The clocks are about to change, the weather is getting warmer and many outdoor cyclists will be on the lookout for the arrival of swifts in the skies above the hills, a surefire signal that summer is on the horizon at last.

Meanwhile, for those who like to mix alfresco riding with and indoor pedalling, the online training and racing platform Zwift has just announced a raft of exciting spring and summertime drops to following on from the Big Spin, with new virtual velo experiences for riders to enjoy, including a whole lot gravel and some excellent additions to the Paris map in the Virtual Tour de France.

Veteran and high-flying Zwifters will also be thrilled to hear that the number of levels cyclists can smash through has been raised above 100 for the first time, and those who have achieved the century will be able to show this off on their status.

Grit hits

One of the big announcements for the new season is that Zwift are this year embracing gravel riding in a much bigger way, both with new bikes and maps. From 6 April, riders will be able to race Gravel Mountain, Zwift’s first gravel-only map, with designers promising digital ‘dust, speed and loose lines’.

How that will feel in reality we look forward to finding out, but the course is set in a visually vibrant red-rock environment with technical features including medians, corner berms and ultra-wide roads.

Launching on the same day, and continuing through to 3 May, is the PAS Racing Series. This four-stage gravel series will see riders tackling the Gravel Mountain maps, plus another new gravel route in Makuri Islands. Races will run hourly, and there will be a custom Pas Normal kit to unlock.

Of course, gravel bikes will be available from the Zwift Drop Shop, where 18 new bikes and 13 new wheelsets are going to be gracing the virtual shelves from this month, with a heavy focus on gravel gear.

• Grab the Zwift Ride with Wahoo Kickr Core 2 with up to 23% off, equalling its best-ever price.
• 20-minute effort or a ramp test - which Zwift FTP test should you do?

Virtual Tour de France

Zwift is the official software platform for the Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, and for six weeks, between 2 July and 16 August, the Tour Fever Challenge will invite riders to complete five stages of racing, which includes some very exciting route additions, along with five new badges to chase.

Eagerly anticipated updates to the Paris map include the incorporation of the famous Montmartre climb, which proved massively popular in the real world when it starred in the road race route during the Paris Olympics. Last year's Tour incorporated three loops of Butte Montmartre during the final stage, to great acclaim, and it will now be a regular feature in the world’s greatest cycling event.

From 26 June, Zwifters will be able to experience what it’s like to virtually ride up the short but punchy cobbled climb to the Basilique du Sacré-Coeur de Montmartre for themselves.

Get out

Although built as a virtual platform, with the aim of combining gaming with fitness activity, Zwift’s designers have embraced the new season by putting one foot into the outdoors as well, offering guidance for real rides alongside the indoor training offering. The underlying concept is that committed riders should do both, in order to maintain peak fitness.

The company claims that Zwifters who continue to cycle indoors throughout the summer are 8% more likely to hit their riding goals than those who don’t, with new users experiencing an average FTP increase of +18 watts, compared to only a +7 increase for riders who stick the indoor bike in a corner and ignore it during the warmer months.

Over the summer months, as Zwift plans to launch its first indoor/outdoor challenges, which Zwifters will be able to connect to via their Wahoo, Garmin, or Hammerhead accounts. Ahead of that, from 6 April Zwift Camp: Breakthrough will support Zwifters as they prepare to transition to the summer season proper. This camp revolves around five workouts, focussing on fitness but also including drills to improve technique, stability and control for outdoor cycling.

Virtual training platform Zwift is about to fire the starting gun for the third iteration of its most popular pedalling challenge, The Big Spin.

Set entirely in the online world of Watopia, the 2026 event, themed 'Adventure is Calling', will see participants on indoor smart training systems like the Zwift Ride Smart take on four stages, virtually cycling through a quadrant of dramatically different environments across four weeks, beginning on Monday 16 March and lasting until 12 April (followed by a make-up week).

E-racing and indoor cycling has seen a spike in popularity in recent years, and initiatives launched by Zwift have been playing an active role in encouraging more women to get into competitive cycling.

The 'Adventure is Calling' tour kicks off with the Desert Discovery stage, which will be contested on the Flat Out Fast route across 21.4km of level terrain featuring just 46 metres of accumulated elevation - the perfect setting for fast group riding. From here riders will enter the imaginary jungle to take on the lumpier 21km-long Hidden Temple stage, with 147m of elevation, which utalises the platform's more demanding Mayan San Remo layout.

During week three, riders set off to the synthetic seaside for the undulating 26.3km Lost Coast Adventure stage, which rolls along the Southern Coast Cruise segment, enabling cyclists to sustain some decent pace.

The fourth and final stage, Titans Grove, takes place on the Sand & Sequoia set, where riders race along 20.1km of mixed digital dirt and asphalt, with 175m of elevation.

Along the way, participants will be able to tap into a rewards system, giving them the opportunity to unlock exclusive gear for their avatar, including footwear, headwear and eight different kits.

With the event spanning the holiday period, Zwift has hidden some Easter Eggs across the course, with Mystery Spinners placed at the end of some segments, through which riders who have completed the stage can score Big Spin 'vault' prizes (coveted items from previous Zwift Big Spins in 2024 and 2025, such as the BMX Bandit and the Atomic Cruiser).

The way the tour has been organised preserves the social culture of the challenge, with group rides setting off each hour on the half-hour mark for people who prefer to pedal in a virtual peloton.

Alternatively, you can use the Big Spin to organise Meetups, Club Rides, do the route during a workout or just ride the stages solo whenever suits.

Every year, Zwift runs the Tour de Zwift - the indoor training app's biggest virtual tour to help riders keep fit and ready for the outdoor season. While this is open to riders across the globe, it's particularly popular in the Northern Hemisphere, where inclement weather forces training indoors.

Tour de Zwift is a six-week event that takes place from 5 January to 22 February, with three distances available per event: Long, Standard, and Short, which Zwift says 'can be ridden or raced'. The tour is not just for cyclists; runners can enjoy shorter events of between 5-10km, depending on the time of the week.

While most riders and runners will use this event to unlock routes and farm XP points, dedicated indoor enthusiasts can enter the Ultimate Challenge, which comprises finishing every distance (long, standard, short) across all six stages, totalling 557.9km. To sweeten the deal, not only will you receive a 12,500 XP boost, but every Zwifter who completes the Ultimate Challenge will earn an entry for a chance to win a TDZ x Pedal Mafia Zwift Ride Smart Frame.

The Zwift Ride was designed to deliver the ultimate experience on the Zwift platform. The Ride combines all of Zwift’s best tech – Zwift Play controllers, Zwift Cog, and Zwift’s virtual shifting – in a well-priced 'smart bike' that is easy to maintain, clean, and move from room to room. While we've seen many users customising their Zwift Rides on Instagram, the TDZ x Pedal Mafia Zwift Ride Smart Frame won't require any personalisation, as it comes outfitted in a limited-edition Tour de Zwift-themed colourway, dominated by shades of peach, green, and cyan.

Tour de Zwift 2026 route and stages

Stage 1: Makuri

Long: 49.3km/695m
Medium: 35.1km/316m
Short: 34.6km/196m

Stage 2: France

Long: 51.2km/336m
Medium: 35.2km/193m
Short: 19.8km/241m

Stage 3: Innsbruck / Yorkshire / Scotland

Long: 36.9km/656m
Medium: 29.6km/547m
Short: 20.8km/211m

Stage 4: London

Long: 40.9km/565m
Medium: 23.6km/164m
Short: 20.3km/219m

Stage 5: Watopia

Long: 25.3km/1,167m
Medium: 25.3km/537m
Short: 19.1km/157m

Stage 6: New York / Richmond

Long: 40.2km/315m
Medium: 33.7km/261m
Short: 5km (12km lead-in)/19m

Riders can purchase the real-life limited-edition Zwift x Pedal Mafia Tour de Zwift kit via Pedal Mafia and can sign up for the event on Zwift.

Winter is a challenging time for cyclists, but indoor cycling has made things easier. While there are many indoor training apps to choose from, Rouvy differs from Zwift and MyWhoosh by allowing you to ride real-world routes from around the world in vivid detail. To help get through the dregs of winter and even beat the Rapha Festive 500, the Czech company has launched a virtual training camp designed to get you ready to tackle the summer cycling season head-on. The camp combines training plans and workouts from WorldTour outfits, Team Visma | lease-a-Bike, and Lidl-Trek, including iconic training camp destinations around Europe.

The training camp comprises a three-month block that you can break up to suit your needs. Choose from an intense four-week intensity block to a full-on 12-week base plan - all of which has been created by WorldTour coaches. The winter training camp runs from December 2025 to February 2026 on the same routes as the professionals, and also includes opportunities to join virtual group rides with Team Visma | Lease a Bike and Victor Campenaerts.

The Base Builder is a 12-week plan created by the coaches of Team Visma | Lease a Bike. The program follows contemporary training principles and is used by riders such as Jonas Vingegaard and Wout van Aert. There are 39 workouts to choose from, designed to build a solid foundation and unlock aerobic performance.

If you’re looking for a quick-fire FTP-boosting block, the four-week plan designed by Lidl-Trek’s sports scientists uses shorter, progressive workouts to develop threshold and speed. It’s designed for experienced riders looking to increase their functional threshold power.

One of Rouvy’s unique selling points is real-world video with an avatar overlay, creating an immersive experience unlike other indoor cycling apps - this is a real benefit when it comes to giving users the same visual stimulus and European routes as the pros who spend much of their winter riding in these warm, exotic climates. Riders can look forward to stunning views from Calpe in December, before heading to the volcanic island of Tenerife in January and Girona in February.

All three destinations feature a collection of brand-new routes. Six from Calpe and Costa Blanca, including the iconic Coll de Rates and Vall d'Ebo climbs, eight from Tenerife (including Pico del Teide), and four routes from Girona and the Costa Brava region.

If you’re not up for committing to a training plan or prefer riding as you go, Rouvy subscribers have a unique opportunity to ride with Team Visma | Lease a Bike’s Victor Campenaerts on 1 January 2026 at 3pm GMT (free trials available for new users who want to join the ride). To ensure you don't miss out, register in the Rouvy app.

While live power outputs, avatars, training-plan-bar-graphs and virtual worlds keep our eyes focused on the screens in front of us when we're on our indoor trainers, we still need something to listen to.

So for Indoor Training Week we asked the CW team what fills their ears (and sometimes eyes as well) while they're spinning away in solitary confinement in their pain cave. AKA, spare bedroom or garage. From death metal to bakery programs, some of the answers below surprised us.

If it’s an easy ride, I’ll put on a podcast – ideally one long enough that it won’t finish halfway through and leave me sweatily thumbing my phone in search of something else. The trouble is, most long podcasts are intolerable. The tolerable ones tend to be the sprawling political chats on Novara Media, about how capitalism is dooming us all to eternal misery and servitude – which, by comparison, makes serving my pace-setting Zwift master feel almost liberating.

