Indoor Cycling Apps Compared: Which Is Best For You,

Asked ‘why do you cycle, Indoor cycling can be boring. However, sometimes the weather, the training plan or time constraints mean that thrashing away on the pedals indoors is necessary if you want to enjoy all that outdoors, freedom and adventure come the sunny months. Or maybe you’re just feeling competitive and want to be the first up the mountain on the spring training camp, the first over the finish line or the fastest on the clock. Well, you’re pedalling away indoors. But there’s now a wide selection of training apps and services to keep you entertained. The key feature of Zwift is that it allows indoor cyclists to join group rides where they can measure themselves against others in the comfort of their own homes. Join a group ride, and if you put more power through the pedals you’ll ride away from people, struggle to hold the watts steady and you could drop off the back.

You can even message other riders in the virtual world (most recommended during warm-ups/cool downs). Rides take place over a series of courses in a variety of ‘worlds’ - Watopia (which also includes the challenging Mayan Jungle), London and Richmond. Zwift even makes indoor racing possible. Races are organised by various groups, but ‘KISS’ launched in 2015 is the largest. They started the ‘Zwift road racing series’ and promote the ‘Zwift World Championships’ and ‘Tour de Zwift’. Chris Snook, PR man at Zwift told us: “Zwift has two major USPs; our virtual cycling environment and our community. “The virtual world of Watopia allows riders to tackle all kinds of terrain and surfaces from flat circuits to epic mountain climbs and from smooth tarmac through to gravel roads and cobbles. You can even defy reality and ride through volcanoes! “The community however, is really what makes Zwift unique. We are lucky to have a highly engaged community on Zwift and it’s this community that brings the virtual environment to life. “Our community runs the majority of events on Zwift including social rides, training rides, races and even fondo events.

For those who want to train with others, without direct competition, there are ‘group workouts’ - during which all riders will complete intervals at the same percentage of their FTP, which means no one gets dropped from the group session. It’s not all about indoor bike enabled socialising either - there are solo workouts for those looking to increase their fitness without the distraction of peers. “Zwift undoubtedly makes indoor training more fun. Fun however, doesn’t necessarily mean less structured,” Snook told us. “Structured workouts form a big part of Zwift - whether performing one of our many pre-designed workouts, importing workouts from a coaching program, designing custom workouts or taking part in our unique group workouts. “Who is Zwift for, It’s for anyone with a goal - whether that’s to loose weight, maintain fitness over winter, train for a sportive or, if you’re Mat Hayman; win Paris-Roubaix! What do you need to run Zwift, You can ride with a speed/cadence sensor, which will calculate your virtual power.

For more accurate results, you can use a power meter on a standard set up but for the full experience a smart turbo trainer will replicate climbs, descents and the effect of drafting. 14.99 a month - and there is a free seven day trial. Trainer Road offers a wealth of specific training plans that are built around rider’s goals. The plans are written by Trainer Road’s Head Coach Chad Timmerman, who has over 25 years of experience. Trainer Road has over 1000 workouts in its system, if that’s not enough, there’s a workout creator for coaches and riders to use. Once signed up, you can choose a training plan, log your sessions, as well as your fitness and progress - all inside the app. Keep it up, and you’ll be able to look over your ‘cycling career’ - with software tracking your fitness over time. CEO and co-founder Nate Pearson told us: “TrainerRoad focuses on just one thing; making cyclists faster. The core of the product takes cyclists through structured, power based workouts and training plans.

“TrainerRoad’s advantage comes from the fact that they get very specific in your training depending on what your cycling goals are and where you are in your season. “To get faster, riders need to work through progressions of different energy systems depending on the time of year. All sessions are based off FTP, which is measured in an initial assessment - and all plans concentrate on three specific phases - a Base, Build and Speciality. Base builds initial endurance and skill, Build focuses on improving FTP, then the Speciality phase is a fine tuning process focused on specific goals. Each plan totals 28 weeks and comes with low, medium and high volume options - and riders can modify them according to their needs as their target events loom closer. “There’s a lot of science behind cycling training, and it can get very confusing very quickly. The beauty behind TrainerRoad is that they make this whole process simple,” Pearson explains. Trainer Road is not top of the list if you’re after entertainment over specificity.