy uses video recordings of real roads and combines them with elevation data.
On RouvyAR courses the app also generates animated 3D riders. There are 60 of these AR augmented reality courses and, as well as an avatar of yourself, the animated riders can either be virtual partners of your previous records, ghosts for you to race against or other real life Rouvy users.
Aside from simply riding courses, Rouvy also hosts races (for both amateurs and pro teams) has a library of 4,000 structured workouts and even the chance to win cash and other real life prizes for completing in-game challenges.
Rouvy sets itself apart by using video footage of the actual roads. If your goal is to train specifically on real life roads, perhaps for a future sportive or Gran Fondo then Rouvy offers a real advantage.
Rouvy can control the resistance of the trainer or indoor bike to match the profile of the course or the intensity of an interval session. So, for example, if you’re riding up the Stelvio, the app can make your trainer simulate the resistance you would feel if you were actually climbing it in the real world.
It’s possible to use Rouvy without a smart trainer though. If you have a classic ‘dumb’ turbo trainer or rollers, and a power meter, Rouvy can use the data from the power meter to accurately drive you forward in the game.
Alternatively, if you don’t have a power meter you can also simply use a wheel speed sensor on your bike and Rouvy will calculate virtual power.
As you may have guessed I am a big fan of Rouvy as I prefer its real road feel to the artificial more game like elements of Zwift.
Furthermore Rouvy offers an amazing variety of Challenges and on-line races including a complete virtual Ironman Series that make your time spent training extremely effective.
As a well known Performance Spin Instructor in London Rouvy offered me the opportunity to become an Ambassador for their product. To be fair Zwift and the Sufferfest also made the offer but after using all three platforms my clear choice was Rouvy.
With this in mind if any of you want to try out Rouvy, take advantage of their free trial period and I can offer you a 20% discount on your subscription purchase if you use the code PAUGAS20.
Platform: iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Apple TV
Cost: £10 per month
Free trial period: 14 days
Device compatibility: ANT+, Bluetooth
Primary features: Solo and social riding, virtual racing, training and structured workouts