If it’s a hard session, I’ll scan Spotify for an upbeat playlist of maximally mainstream bangers. Lyrical complexity is the enemy here: the catchier the hook, the better. ‘Blinding Lights’ by The Weeknd reliably delivers a few extra watts, but without question the adrenaline-spiker par excellence is ‘Don’t Call Me Up’ by Mabel.
David Bradford, Senior editor

For a long time, trainer time was my only TV time. The garage was the only place in the house with a television, so I used my 45-minute to 1-hour sessions to catch up on The Great British Bake Off or Grey’s Anatomy. I also enjoy watching documentaries on the trainer, breaking them up over a few workouts. These days, we have a TV in the living room, so most movies and shows happen there, but I still use trainer time to watch sports or shows my wife isn’t into. For hard sessions, though, it’s just me and the Zwift or Wahoo SYSTM screen.
Anne-Marije Rook, North American editor

It’s heavy metal music for me, and the heavier the better. There’s something about the double kick drum pedal and pig-squealing vocals that really gets me in the mood. I once timed a Zwift race with my playlist so it started on the exact moment Corey Taylor screams “I push my fingers into my eyes” on Slipknot’s ‘Duality’, my cue to give it hell. I saw Slipknot live about a year ago, actually, and half expected the screen behind them to flash up and tell me my second interval effort was about to begin.
Tom Davidson, Senior writer and features coordinator

I have to listen to music when on the trainer. If I'm watching a program, or listening to a podcast that demands my attention I know I'll get distracted and drift from my target wattage. No doubt harking back to some formative nights out in the late 1990s, I usually go for dance music, easily found on the BBC Sounds app via their Dance Anthems or Pace Setter 'Sounds'.

Not only do they play some old classics (Orchid Anthems as I know them, so called thanks to many heady nights out in an old, long lost nightclub in Croydon.) but they introduce me to some new tunes that - now my clubbing days are in the distant past - I wouldn't otherwise hear. Some of these I'll then download and add to my own playlists. And I have to admit to once hitting a prescribed wattage empowered by K-pop Demon Hunters which my eight-year-old regularly forces me to listen to.
Simon Richardson, Editor

What sounds I listen to on the trainer these days depends a lot on what riding I'm planning to do on it. Something involving hard effort – a time trial or something even worse, such as Emily's Short Mix, for example – is going to require a set of tunes that are appropriately rousing. I usually go for something upbeat, melodic, punky and alternative: The Menzingers perhaps, or ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead.

For more common or garden zone two pedalling, I find the sounds are there to keep me company rather than shove me unremittingly towards the edge of my physical capabilities.

In which case it's usually going to be soulful, bluesy rock, or maybe some sort of functional health podcast – Peter Attia or Rhonda Patrick, for example – allowing me to benefit from an explanation of the exact health-giving processes that are taking place in my body as I carry them out.
James Shrubsall, Senior News & Features Writer

This article is part of a series called ‘A love letter to…’, where Cycling Weekly writers pour praise on their favourite cycling items and share the personal connection they have with them. The below content is unfiltered, authentic and has not been paid for.

Do you remember the origins of indoor training? I’m not quite sure I do, but I do remember the days of hiding away in my parents’ freezing cold, dusty shed, smashing out 40-minute sessions with Sufferfest DVDs, playing from a portable Matsui TV on top of the tumble dryer.

For those who don’t know what Matsui or Sufferfest is or was, you weren't missing out. The latter was a once-popular series of recordings of bike races, offering an almost point-of-view angle that you’d watch while home training – an activity that was, back then, universally loathed.

The concept that you could put a DVD in to add realism to your indoor training was considered high-tech progress at the time, but as the series’ name suggests, it wasn’t any more pleasant.

The general idea was you'd start the DVD, perhaps a recording of the peloton from a recent Paris-Roubaix, and then start pedalling. The DVD would play whether you pedalled or not, and you'd be expected to adjust the resistance needed for full immersion in the bunch, thanks to a clunky plastic lever that attached to your handlebars.

Once or twice a week, I'd bolt my bike into the shed-dwelling trainer, squash my tire down onto the resistance roller, and set off – figuratively speaking, of course; I never really went anywhere, physically or virtually. Nor would I speak to anyone.

Those who were really into it could buy a 'turbo tyre'. They were bright pink or yellow, I believe, perhaps made of different compounds – I have no idea. If you were a turbo tyre person, like my friend Will was, you’d be taken more seriously, and claim benefits like lower noise levels, better grip on the roller, and the chance to save your race-day tyres. I never bothered buying one, saving my coins instead to impress my friends when I met them on outdoor rides.

As fond as my memories are of those Sufferfest DVDs, the whole experience never quite hooked me into indoor training. I suppose it was the loneliness of it, and the basic technology's lack of appeal.

The industry has since progressed in leaps and bounds.

Back in those days, I was using a trainer that cost me about £60. The trainer I’m using now, thanks to my current job of testing wonderful tech, costs £5,000 more.

And the best part is, I no longer have to train alone. Yes, I may have the Rolls Royce of trainers, but even with more rudimentary set-ups, I can brush virtual shoulders with my friends and thousands of other people around the world. Sufferfest tried its best to give us a sense of immersion in the peloton, and I doth my cap to it, but platforms like Zwift have taken it to a whole new level.

Today, I’m grateful for the chance to be transported into Wattopia, where I can race my mates up Alpe Du Zwift, when they’re anywhere else in the world but here. Indoor training is no longer a solo tale of suffering, it's a chance for real connection. And as much as I never thought I'd say it, it's a pastime I now enjoy – when it's cold and rainy, at least.

Now I know if I retreated back into my parents' shed today, it wouldn't just be me and the Matsui. There'd be Carlos from Spain, Rachel from Canada, and my mate Will, all trundling along together, getting fitter cycling online.

Wout van Aert is to lead a group ride on ROUVY this week, as the first of a series of pro-led events on the app.

The Visma-Lease a Bike star will take part in the ride on Thursday, 30 October at 5pm GMT/6pm CET/1pm EDT on the indoor training app, with a live Q&A following. The Belgian has recently returned from an off-season holiday, and is likely ramping things up towards cyclo-cross.

Van Aert and whoever decides to take part will be virtually riding on Tenerife’s Pico del Teide, 23.1km with 376m elevation gain, so a nice way to blow out the cobwebs inside, or the cobwebs on your home trainer. Participants can even see a livestream of Van Aert tackling the same route via Instagram; it's open to all ROUVY subscribers.

Thursday's event will be the first in a number of events where ROUVY riders will be joined by cyclists from Visma-Lease a Bike and Lidl-Trek over the winter. 6,500 people signed up to the first ride with Van Aert, so it is a popular activity.

The press release reads: "Opportunities to ride with cycling’s elite are few and far between, but ROUVY is making this a near-reality with these live-streamed social rides where you’ll get to virtually rub shoulders with some of the world’s best riders."

"We’re always looking for ways to add engagement to our users’ indoor cycling experience, and connecting with the professional riders and teams which we work closely with is a great way to bring together riders of all levels in one virtual event," Antonín Parma, ROUVY's product experience director, said.

"It’s also a perfect way for us to spotlight some of the stunning and exciting ride routes we have from all around the world coming this autumn - from popular training camp destinations such as Tenerife, Denia and Calpe, to much more far-flung corners of the world, including recent additions like Bolivia, Sri Lanka and Tajikistan."

If you're wondering whether to plump for Rouvy or Zwift for your indoor riding this winter, then take a look at our guide, all part of indoor training week here at Cycling Weekly. Subscription to Rouvy costs $19.99 / £17.99 a month, although there is a free trial for new users. For more info on the Wout van Aert ride, click here.

After 275 events we're relaunching the Wednesday evening Cycling Weekly club ten as part of Indoor Training week. We've selected six new Zwift courses all perfectly suited to time trials, the first of which is Bon Voyage in the France world. Our club ten starts at 6pm every Wednesday night with the race running as a time trial, with staggered starts and no drafting.

>>> Enter our club ten each week via our events page on Zwift

Each route will be used twice before moving onto the next course. Once all six routes have been used we'll be back to Bon Voyage to cycle through them once again. If you're new to Zwift, check out our guide to getting set up on the platform.

Having started in 2020, thousands of people have ridden our races over the last five years with course records set on the five courses we've used in that time. Now it's time for some new records to be set, and maybe some new names on the results sheet that appears in Cycling Weekly magazine each week.

New courses

Bon Voyage, France world

With very little elevation on the profile this will be a fast circuit. The full Bon Voyage route is three laps of a circuit that then finishes on an extra section of road that features some Paris Roubaix style cobbles. The roads used for a ten mile race will be revealed on the night.

With no climbing we recommend selecting the aero focused equipment from your Zwift garage. Or, if you want to gradually get faster and faster, setting PBs along the way, start our with slower kit and gradually select faster and faster equipment.

Countryside Tour, Makuri Islands

A ten mile route so perfectly suited to our club ten, the Countryside Tour features a 2.5km climb and some off-road sections, meaning this won't be the fastest of our new courses and will make for some interesting kit choices.

The climb is the Temple KOM, a 2.5km climb with an average gradient of 3.6%. Makuri Island was launched in 2021 ahead of the Japan 2020 Olympics. Although not linked, the virtual world was perfectly timed ahead of the Covid affected Games.

Loch Loop, Scotland

Zwift's Scottish routes were launched in February 2023 and designed specifically for the UCI esports world championships. According to a Zwift insider this section of the Scottish world was designed with ten mile time trials in mind, so we had to include it. It's another flat course with a few little rises in the second half of the 8km circuit so be sure to make sure you have enough in the tank for the second lap.

Jurassic coast, Watopia

Anyone who has ridden in Zwift has ridden in Watopia, and if that's you, the chances are you've ridden these roads. The Jurassic coast route starts on the twisting roads of Titans grove (look out for dinosaurs) which is anything but flat, but as it moves out to the coast road the inclines disappear and it's fast and flat all the way to the finish line.

Waisted 8

The Waisted 8 course is our second in Watopia, and another virtual route that features a short climb - Jarvis KOM - in an otherwise flat circuit. The full course is 30km long, but our race only features 16 of those. The usual start position for this circuit is just before Watopia's volcano, that it skirts around, before the Jarvis sprint. From there it island hops over to the Fuego Flats in the desert.

Gentil 8

It's back to France for the last of our six new courses and the Gentil 8 circuit. The full course is 25km, and takes in the Petit KOM and four sprints. The 2.7km, 4% climb is the only section of the route with any gradient in, meaning it should be another fast course.

All our events will be run in time trial format, with riders setting off on in small groups from the conveyor belt and drafting turned off.

Tips for riding a ten mile TT on Zwift

• Get set up: Ensure you have everything you need before getting on your bike. This starts with logging on in plenty of time. Zwift rolled out new sections of their New York world on October 28 and your app will need some time to update before you ride. Then it's you and your bike. Ensure your bike is correctly set up, you have water to hand and a fan ready to go. A towel over your handlebars is also a good option for keeping the sweat out of your headset and stem clamp
• Warm up: Ten mile time trials are fast and furious, you do not want to star with cold muscles. Ideally you'd spend at least 20 minutes on a warm up. Start by spinning your legs gently before gradually increasing your effort. You should end with 2-5 minutes at the pace you will be racing at. If you ahve time it's a good idea to then spin gently for 2-3 minutes before a couple of activation efforts. These are typically 10 second sprints with high cadence and low resistance.
• Starting effort: Don't fly out of the gates too fast as that initial effort can come back to bite you in the end. Gradually build up to your race pace over the first 1 - 2 minutes
• Pacing yourself: On a flat course you'd ideally ride at a steady state throughout the race. A pace that you can sustain evenly over the course of the race, no matter how long that takes you. If that's 250 watts for you, then any effort over that will likely reduce your power output at the end. If you're new to this it will take a few weeks to get to know your effort. If you don't know what wattage or heart rate you can hold for 10 miles, we'd suggest riding at an effort at which you could just about hold a conversation at, using short sentences inbetween breaths.
• Warming down: It's a good idea to keep spinning your legs for at least five minutes after you've crossed the finish line, bringing your heart rate down steadily.

Our old course records

If like us you're spending more time on the turbo then keep an eye on the CW website this week for all the indoor training content you need to make the most of winter. We've been tidying up our paincaves now that winter is homing into view as there's no need to back off our riding just because here in the northern hemisphere the daylight hours are getting shorter and shorter.

Throughout indoor training week we'll be posting up to date content about the products and platforms we use and test, along with expert training and riding advice from coaches and pro riders.

Plus, we are relaunching the Cycling Weekly club ten! Every Wednesday evening at 6pm (UK time) our ten mile time trial runs on Zwift. After 275 events on five regular courses, we're switching to six new courses. This week's event will be on the Bon Voyage course in France before we move onto Countryside Tour, Loch Loop in Scotland, Jurassic Coast in Watopia, Waisted 8 and Gentil 8.

That means six new course records are waiting to be set and the current ones will be left untouched. Each week the results are printed in CW magazine, with times taken from www.zwiftpower.com.

Whether or not you're new to indoor training, here's some of our articles, from buying to training advice and lots more besides.

Indoor training buying advice

• Best smart trainers - Our guide to the latest turbo trainers
• Best exercise bikes - From budget to fully connected machines
• How to get set up on Zwift - all the kit you need to get up and running.
• Budget trainers - How to get set up without the cost
• Rollers versus trainers - Which one is best for your?

Indoor training advice

• Indoor / outdoor riding - how to strike the balance
• Riding position - should your indoor position mirror your road riding position
• A winter indoors - how one rider faired heading out on the road after four months
• Extreme indoor riding - how some riders are pushing the limits
• My training space - check out some amazing CW reader paincaves

Indoor riding might be about to get even more realistic, with a new Wahoo patent suggesting ‘side-to-side’ leaning might soon be a feature on an upcoming smart bike from the brand.

The patent, filed earlier this year and published last month, is for an ‘exercise bike with side-to-side motion mechanism’, and appears to be an unreleased product.

The design drawings of the bike closely resemble Wahoo’s Kickr Bike Pro, which was released this month with a new ‘grade simulation’ tool for climbing. This new product, however, has a larger, sturdier base containing a side-to-side tilting mechanism.

It would not be the first indoor bike that leans, but would mark a major innovation for Atlanta-based Wahoo, one of the market’s leading brands, who are yet to incorporate this technology.

A description of the product within the patent filing reads: “A bike trainer includes a rocking base having a bottom surface with an arc shaped rocking surface. A pair of support legs are each connected to a side of the base by a tilt mechanism. A main frame extends upward from the base and supports a seat. A pedal assembly is rotatably mounted to the main frame and drivingly connected to a flywheel assembly.”

Writing within the patent, Wahoo says the idea for the trainer came in response to the fact that conventional trainers “do not adequately simulate a realistic rider feel on the exercise bike”.

In 2017, the brand introduced its Kickr Climb product, a tool that attaches to the bike’s front forks to simulate climbing gradients indoors. This technology is now part of Wahoo’s newly launched £3,499.99 Kickr Bike Pro – “the most immersive indoor training experience yet” – which tilts up and down, simulating inclines up to 20%.

Side-to-side movement has existed in certain indoor exercise bikes as far back as 2020; BowFlex’s VeloCore bike introduced its leaning mechanism in 2020, while MUOV launched a bike in 2022 that tilts up to 12°.

Leaning on an exercise bike is said to help exercise the core and upper body, improve stability, and increase comfort on longer indoor rides, by alleviating static pressure on the rider's joints.

Over the years, smart bike users have sought to reduce discomfort by using rocker plates, large boards on which the bike and trainer are mounted. While allowing more natural movement, these plates do not fully imitate the leaning motion a rider would experience when cornering outdoors.

As with all patents, there is no guarantee that Wahoo’s latest filing will be made reality. The patent serves to protect the intellectual property of the idea.

Contacted by Cycling Weekly, a Wahoo spokesperson said: "We do not comment on our future roadmap except to say that Wahoo are continually innovating to help achieve our mission of building a better athlete in all of us."

MyWhoosh has launched a new world ahead of the UCI Road World Championships in Rwanda this month. The road worlds are to be held on the African continent for the first time in it's history with a week of races starting on September 21.

As official UCI partner, MyWhoosh has created a new world inspired by African landscapes that will host the UCI Cycling Esports World Champs in Abu Dhabi this November and a three part mission called Chasing Rainbows to show off the best parts of the new virtual world.

Stage one of Chasing Rainbows is a group ride on a replica of the ITT route around Kigali, Rwanda's capital that is hosting the week long World Championships. These rides are available to take part in from 15-21 September.

Stage two runs from 22-28 September and is a recreation of the 15km long road race finishing circuit to be used in the elite men's and women's events.

Stage three that runs from 29 September - 5 October debuts the route to be used in the 2025 Esports World Championships later this year.

The elite women's individual time trial gets the racing underway in Rwanda on Sunday, September 21, with Demi Vollering, Chloe Dygert and Britain's Anna Henderson lining up as the favourites. The men's elite time trial follows the same day with under-23, junior and the mixed relay TT following over the next three days.

The road races start on Thursday with the inaugural women's under-23 road race in which Great Britain line up with a strong team having decided to focus on this event and not put a team in the senior women's event.

Tadej Pogačar will start the men's road race as the outstanding favourite. With over 5,000m of elevation in the 267.5km event, the Slovenian is expected to defend his title. Belgian's Remco Evenepoel will be a challenger while two of the best one-day riders in the men's peloton, Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert are not racing.

The women's event looks set to be another battle between Tour de France Femmes winner Pauline Ferrand-Prevot of France and Demi Vollering of the Netherlands.

MyWhoosh is a free to use online cycling platform that pairs with all of the best indoor smart trainers and indoor smart bikes currently on the market. It is now the leading destination for elite level virtual racing after Zwift announced it was stepping back from it.

It is also the partner of our annual Big Ride Challenge in which riders select one of fours distances they aim to cover over the year. It's free to sign up to the Big Ride challenge and along with the annual mileage target, riders are set monthly challenges along the way. We also have social rides on MyWhoosh every Thursday at 5:30pm (BST)

It's a busy day for the world of indoor riding, which, like the proverbial bus, has three of the best turbo trainer press releases coming along at once.

The brands' twinning (or throupling) of launches dates back to 2023, when the two giants of indoor riding partnered up after a patent spat, after Wahoo launched legal action against Zwift for alleged patent infringement.

Since then, the two brands have been working collaboratively, resulting in much more seamless integration between the ecosystems, with today's updates on the Wahoo Kickr Core 2 and Bike Pro and Zwift Ride Smart Bike being the latest beneficiaries.

In its first update in seven years, the Kicker Core 2 now comes with the Zwift Cog and Click or 11-speed cassette for the same price.

Wi-Fi connectivity is now standard, and, according to Wahoo, not only enhances connectivity across phones, tablets, and other devices but also enables faster data transfer speeds compared to Bluetooth or ANT+, which should prevent any annoying data lags.

Wahoo has paired this update with the launch of the brand new Kicker Race Mode, which both brands say delivers near-instantaneous power response, giving you more control over your Zwift avatar and your online riding experience.

This connectivity improvement update extends to data collection, introducing a new 'Kickr Bridge' that streams heart rate monitor data directly through the trainer app, eliminating the need for additional sensor platforms.

This all forms part of a redesigned turbo, which Wahoo states now offers a faster and more stable setup.

The good news for Zwift fans is that the update swings both ways, with the Zwift Ride Smart bike now coming with the all-new Wahoo KICKR CORE 2 as standard.

The Wi-Fi connectivity now also allows users to manage all firmware updates through Zwift Companion, which Zwift says further enhances the rider experience by unlocking the full potential of Zwift and making it easy to find clubs, friends, events, as well as track your fitness progress.

While updates are great, money off is better, and it's rare for prices to go down rather than up. So we very much welcome the news that the complete setup reduces by £100 and €100 in the UK and EU, bringing the cost down to £1099.99 and €1199,99, respectively. In the US, the cost of shipping has been reduced from $110 to $75.

While the Zwift Ride Smart Bike improvements and updates will steal a lot of the limelight from the interwoven launches, we must not overlook Wahoo's Kickr Bike facelift, which now becomes the Kickr Bike Pro.

The brand's flagship indoor bike now features redesigned ergonomic shifters, not that we struggled with the previous ones, but which will now facilitate easy access to Zwift in-app features.

The brand has also upgraded its touchpoints thanks to a new partnership with Fizik for the saddle and handlebar tape, along with a new, mysteriously worded 'ergonomic handlebar specifically designed for indoor riding'.

As for exactly what that feels like, it is still to be discovered, but with the bike having just landed with us, we'll soon be able to reveal all.

The Kickr bike pro is priced as US $3999, CA $5,249.99, UK £3,499.99, EU €3,999.99, AU $6,299.95, JP ¥510,000.00, and available to buy from today.

The Kickr Core2 will cost US $549.99, CA $899.99, UK £499.99, EU €549.99, AU $899.95, Japan ¥99,000 and again is on sale now.

Developed to work with Wahoo SYSTM, Zwift, Rouvy, TrainingPeaks Virtual, MyWhoosh, and more (please see brand websites for full details).

A new patent from SRAM suggests the American components manufacturer is plotting its entry into turbo trainers with a unique double-chain design that could make indoor cycling more straightforward.

Published on Thursday, the patent is for an indoor trainer with a “closed loop component”.

The design appears to work by attaching the bike directly into a mount, and disengaging the chain from the cassette. The chain is then placed onto a separate cog, itself attached to another cog, which drives another chain linked to the resistance wheel.

The bike is attached to the trainer with “axle supports”, meaning the only element that needs to be moved is the chain. Neither the back wheel nor the cassette are engaged, and are therefore not set in motion.

SRAM’s design – potentially the company's first turbo trainer – seeks to resolve the limitations of existing trainers, which are split into wheel-off and wheel-on categories.

In the first instance, where users have to remove the rear wheel, a separate cassette is often needed, as well as adjustments to the derailleur.

Wheel-on trainers do not require the rear wheel to be removed, but can cause wear on the tyre, which is typically engaged for resistance. So as to not deteriorate their road tyre, wheel-on trainer users tend to fit a separate training tyre to their bike.

“In both cases [wheel-off and wheel-on], installing a bicycle on a trainer may require significant mechanical aptitude, time, and additional bicycle components,” the SRAM patent says. “In addition, various components may experience additional wear with either type of trainer, whether in the drivetrain and/or on the rear tire.”

SRAM’s proposal allows users to leave the rear wheel on the bicycle while bypassing the cassette and rear wheel. This, the patent says, means wear on the tyre and cassette “may be greatly reduced”.

“In addition, the bicycle may be quickly and easily installed on the trainer without the need to remove or adjust various components.”

As with all patents, there is no guarantee that this product will ever be made into reality. The patent filing means SRAM has protected the design, and may do with that what it wishes.

Last month, SRAM also published a patent for a ‘smart wheel accessory’ – a bike wheel with an integrated sensor capable of feeding back live data on tyre pressure, rim health, and wheel lean.

Cycling Weekly has approached SRAM for comment on the indoor trainer design. In the past, a SRAM spokesperson has said the company does not comment on patents.

Recent indoor training platform price increases may have left you looking for an alternative, and if you’re one of those people, then good news because we have an alternative to share with you which is 9x times cheaper than the market leader.

The name of this app is of course, icTrainer and of all the paid for apps out there, icTrainer is leading the way in terms of cost, but what may surprise you is the number of features the platform packs into this very accessible price point.

Use the voucher code CWV24 for 44 days free trial, valid until the end of January 2025 - download here.

Live Data

What you’ll notice early on is that icTrainer makes one thing clear via the bold statement on its website, ‘Just Train - No Game’. It says that because icTrainer was built for those wanting to seriously develop their cycling ability while doing so in a cost effective manner.

But, this is also why you can enjoy the usual live metrics in the app such as, power, heart rate, cadence, left/right balance as well as the lesser seen, core body temperature, muscle oxygen saturation and gearing from your Di2. It really does offer a wealth of information allowing you to dig deep in your training.

Ride your favourite roads, at home!

If you have a favourite route near where you live, or if you’ve been on holiday and fallen in love with the sights and want to relive the experience, then good news. icTrainer allows you to upload your own GPS routes so you can ride them from the comfort of your own home.

On the other hand, if there’s a climb or route you’ve always wanted to ride, then there’s a good chance you can find it in icTrainers library of more than 200 routes. Simply scroll through their catalogue of rides and you can enjoy tackling those climbs with video too.

Workouts & Training Plans

As I mentioned earlier, icTrainer is made for those who want to better themselves as athletes. As such, you’ll not be surprised to find pre-made workouts and training plans to help guide you through the process.

And an extra bonus is that you can even make use of the workout builder, if there’s a particular session that you’re wanting to create.

Cross-platform Compatibility

We, as cyclists, are a finickity bunch as we all have our own favourite platforms to log and track our training on. So, to make life as simple as possible, icTrainer is compatible with a whole host of platforms including but not limited to Starva, Training Peaks, Garmin and many others.

This means that whatever other activities you’re tracking, you can ensure all your efforts are being logged in the same place and if for whatever reason icTrainer doesn’t happen to currently offer a platform you’re tracking on then, you can simply ask them to add it and they’ll do their best to get it connected.

The same goes for hardware too. icTriner is compatible with brands from Tacx, to Wahoo, to Saris, to Elite and so many others. So again, no matter what set up you either currently have or may look into buying, you’ll almost certainly be able to connect to icTrainer.

Entertainment

Indoor training can be a solitary pursuit but it doesn’t have to be. For group training, icTrainer can also offer video chats to keep you and your friends connected while you train. It means you can enjoy the groupride chats even through those cold winter months.

On the other hand, if you prefer to keep your head down and just train, but want a way to help pass the time through a long effort, then icTrainer's integrated web browser means you can stream content from the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime or even YouTube.

But don’t worry, if you don’t want to be on a video chat and you don’t want to stream video content then you also have the option to just listen to music through icTrainer which will match the cadence of your workout to give you an extra boost!

Partner Mode

You know what they say, ‘couples that train together stay together’... Right? Well, if there’s any truth behind that, you’ll be happy to know that two riders can train at the same time on the same computer.

And, because icTrainer doesn’t need an internet connection to work, you can take it one step further and train in the garden, or on the balcony, or in the basement. The only limitation is where you can think of to train!

This also has a big implication on how icTrainer is able to offer their platform at such a low price. By not running its system from the cloud, it doesn’t need to pay large sums of money for servers and in turn can pass that huge operational saving onto its users while also boasting a claimed climate-neutral operation.

Virtual Shifting

You may have clocked earlier that I mentioned you can connect your Di2 grouset to icTrainer and you may have wondered why that would be of any use at all.

Well, in addition to being able to see your gearing, you can also use the Di2 buttons to make virtual shifts. If you don’t have a groupset with this functionality then, you can always make virtual shifts via the interface.

So, as you can see, icTrainer is jam packed with features and to be honest, that wasn’t even all of them. Some of them are entirely unique to icTrainer and when you pair all of that functionality with the incredibly low price, it certainly makes it worthy of consideration.

Put it this way, the monthly fee of the market leader is only just less of what you’d pay for the entire year for icTrainer.

If you’re keen to give them a go you can use code CWV24 for 44 days of free riding, when you apply the code in app. So, head to this link to get started now.

Lou Bates is one of Great Britain’s strongest indoor bike racers, bound for the UCI Cycling Esports World Championships this weekend.

A former rower, she turned to triathlon in her mid-twenties and competed in Ironman events, also once finishing fifth at the Barcelona marathon. She then dedicated herself to cycling, winning the National Hill Climb Championships in 2016, before being introduced to indoor racing on Zwift at the end of 2019. She has since represented GB in international competitions, and, this Saturday, will race on MyWhoosh at the World Championships in Abu Dhabi, UAE, having qualified first in the semi-finals rankings.

Bates, 43, has achieved all of this while working a full-time job as a project manager, and a part-time career as a yoga teacher. Ahead of the World Championships, Cycling Weekly asked her for her top tips for virtual racing. Here’s what she said...

Know your power profile

"My peak power is not great. I am not a fast twitch person in any stretch. Genetics is not on my side, I think, from that standpoint. But the good thing is that I’m very fatigue resistant, so my peak power doesn’t necessarily drop over the course of a hard race.

"Identify what kind of rider you are. Are you a diesel that suits the long climbing races? Are you a sprinter? Are you somewhere in between? You might be happy just racing those races that suit you. But if you want to get better at some of the other races, think about your power profile and what things you want to improve, then do some workouts specific to that, and try to get those bits of your power profile up.

"Sometimes, long sprints can work really well indoors. It’s not a dealbreaker if you can’t hit super-high power. It’s more of a dealbreaker if you can hit that power, but can’t sustain it at all. My husband, for example, is the complete opposite to me. He’s a fast twitch person, but once his one match is extinguished, then it’s just gone, and he’s gone.”

Don't be afraid to draft

“When I first started on Zwift, I used to have a super-high watts per kilo compared to everybody around me in races because I wasn’t saving energy by drafting. I was putting out way more [power] than I actually needed to because I was panicking to keep in the group.

“I would say get into some group rides. There are a ton of group rides that have intervals in them where you’re riding in a group; there’s a leader, and they’ll say, ‘Ok, for the next five minutes, we're going to do four watts per kilo’ or whatever. You can practice staying in the draft. It’s super-handy.”

Practise the courses

“If you’re racing on a particular course, it can be super-helpful to go on that course beforehand and know where the hills are, where the downhills are, and if there are any lumps and bumps that you need to be aware of. In e-racing, every time there’s a hill, the pace always goes up.

“The beauty of e-racing is that, in real life, if you were to do a recon of a course, you might have to drive for an hour to get there. Whereas on these platforms, you can generally get into the world or course that you’re going to be racing on and have a practice quite a few times.”

Have a fan... and a dehumidifier

“Cooling is very important. I have a number of fans, and a dehumidifier, because sometimes in the UK, if it’s raining, it can get really humid and sticky.

"I also have loads of towels, lots of nutrition and fluid. These races, they may be short, but you can burn a ton of energy, and also need a lot of hydration.”

Be meticulous with equipment

"I keep an eye on all of my equipment just to check that it’s not drifting, for example due to temperature changes. Before events, I’m super careful about that, so I will always do test rides and stuff like that. I wouldn’t want to not know that my equipment wasn’t accurate until I race. That would be a nightmare.”

“I have my secondary power source, so I have power pedals with my turbo trainer, and I pretty much record every ride, just so that I can keep an eye on my turbo, because even though a lot of turbos claim to be within 1% accuracy, environmental factors can affect your turbo readings.

Diversify your training

"My training volume is between 15 and 20 hours a week – 15 hours on the bike. I do a couple of gym sessions to help on the bike, but also for just overall health. I’m a 43-year-old woman. I need to be looking after my bones, my hormones, my overall body health as well. Part of that is doing these gym sessions, and obviously doing yoga as part of my yoga teaching.

"In the spring and summer, I tend to go outside a lot more, mainly because I’ve done a big block over the winter, and that’s generally when the race season is for e-racing. I tend to use the summer block to do my base building, and do lots of outside racing. I like doing some bike packing and other stuff that is completely different to e-racing, getting back into nature."

This article is part of Cycling Weekly's love letter series, where our writers pour praise on their favourite aspects of cycling. The below content is unfiltered, authentic and has not been paid for.

It turns out I have more in common with retired pro Alex Dowsett than I first thought. I’ll point out the differences first; he’s a former Hour Record holder, two-time stage winner at the Giro d’Italia, and six-time national time trial champion. He also rode on the WorldTour, cycling’s highest level, for 12 seasons of his career.

I’ve never come close to the WorldTour. I’ve never even done a race. And yet, Dowsett and I seem to have a shared interest: we both do ramp tests for fun.

For the uninitiated, a ramp test is a quick way of working out your functional threshold power (FTP). It typically involves hopping on an indoor trainer and increasing your power output every minute, until your legs give way and you collapse over your handlebars. Think of it like the bleep test from school, except there’s no PE teacher making you do it. The better riders (see: Alex Dowsett) will last for upwards of 20 minutes. Us mortals run out of breath in the time it takes to boil rice.

A few weeks ago, Dowsett posted an Instagram video of himself on Zwift. “Two years into retirement from pro cycling I’m trying a ramp test,” he wrote. There was, I assume, no sports director or team manager hanging over him, holding a metaphorical gun to his head. It seemed a personal life choice, one made for the love of the sport.

I remember doing my first ramp test last year. I had signed up for a Zwift winter training programme, and the test was planned as my baptism into indoor riding. Its results, I was told, would become the yardstick for all my sessions thereafter. I naively blocked out an hour of my evening to do it, and it was over in 15 minutes.

The test began at 100w, an output at which most toddlers can ride comfortably. It then increased – or ramped – every minute by 20w. I levelled up and up, 120w, 140w, 160w. I felt like I was freewheeling. Then came 180w, 200w, 220w, and the screw began to turn.

As I eked into the high 200s, I sensed my limit on the horizon. The whole point of the test is to break you, leave you sweat-drenched and alone in your front room, an empty, breathless shell. There comes a moment when you fall onto the back foot, and the ramps keep demanding more. For me, that moment came at 360w. I bowed out with a yelp. A ferrous taste of blood flooded my mouth.

And yet, the next week, I went back for more. Masochism is the derivation of pleasure from pain, and I had fallen head over cleats for the cruel ramp test. I liked the dopamine hit, the sense of achievement, that came with each level increase. The feeling of my heart racing in my chest made me feel alive.

While most people might do one ramp test a year, and begrudgingly too, I ended up doing three last winter alone. I’m now plotting my return, for no reason other than my own will.

For those interested, Dowsett’s results were “significantly slower” than they were during his pomp. Mine will no doubt tell a similar story. But, in a sordid kind of way, I’m looking forward to the drama of it, all of it, from the hopeful first pedal strokes, to the final depleted one, and the aftertaste of blood.

I'll almost certainly go back for more.

At least that’s how the fairytale should pan out. But how does the talent development system – within British Cycling and more broadly – find the best young riders out there and get them started at their journey’s beginning?

And could the virtual world of indoor training and racing on smart-trainers be about to greatly broaden the reach of the talent-spotters?

Among the many elements of its programme – track skills, cyclo-cross, strength and conditioning, rollers sessions, nutritional advice, the list is a long one – BC has recruited the popular virtual cycling app Zwift to help identify talented young riders who have a real chance of cracking the professional cycling scene. Smart trainers provide an easy and effective way to track metrics in a controlled environment, and BC recently ran a pioneering pilot scheme in partnership with Zwift.

CW spoke to BC’s development coach Joe Malik to find out how he is using the ‘game’ to find super-talented 13-16-year-olds.

“It brings people together,” said Malik. “The riders who use it may get the opportunity to see each other only four or five times a year, but Zwift has the potential to bring them together more frequently, and the app even allows them to chat to each other.”

He is quick to point out that turbo training is just one piece of the pie, and that, in isolation, figures garnered from Zwift will not necessarily book you a place at the next Olympics.

“As a British Cycling programme, using Zwift is about complementing our offer and shouldn’t be taken in isolation. Transferring from a static trainer to riding a bike isn’t always successful – in a bike race, you need to be able to attack, descend and counter-attack.”

Despite these limitations, Zwift is the perfect platform to establish benchmark figures that can be 
tracked as young riders grow in size and strength.

“We did three pilot sessions on Zwift,” Malik explained. “One was a custom workout – a Russian-steps session – where we looked at peak and average power. At this age [13-16], all types of power are trainable – it can all be developed – so this gives us a good insight into the riders’ potential.”

What levels of power was the BC team looking for among all these 
youth riders?

“From a peak power point of view, anything over 900-1,000 watts for a 15-year-old [boy] is very exciting,” said Malik. “Our benchmarks for endurance tests work across three, six and 12 minutes, so we’d look for 350 watts for three minutes as a starting point, and then we’d look to work with the rider to develop that [over six and 12 minutes].”

Cut and thrust

In preparation for this feature, I paid a visit to 15-year-old Ben Flatau at his home in Surrey. Flatau is a youngster already embroiled in the cut and thrust of the talent-ID programme, and that evening he was taking part in one of BC’s talent development races on Zwift.

I watched on as he averaged five watts per kilo – a very strong effort for his 48kg – in the race around Zwift’s virtual version of Central Park. The youngster dismounted onto his living room floor having finished seventh in the bunch sprint, and told me about how he was selected for the programme by his club, Guildford-based Charlotteville CC. He has big dreams about making it to the top.

“You start by going to regional cluster sessions and development pathways, which build up to the RSRs [Regional Schools of Racing]. You also get invited to sessions where you learn about strength and conditioning and nutrition,” Flatau told me.
As if his competitive streak needed confirmation after the full-gas virtual sprint he’d just completed, Flatau vividly outlined his ambitions.

“I see myself on one of the academies when I’m 18 or the Podium Programme. After the RSRs, they pick 40 riders from across the country to go on to the Apprentice Programme.”

And he has a back-up plan too.

“If that doesn’t turn out in my favour, I know someone who wasn’t accepted onto the programme who, instead of reacting ‘I’m done with cycling’, moved out to Belgium and is now racing with a Belgian team.”

BC isn’t the first organisation to use Zwift as a form of talent-spotting. The app’s own scheme, the Zwift Academy, gives female Zwifters the chance to compete for a place on the Canyon-SRAM WorldTour team. The under-23 men, meanwhile, are given the opportunity to race for a slot on Dimension Data’s roster. Qualification for the Academy, which takes place every year, comprises a series of workouts and races from which key metrics are extrapolated and eventual winners, male and female, are crowned.

Last year’s female winner and now Canyon-SRAM rider Jess Pratt gave me her view on how online platforms are changing cycling and making it more accessible, since it is easier to demonstrate your talent.

“Zwift allowed me to train safely and efficiently in the early hours of the morning or between night shifts,” said Pratt. “I never had an issue finding a training session to suit my goals.

“I look back on Zwift Academy and still pinch myself – very grateful that Zwift and Canyon-SRAM have created the pathway.”

Though Pratt has ridden her way to a WorldTour contract, her relationship with Zwift hasn’t ended.

“I still incorporate Zwift into my training,” she said. “It’s safe, effective and time-efficient. I use it for a range 
of things, from recovery rides to 
hard workouts. It allows me to focus on my training session without having to worry about terrain, traffic or weather conditions.”

Online training data played an 
important role in recruiting riders to 
the Skoda DSI Cycling Academy – set up to give talented young female riders the chance to develop their skills under the tutelage of Dame Sarah Storey.

Cycling Weekly spoke to Storey to find out how riders were chosen for the five available spaces on 
the academy.

“We whittled down many hundreds of applications,” said the 14-time Paralympic champion. “There are major gaps [in opportunity] across all age groups, particularly at junior level. The distances that youth girls ride and race, compared to youth boys, means that some female riders are set up to fail straight away.”

For this reason, the Skoda Academy team took an unusual approach, sifting through Strava data to find otherwise hidden talent before holding a talent-ID test day in London.

“We conducted physiological tests, and those results were important,” said Storey, “but we also wanted to find out how each rider conducted themselves. Basing selections only on data would be a major flaw because you can’t see the technical ability of the rider.”

Would relying too heavily on Strava or Zwift data therefore be a mistake?

“These platforms are part of the toolkit, and an absolutely fantastic part, but they can’t replace face-to-face contact and teaching people how to ride a bike.”

It goes beyond bike-handling too, as Storey explained by drawing on her own experience as someone who came to cycling from swimming. “We forget the importance of learning how to pedal, for example. I’m a really good example and I’m trying to support riders who are coming into cycling even in their 20s, to bridge this gap, because if you haven’t been a youth rider on restricted gears, learning how to pedal is vital.”

As far as Storey is concerned, online data reveals only one component of a rider’s potential – telling us little or nothing about mentality and psychological grittiness.
“We need to utilise these online platforms really carefully,” she said, “because otherwise we’re in danger of rarely seeing riders [in person] – you can’t tell what a person’s demeanour or resilience is like from an avatar.”

The final selections for the academy included three riders who already had some racing experience, a promising para-cyclist, and also one complete novice, Meredith Gilbert, about whom Storey said: “She was just gifted – she’s incredible! She had natural technical ability and incredibly strong physiology, and proved to have a level of resilience that an Olympic champion would want.”

CW asked the coach 
of the GB under-23 
men’s Academy 
Ben Greenwood whether online riding is the next big thing in talent-ID, and inadvertently sparked 
off a family debate...

Is talent-ID going to be revolutionised by platforms like Zwift?

I was chatting to Monica [Greenwood’s wife, GB Cycling Junior women’s Academy coach] about this and we got into a debate. Initially, we didn’t fully agree – she thought I wasn’t open enough to it. I know some of the other talent development coaches have already tried out some stuff with Zwift.

What was the crux of 
the disagreement?

There’s obvious potential in harvesting data from lots of riders – but how much of it would be useful? My initial argument was that, because you need a smart turbo or a power meter to use Zwift, it would only pick up people who are already keen cyclists and who we would have found through the usual channels anyway. Back in the day, we used to go around schools and find raw talent – Jo Rowsell and Lizzie Deignan are two good examples. Testing peak power among non-cyclists can root out raw talent, whereas you’re not going to do well in a Zwift race unless you’re already a trained cyclist.

Monica saw greater potential?

Monica’s argument was you might find someone who has a background in another sport – an injured runner, for example – who shows potential in cycling. At the moment [because of the coronavirus lockdown] more people will be training on stationary bikes, so in six months’ time we might see loads of people putting in good performances on Zwift. The question is, how would we find them?

How impressive a 
performance would it have to be to pique 
your interest?

That’s another good question. I guess from a GB point of view, the person would have to be hitting powers higher than someone already on the squad. The advantage 
is, something like Zwift captures the 
imagination and motivates people to try hard – thousands of people are signed up on it because it’s exciting.

What kind of power, as a benchmark, would turn your head?

Our best young riders can do 800 watts for a minute; in terms of peak power, one of them can hit 1,500 
watts. Any youngsters out there who can get near to those figures would be welcome to apply!

What about the skills Zwift 
can’t measure?

That’s the thing. The Zwift Academy still tests finalists on the road before making their selections. They have to find out if the person can actually ride a road bike. Can they ride up a climb, can they corner, etc? Someone could have the world’s best power, but how useful is that if they can’t corner or ride in a bunch?

Why no more going into schools 
talent-spotting?

They found that the cost was millions of pounds to go around the country, and when you say to a kid, “You could be a world-class cyclist,” too many of them respond, “Well, I want to be a footballer!” That’s the challenge: every sport is battling for the same athletes.

Is modern tech like smart-trainers raising standards in cycling?

Yeah, at junior level it might be why we’re seeing 18 and 19-year-olds, the likes of Remco [Evenepoel], [Tadej] Pogačar at the top level, and Quinn Simmons going straight to WorldTour. Those guys must have been training with power; they’re not just going out on the local chaingang to get to that level! But how far do you take it? Do you want 14-year-olds training with power? I’d say probably not. Then again, if every other country is doing it, we’ll have to decide.

So, did Monica win you over to her side of the argument?

Yeah, on the female side, we certainly have to be open to this type of thing. You’d be crazy not to want more opportunities to find more good riders. Anything that allows riders to connect with us and highlight what they can do is to be welcomed. Who knows what the future of cycling will look like, but online platforms are going to play an important part.

Online racing isn’t 
going to replace road 
or cyclo-cross or mtb, 
but it is part of the 
future, for sure, and if 
we don’t engage with it, we’ll be missing out and falling behind.

This article was originally published in Cycling Weekly magazine in 2020

Professional riders around the world have scaled back their training in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, not knowing when they will next be able to test their form in a race. And so should you.

Whether you race on the road, in criteriums, time trials or were simply aiming to make 2020 your fittest year yet, the advice is the same – coaches and pros are unanimous that the circumstances we have all been dealt do not justify heavy training loads between now and when the pandemic is under control.

“Being in top form now does not make sense,” Matt Winston, directeur sportif at Team Sunweb, told CW. “We have told our riders to take their foot off the gas and look to peak in summer.”

Jack Rees, rider and coach at Ribble-Weldtite, suggested that, because racing is unlikely to resume until July or even later, some riders are best advised to take a complete break. “It might be hard, but take 10 days or two weeks off the bike and be prepared to lose the fitness gains you made in the winter.”

WorldTour pros haven’t hung up their wheels, of course, but nor are they going hell for leather in training. John Wakefield, coach for UAE-Team Emirates, explained: We have changed all of our riders’ phase of training, and now most of them are in a pre-preparatory phase, focusing on endurance and strength.”

You can read the full article in the April 9 issue of Cycling Weekly, on sale now. Cycling Weekly magazine is on sale in supermarkets, newsagents and can be ordered online. Our current subscription offer is six issues for £6 and you can find us on Apple Newsstand and Amazon.

From the outside, The Sufferfest may look like a scary place to train.

With workouts named things like ‘The Violator’ and ‘Fight Club’, you can be excused if you’re intimidated by the whole idea.

But while The Sufferfest may revel in the glory of suffering and bestow titles like ‘Knight of Sufferlandria’ on anyone tough enough to ride 10 sessions back-to-back, it could also be a great place to kick-start your indoor training.

In short, The Sufferfest is an indoor training app thank links up with your turbo trainer to offer structured workouts and training programmes, along with yoga and strength training regimes.

If you’ve ever wanted to dive into the rabbit’s hole of structured indoor workouts, The Sufferfest might just be the perfect option for you.

Neal Henderson, performance coach to the likes of Rohan Dennis and the man behind The Sufferfest workouts, said: "If you’re stuck indoors or without any gym, keep in mind that The Sufferfest app offers a free two-week trial. In addition to cycling workouts, we’ve got in-home strength training workouts, yogas workouts, mental training and treadmill running workouts. Give it a whirl!"

With dozens of interval sessions pre-loaded onto the app complete with race footage from major events like the Giro d’Italia and the Tour of Britain, there is a workout the perfect length and intensity for everyone.

And with a two-week free trial for anyone getting started on The Sufferfest, now is as good a time as any to inject some suffering into your training.

So here are the best workouts for anyone wanting to kick start their new life as a ‘Sufferlandrian’:

Easy: Igniter

Duration: 20-58

TSS: 21

At the lower end of the Training Stress Score (TSS) spectrum is Igniter.

This 21-minute workout is designed to warm up the engine, getting the body in the perfect place to dig deep ready for a training session or race, but it also works nicely as a steady introduction to indoor interval training.

Featuring footage from the Giro d’Italia, the session opens with a steady 10-minute ramp up from zone one through to five, before dropping down to zone two ready for the real interval work.

After a 30-second stint above threshold, you then head into three short sprints of increasing intensity, before a brief final warm-down.

For those just starting out on The Sufferfest, this is a perfect introduction that may just tempt you into something more intense.

Intermediate: Elements of style

Duration: 37:12

TSS: 42

Slightly longer and slightly more intense than Igniter is Elements of style.

This session is designed to help you build on the basics and prepare you for the serious suffering the app also has installed.

Featuring six drills, Elements of Style will work on your riding position, how to generate more power with a stable core and engaged glutes, a smooth pedal stroke, and staying relaxed.

It’s also narrated by the legendary cycling commentator Carlton Kirby, who gives clear instructions on what to do, when and why.

This one is a real game-changer

Hard: 4DP Full Frontal

Duration: 1:00:00

TSS: 42

It’s no secret that fitness testing is hard – the entire point is pushing yourself to the very limit to find out exactly where your fitness runs out – but the 4DP is a whole other beast.

This workout is only an hour long, but for pretty much all of us it will include a section that we really, really hate.

But of course the 4DP is an essential tool to find out where your fitness lies, what you need to improve, and where your zones need to be set for future workouts.

During the hour you will undergo four separate tests, one for each type of power.

>>> Belgian pros take on staggering 365km ride around East Flanders during unexpected off-season 

After warming up, you’ll first be thrown into two seven-seconds sprints to find your maximum power, then it’s a five-minute uphill time trial to gain an insight into your maximum pursuiting power.

Next up is the threshold effort – riding as hard as you can for 20 minutes – before you settle in for a final one-minute attack effort.

This is just as horrible as it sounds and by the end you should be feeling completely empty, but Sufferfest will then be able to tell you exactly what kind of rider you are and every session will be customised to make sure you’re training the right areas – its an invaluable asset once you’ve finally made it through.

Insane: Kitchen Sink (Mash-Up)

Duration: 2-59-52

TSS: 233

As you’d expect from an app named after suffering, there are some workouts on The Sufferfest that are just downright absurd.

The most intense workout available is Kitchen Sink (Mash-Up) with a mind-blowing TSS of 233.

This workout is just shy of three hours long and combines all the nasty bits from 11 different workouts, making sure you taking a beat across all four power types – neuromuscular, anaerobic, maximal aerobic and threshold.

A warning – this is a serious workout that might just leave you in tears by the end. Do not underestimate.

With stringent measures being brought in across the world to keep people from spreading the Covid-19 disease, some of us find ourselves with a lot more free time on our hands, but with very few options to make the most of it.

If you’re a cyclist you may not be able to, or simply may not want to, get out on your bike at this time. But there are plenty of cycling-related things you can do to keep yourselves occupied.

Turbo training

It’s the obvious one, sorry. If you can’t get out, why not ride indoors. With apps such as Zwift, Sufferfest and TrainerRoad offering so much variety these days, turbo training doesn’t have to be a dull, monotonous pursuit.

Get your base training in while you can, so that when you’re outside again you can reap the benefits.

If you’ve not got any smart training apps, check out some of our favourite turbo sessions here.

>>> Beginner’s guide to indoor cycling: five ways you can get your pedal fix inside

Route planning

If you can’t actually get out on your bike, you can always start planning some rides for when things are back to normal. You may currently just ride the same old routes every time, but finding new roads to ride on is one of the joys of cycling.

Google Maps is your friend for this, with the StreetView function allowing you to see what the roads in your area are like – how busy they are, how wide they are and whether they look generally pleasant for riding on.

Then, why not plot the route on Strava to see the elevation changes and make sure you’re not in for any nasty surprises!

>>> UCI extends cycling season

Work on your core

Everyone knows that strengthening their core will make them a better cyclist, but how many of us actually do anything about it? Not me, that’s for sure.

Home workouts are going to become the norm, with gyms likely to be out of action for some time. If you’re working from home, why not start your day with a core workout? You’ll need all the extra strength for sitting in your makeshift home office all day.

Bike maintenance

For many of us, trying to fix a mechanical problem is a guaranteed way to make the issue ten times worse. Luckily, if you’re unable to go out the house you’ve got plenty of time to learn how to fix it properly.

If you really do make a hash of it, support your LBS by taking it in for a proper repair when you’re ready to get back on the road.

>>> 11 cycling books you should read

Watch highlights of old races

There may not be any actual cycling to watch on TV, but there’s plenty of clips on YouTube to keep you entertained for the foreseeable future.

From full Eddy Merckx documentaries to highlights of Tour de France of recent years, there are endless hours of entertainment available. Even as I wrote this, I got sucked into the rabbit hole and watched a ten-minute montage of Fabian Cancellara’s greatest moments (and ten minutes wasn’t enough…).

>>> Things you only know if you play Pro Cycling Manager

Play Pro Cycling Manager

It may seem a ridiculous game at first, but Cyanide Studio’s cycling management game is incredibly addictive if it’s played right.

Take control of your favourite team, or build a custom team, and guide them to success in the biggest races of the year. One of the biggest challenges is avoiding going bankrupt after the first season and winning a team time trial, so kudos if you’re good enough to stay solvent!

People in the early stages of Parkinson's disease may see their symptoms dramatically improved by aerobic exercise like indoor cycling, a study has shown.

Researchers found that high intensity aerobic exercise on a static bike, using interactive apps, provided 'about the same improvement' as medication in patients.

>>> Benefits of cycling

Researchers working in the study, published in The Lancet Neurology, split a group of sufferers into two groups and monitored their progress over six months.

One group pedalled on home trainers, using software which showed course such as Tour de France stages, with variable resistance letting them compete against other patients on hills.

The other group did stretching exercises three times a week, also with an app to maintain motivation.

The control group scored four less points on the scale used to assess the motor skills of Parkinson patients.

Head of the research team professor Bas Bloem told broadcaster NOS: "The effect of cycling is about the same as the improvement we would get from different types of medication. New medication for patients are regarded as meaningful if the improvement it brings has a score of three. That shows you how important the effect of cycling really is.

"The cyclists were fitter and had fewer symptoms. They were deteriorating at a slower pace. That means they will need less medical care and fewer pills but also that effects of the disease on their lungs and heart will be reduced. Many Parkinson patients die of these complications," he added.

This month, residents in care homes across the world will take part in the 'Senior Road World Championships', with elderly competitors racing each other to claim the title.

The event has been backed by British Cycling and Sport England, and competitors take part using equipment supplied by tech company Motitech, pedalling inside on adapted bikes on around 1,700 virtual paths.

The first event took place in 2017 and in 2018 2,500 riders took part, covering covering 52,000 km together.

Resident at Lura Boas care home in Sandnes, Norway, Reidar Schoopp told us: "It has been so busy here that I had to get up at 6.30 in the morning so I could ride the bike. There where so many people that wanted to cycle that it created a queue! 

"I actually broke my hip 18 months ago, so I didn’t have great strength in my legs, but now I can go up and down the stairs without any problems at all. Road Worlds for Seniors is really great. My doctor reminded me that I was really sick, but every time rode the bike, I didn’t notice or think about it at all. I feel in fantastic form purely because of cycling on the bike."

Pro coaches at The Sufferfest have designed a new training suite with sessions tailored for the demands of virtual bike racing.

The Sufferfest, which boasts a library of entertaining but carefully structured training videos within its app, also offers a selection of training plans which can be carried over to platforms like Training Peaks. The newest option is for a plan created with virtual racing at front of mind.

The app contains over 100 plans for cycling and triathlon, and the new eSport focused options can be tailored for races under 20 minutes, those from 20-50 minutes, and hour plus long events.

Chief Cycling Physiologist with The Sufferfest Sports Science Division, Mac Cassin explained: “The demands of virtual racing are very different from those of real-world disciplines. If you want to be successful in cycling eSports, you need to train differently.”

“Plans designed for road-racing events just aren’t as effective in preparing athletes for the multiple surges and sustained efforts that characterise racing in virtual worlds.”

The 2017 USA Points Race National Champ is no stranger to punchy racing, having shifted his personal focus from road racing to the track, in a bid to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic games.

The plans have been created with time-crunched athletes at front of mind, requiring on average 5.5 hours of training a week.

"[The plans] give you the option to substitute the occasional workout for online races. That means you can still ride online with your friends while getting the benefits of a structured training plan designed specifically for cycling eSports,” says Cassin.

eRacing is growing discipline. In April this year, Canyon unveiled the first ever professional eRacing team, consisting of 10 riders, three of whom have been crowned as National Champions in the discipline. The team competed in and won the Zwift KISS Community league.

With most eRacing hosted on Zwift, the introduction of the training programmes sees The Sufferfest working to complement as opposed to compete with the service provider.

>>> Indoor cycling apps compared

David McQuillen, CEO of The Sufferfest, said: “The Sufferfest is dedicated to helping athletes achieve their goals, whether they’re competing on the road, on the dirt, or online.”

"While virtual worlds are great for racing, nothing beats the sports science and structured training that The Sufferfest provides. Together with our 4DP-based workouts—as well as our optional Yoga, Strength Training and Mental Toughness programmes—these new plans will get any athlete into the best shape possible for virtual racing.”

The Zwift Academy is back for another year, with two pro contracts up for grabs as well as in-game kit rewards.

Last year, 35,000 men and women took part in the training programme, which rewards one female a pro contract with Canyon-SRAM and one man with a space on the U23 Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka Continental Team.

Enrolment for the programme is now open, with the training sessions taking place between August 5 and September 29.

Riders will need to complete eight training sessions and four group rides or races to graduate, and for every 10 men who finish all the required sessions, Zwift will donate one Qhubeka bike to provide mobility in impoverished areas of Africa.

It's hoped that 10,000 men will graduate, leading to 1,000 potentially life changing bike donations.

Zwift wants the programme to be just as much about creating and encouraging a fitness seeking community as identifying pro-worthy talent, and there are rewards outside of a place in UCI WorldTour races.

When participants complete 25 per cent of the required sessions, they'll unlock a pair of in-game Zwift Academy socks. At 50 per cent they'll get matching shoes, followed by a cap at 75 per cent and full kit following graduation.

A Zwift Academy paintjob applied to a BMC SLR01 (for men) or a Canyon Ultimate (for women) is the reward for anyone who goes above and beyond, to complete an extra four social rides or races.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BSgMQEoPSU&feature=youtu.be

“Mass participation is a huge part of what Zwift Academy is,” comments Zwift Co-Founder and CEO, Eric Min.

“The Zwift Academy has been an incredibly successful tool for uncovering hidden talent, and I’ve enjoyed watching how previous winners and semi-finalists have progressed. However, for most of us, it's a fantastic opportunity to come together, train and share our experiences. Zwift Academy really brings our community together.”

The academy is now in its fourth year. Commenting on the talent that's been unearthed already, Canyon-SRAM sports director Ronny Lauke said: “It’s not always easy to discover emerging talent, but Zwift has allowed us to discover riders who might not have otherwise appeared on our radar. Previous winners, Tanja [Erath] and Leah [Thorvilson] both had successful sporting backgrounds in other spheres, so obviously hadn’t followed the traditional path to the pro peloton. Tanja has been proving herself on the World Tour Stage once again this year, recently winning the sprinters classification at Emakumeen Bira.”

Newest recruit to the Canyon-SRAM women's squad, Ella Harris, has been enjoying her first year as a pro. The 20-year-old from New Zealand said: “Zwift Academy has helped me realise my dream, and I’m living it right now.”

“I grew up in New Zealand where it’s incredibly hard to get noticed as we are so far removed from the professional scene - especially that in Europe. Typically I would have to travel long distances to races. However, Zwift allowed me to prove my ability on a global stage from the convenience of my home. It’s not been easy to adjust to a new life and the professional peloton, but I’m happy with my progress so far.”

All Zwift Academy riders will be able to enjoy premium access to the online training platform, Today's Plan, during the time the programme is running. This will allow them to see how they stack up against others in their age group, and against the overall competition.

Semi-finalists will receive a Tacx Neo 2 Smart Trainer, for the next phase of testing in the competition - the semi-finalists will be announced in early October.

Canyon has announced the launch of the world's first professional eRacing team: Canyon ZCC

The team consists of 10 riders, five men and five women, and the squad will race under the guidance of team manager Rhys Howell, who will provide support during races via radio communications.

The team includes three Zwift national champions: Kristin Falck (Norway), Eva Buchholz (Germany) and  Lionel Vujasin (Belgium). Wales' James Phillips also came close to the top stop, managing second in the British iteration of the event.

Each of the 10 recruits has received a Canyon Aeroad CF SL road bike, and will be provided with an allowance to travel to events.

Wahoo has sponsored the team, providing riders with a Kickr trainer, Headwind and Climb unit, plus a Tickr heart rate monitor. Nuun has come on board as a hydration sponsor.

Riders will be issued with a striking Canyon ZCC team kit, which the brand showcased in a dramatic photoshoot.

“It’s about being different to the mainstream and embracing the freedom that comes with that. eRacing is still in its infancy, but we have always seen its potential and are excited to be pioneering the future of the sport”, DS Howell commented.

Members of the team have already been competing, winning the inaugural Zwift KISS Community league, and Howell said: “In a very short space of time, we have built an incredibly close-knit team of riders who share our vision to build the ultimate eRacing team. This is just the beginning.”

The full line up is:

Women's Team

• Kristin Falck (NOR)*
• Eva Buchholz (GER)*
• Siri Hildonen (NOR)
• Nathalie Eklund (SWE)
• Laura van Regenmortel (NED)

Men's Team

• Alex West (NZL)
• Steve Young (GBR)
• James Phillips (WAL)
• Lionel Vujasin (BEL)*
• Philipp Diegner (GER)

Commenting on the launch, Head of Marketing and Brand at Canyon, Simon Summerscales said: “We truly value innovation and progress. Therefore it's only natural that we're fully committed to eRacing and want to stay right at the front as this new sport evolves."

Canyon's R&D team will work closely with the team to ensure that all frame platforms are compatible with indoor trainers. There will be 50 replica kits available to buy at canyon.com, from May 7 onwards.

Zwift has further expanded its 'Watopia' universe, to include a new course made up entirely of flat roads.

The 'Fuego Flats' arrive one year on from the launch of 'Alpe du Zwift' and promise 20 kilometres of hill free and paved roads, open to Zwift users of all levels.

The main route will feature just a few mild changes in gradient, with a 10km out and back course, livened up by a roundabout at the end to offer a true to life time trial experience.

From the roundabout, users will enjoy a panoramic view of the desert, and can continue, or choose to exit at the base of Watopia's Epic KOM climb.

There will be a 500m sprint point as well as a 7km long segment, where riders can aim to top the leaderboard or simply better their best effort.

Zwift is calling the new roads a 'perfect  playground for both time trialling and FTP testing', suggesting users stay tuned for the inaugural time trial events.

Zwift CEO and Co-Founder, Eric Min, commented: "Sometimes, we all just like to have some fun on the flats, and I know a lot of Zwifters out there will enjoy the new Fuego Flats - myself included. Not only is it something for the sprinters, but it also opens up whole new possibilities to cater for our triathlon and time trial audiences.”

The Fuego Flats will dessert scenery which draws influence both from the surrounding areas of Zwift's HQ in Long Beach, California, as well as Death Valley, where co-founder Jon Mayfield spent time riding double centuries in the deserts of America.

There's also some geographically diverse inspiration taken from parts of Moab, the Antelope Canyon in Arizona, Mesa Verde cliff dwellings in Colorado, and the annual California Super Bloom.

To add a little flavour, there's some influence from time gone by, with some Wild West action and Watopia's brand new saloon, as well as futuristic elements such as Space Ace architecture within a Palm Springs style resort.

The routes will be available from Friday, with four different options:

Tempus Fugit: 18.9km/11.7 miles, 99 feet

Tick Tock: 16.9km/10.5 miles, 174 feet

The Über Pretzel: 128.6km/79.7 miles, 7823 feet

Out And Back Again: 39.8km/24.7 miles, 1076 feet

Zwift has added a virtual store to its online world, where users can purchase new bikes and wheels for their avatars.

The 'Drop Shop' will operate via a Wattopian currency of 'Drops', which can be earned through using the game, through a combination of miles, feet climbed and calories burned whilst in the virtual universe.

>>> Zwift: everything you need to know

Today, all Zwifters will receive a bonus supply of 'Drops', paid directly into their new Wattopia bank account to kick off the shopping spree.

With a Canyon Speedmax priced at 710,000d, we're guessing the exchange rate isn't comparable to sterling or the Euro.

The Drops cannot be purchased or traded, and have no real world value - so whilst you'll be able to use your Zwift miles to purchase kit from the likes of Specialized, Trek, Cervelo and ENVE, you won't be able to get your local bike shop to honour their value (sadly).

Up until now, new kit was earned when riders managed to 'Level Up' - this will continue  to be the case, based in total milage completed.

However, the kit received when you go up a level will only by accessories, used to customise your appearance - jerseys, helmets, glasses and shoes - with the exception of 'special unlocks' received for completing challenges, like the Concept Z1 bike.

Outside of these special unlocks, all bikes and wheels will all be available at the 'Drop Shop' alone.

The good news is, with all the Drops and kit being virtual, there's no limit to the amount of space in your garage (hall way/bike room), either...

The first women’s virtual race for professionals ended in upset for the big names as a Zwift team rider took the win.

Danish Zwift National Champion Louise Houbak was first in the sprint, followed by Simone Boilard (Twenty20 p/b Sho-Air) and Canyon-SRAM’s Ella Harris.

The Canyon team raced live in front of crowds at the bike manufacturer’s German headquarters during the opening event of the series on Tuesday evening (February 20).

In the opening stages, Zwift Academy winner, now Canyon-SRAM rider Tanja Erath took the first intermediate sprint points while the rest of her team worked for Alice Barnes.

The second sprint marker caused a split at the front of the race as a small group pulled clear on the roads of the Watopia map.

>>> 11 things you only know if you race on Zwift

Houbak pulled hard on the front to prevent the chasing group making it back.

The lead group then splintered further heating into the final, as four riders went clear – Houbak, Harris, Boilard and Sharon Bird.

Houbak narrowly held on to win the sprint at the line ahead of Boilard and Harris.

The Zwift All Stars team lead the overall standing in the series, ahead of Twenty 20 and Canyon-SRAM.

Zwift’s KISS Super League is a race series for men and women held on the virtual training platform.

In the women’s event, nine teams will race over the eight-races – Canyon-SRAM, Doltcini-Van Eyck, Bigla, Valcar-Cylance, Twent20 p/b Sho-Air, Hagens Berman- Supermint, WNT-Rotor, Zwift Community All-Stars and Zwift Academy Dream Team.

>>> Is Zwift’s virtual racing for pros the future of cycling?

The races are broadcast each week on Zwift’s Facebook page, YouTube channel and Twitch.

Zwift’s league for male pro racers features Continental and Pro Continental teams, including Cofidis, Israel Cycling Academy, and Team Wiggins-Le Col.

The league launched in January with a live event held at the Pinarello store in central London.

Winners have included Ian Bibby, Jon Mould (Madison-Genesis) and Ed Hopper (Ribble Pro Cycling).

The racing continues with round five on Wednesday (February 20).

Movistar is launching its own virtual racing event, joining the ever-growing online cycling world.

The Spanish WorldTour team announced the new championships on Tuesday (Monday 11) after a team press conference ahead of the Tour Colombia stage race.

Movistar Virtual Cycling will be launched in April with a combination of online and live qualifying events, held alongside some of the most iconic races of the cycling season.

The races will use the Bkool virtual training software.

>>> Indoor cycling apps compared: which is best for you?

In a statement, Movistar said: “Virtual cycling is a discipline which more and more people are taking up from conventional cycling.

“[Movistar parent company] Telefónica is taking another step forward in its gamble on cycling and innovation through the creation of the international competition, Movistar Virtual Cycling.”

Racers will compete over real routes matching portions of WorldTour events, with the winners of the qualifying events making it through to the finals.

The final race will be held at Festibike, the international bike festival held in Madrid in September.

Bkool’s training platform allows pros and amateurs to compete on 3D simulated environments through their tablet, smartphone or computer.

The software, which features virtual distances, gradients, slipstreaming, landscapes and weather, currently has 100,000 active users.

Movistar virtual cycling will launch on April 14 with a Paris-Roubaix race, followed by Liége-Bastogne-Liége on April 28.

>>> Six signs you’ve spent too long cycling indoors this winter

Other races in the competition include the Tour of California, the Giro d’Italia, Critérium du Dauphiné, Tour de Suisse, and the Tour de France.

This is the latest development in virtual bike racing, following the British Cycling national e-racing championships and the Zwift Kiss Super League.

Qualifying for the first virtual national championships will be held on February 24, followed by a live final in spring.

Last month rival training to Bkool, Zwift, launched the first racing league for pro cyclists.

A total of 15 are racing in the inaugural series, including Cofidis, Team Wiggins – Le Col, Israel Cycling Academy and Hagens Berman Axeon.

First there was the snow and ice, and now the incessant rain. It's fair to say that the weather gods have not smiled kindly on cyclists in the last few weeks.

Whilst some have piled on 50 layers, and stuck to main roads when threatened with black ice on the lanes, others have scurried indoors to get their riding kicks on turbo trainers and rollers.

Indoor cycling is an excellent way to get a structured workout done in minimal time, but there is definitely such a thing as too much. Here are the signs that you've been locked up in the turbo lair for too long...

Your weekly kit wash contained no winter gear

The contents of your washing basket can give a pretty good insight into where you've been riding as of late.

If you know you've been putting the hours in, but your washing load has been reduced to seven pairs of [still slightly damp] pairs of shorts, then it might be time to pull on some tights and take it outdoors at the next available opportunity.

You've mislaid your normal rear wheel skewer

When your bike has been permanently attached to the turbo trainer for months, the original skewer may seem somewhat redundant. If you've stashed it in the 'things I'll need later' draw, maybe fish it out and at least check it still works.

Headset rot

If you're not conscientious enough to loop a towel over the bars, or better still, buy one of those fluffy bike thongs, then a bunged up headset may well be your first symptom of an overly active indoor pedalling life.

You haven't seen your ride buddies outside of Zwift in weeks

Here we are worrying about the younger generation taking all of their social interaction online, but if you can't remember a group ride that didn't involve the capacity for a casual power up, perhaps your own social cycling life needs checking up on too.

Passive aggressive comments from family/housemates are now just aggressive

In case it was unclear, if someone starts vacuuming underneath the turbo trainer: yes, they're sick of you cycling in the house. If they 'accidentally' kill the power to your fancy smart trainer, also probably annoyed. Ditto for letting the cat into the room whilst you're on the rollers.

If you're house sharing, and the post-it notes on the fridge are turning more sour than month old milk, you should probably get out for a long one this weekend and give them all a break.

Saddle heaven has become saddle hell all of a sudden

Even the most perfect set-up can start to grate after hours sat in a static position.

If the ice has melted, and it's safe to venture out, then your rear end will probably thank you for providing a more natural riding position in the near future.

Sir Bradley Wiggins has revealed his son comes home from school and jumps on Zwift rather than playing other hugely popular console games.

Wiggins, Britain’s first Tour de France winner, has shared his thoughts on the online training platform as his team took part in the first virtual race for professionals.

The 38-year-old compared the blossoming technology with his younger days spent on a turbo trainer listening to a Walkman.

His son Ben is hoping to turn pro, and uses Zwift to ride and socialise with friends.

>>> Edvald Boasson Hagen used cycling treadmill for monster six-hour Zwift training ride 

Wiggins said: “My son for example, wants to be professional.

“He comes home from school and rather than go and play Fortnite until 3am, he goes on Zwift now.

“We’re happy because he doesn’t have to go out in the dark.

“It’s also the connections they make – one of his best mates lives in London and they hook up and meet each other to go riding, which is amazing really.”

Wiggins was speaking at the launch of the first virtual race for professional riders, the KISS Super League, which uses the Zwift platform to pit Pro Continental and Continental teams against each other.

During the league’s launch at the Pinarello store in central London on Wednesday night (January 23), Wiggins added: “Sometimes we don’t realise how lucky we are – when I was 13 living in central London, my mum didn’t want me to go out –on the bike in the evenings.

“I used to sit on the turbo trainer and listen to my Walkman.

“It’s transformed how cycling has moved on in the last 20 years.

“I don’t think my son’s generation appreciate just how important that is or how amazing it is.”

>>> British Cycling to hold first ‘eRacing Championships’ with training platform Zwift

Team Wiggins – Le Col, the continental outfit backed by Sir Bradley, were in the Pinarello store to compete in round one of the Super League on Wednesday night, with the other teams scattered across the globe.

The 10-race series will see 15 teams, including Cofidis, Israel Cycling Academy and Madison-Genesis, compete in hour-long virtual races.

Wiggins added: “I hate technology. I hate computers, Facebook, social media – I love this.”

The indoor cycling revolution is entering its latest phase as Zwift launches the first e-racing league for pro riders.

Zwift’s Kiss Super League, which launches on Wednesday (January 23), brings together second and third tier riders from across the world in an online race series.

There will be 15 teams invited to race in the inaugural series, including Cofidis, Team Wiggins – Le Col, Israel Cycling Academy and Hagens Berman Axeon.

>>> Zwift: Everything you need to know

In the women’s contest, Canyon – SRAM and Cervelo – Bigla will be amongst the teams competing.

Zwift CEO Eric Min said: “Our goal is to create a new sport within a sport, celebrated by pro cyclists, amateur cyclists and cycling fans all over the world.

“Pro cycling has embraced Zwift as a training platform and Zwift has proven itself as a talent ID platform for pro cycling.

“Now is the time to push on with e-sports and in doing so build value for pro cycling.”

Round one of the Super League will be held at the Pinarello store in central London on Wednesday evening, where Team Wiggins will race.

Team boss and Tour de France winner Sir Bradley Wiggins will attending to support his team in their first indoor race.

Wiggins said: “I’m well known for being a student of the sport.

“The history of cycling is very special to me but this doesn’t mean things should not change.

“BMX bikes came out of nowhere to become the ‘must have’ thing when I was a kid in the 80s. Now it’s an Olympic discipline.

“This story of cycling is ever evolving and as a parent I want to see our sport provide accessibility and inspiration for young people.

“If a computer game can get kids off the sofa and onto a bike to workout and compete, then I’m a supporter.”

>>> British Cycling to hold first ‘eRacing Championships’ with training platform Zwift

There will be four Pro Continental and nine Continental teams competing in the men's league, as well as two teams from the Zwift community.

There will also be a women’s Kiss Super League, due to start in February, with six pro teams and two Zwift teams.

On the women’s contest, Zwift Academy winner and now Canyon – Sram rider Tanja Erath said: “It’s a great opportunity for women’s cycling.

“I do feel the pressure slightly, as there will be eyes on me.

“This will be my second year as a professional cyclist, so I know how to race well in a team.

“I have a lot of experience on Zwift, so now I get to share my experience with the team rather than the other way around.”

Zwift is hoping to inspire a generation of younger cyclists and a wider audience by “gamifying” bike racing.

Craig Edmondson, the former head of marketing for the Premier League who now leads Zwift’s e-sport business said: “Our role is to deliver something brand-new to cycling.

“By gamifying racing, we will create entertaining coverage and introduce an added dimension to bike racing.

“Team-based competition, power ups, course ‘know how’ and the differences in racing physics makes Zwift a new battleground for competition.

“Watts per kilogram is only one of many key factors.”

A community-focused Kiss League will also be launched for amateur competitors alongside the pro ranks.

Round one of the Kiss Super League will be broadcast live on the Zwift Facebook page from 6.30pm on Wednesday evening.

Teams competing in the KISS Super League

Men’s

Hagens Berman Aexeon

Israel Cycling Academy

Cofidis

Novo Nordisk

Dimension Data U23

Canyon - dhb p/b Bloor Homes

Team Wiggins – Le Col

Arapahoe – Hincapie p/b BMC

Madison Genesis

Oliver’s Real Food Racing

SEG Racing Academy

Pro Racing Sunshine Coast

Ribble Pro Cycling

Zwift Community All Stars

Zwift Academy Dream Team

Women’s

Canyon – SRAM

Doltcini – Van Eyck

Hagens Berman Supermint

Team Twenty20

Cervelo – Bigla

Zwift All Stars

Zwift Academy Dream Team

Online cycling platform Zwift has secured a $120 million funding boost, which it aims to put into expanding its esports catalogue as well as its presence in running.

Founder Eric Min has said he wants Zwift racing to become the "first true esport of its kind” and that he believes the platform will "play a leading role in the future of professional cycling.”

The news comes shortly after British Cycling unveiled its plans to use the programme to host its first 'eRacing Championships' in 2019.

Keen to 'own' the esports arena when it comes to cycling, Zwift has over one million users on its books, with a large percentage of the cycling population utilising the network for training and racing. Users reportedly include one third of the Tour de France peloton.

The Series B funding round was led by Highland Europe, whose portfolio includes the likes of eGym and Huel as well as giants WeTransfer. Other parties include True, the retail, consumer and leisure investment firm behind the Ribble; Causeway Media, an investor in both traditional sports and esports; as well as returning London-based investor Novator participating.

“Zwift is now more than ready to propel the business forward by providing innovative offerings that are greater in breadth and depth,” said co-founder and CEO of the company, Eric Min.

“In 2018, more than one third of the Tour de France peloton were Zwifters. With that support already in place, we are in the unique position of being able to combine affordable physical endeavour with video gaming technology, ultimately setting the stage for us to become the first true esport of its kind.”

Much has been made of the comparisons between the esport variety of cycling, and the real life version.

Min said: “We’re not here to compete with pro cycling as we know it, we’re here to deliver new energy, entertainment, audiences and commercial partners to pro cycling.

"We want to create an new sport within a sport. Don’t expect to see first across the line stage racing, Zwift is going to turn into a battleground for pro cycling teams and deliver a truly gamified experience which will be shared with our subscriber base globally. I personally believe Zwift will play a leading role in the future of professional cycling.”

Mark Cavendish, the 30-time Tour de France Stage winner, is a vocal advocate, saying: “Zwift has transformed the way the professional peloton trains.”

“Before Zwift, there is no way I would have chosen to ride an indoor trainer. Now though, I genuinely enjoy it - it appeals to the gamer in me. Riders like myself are genuinely fitter now, thanks to Zwift.”

Tony Zappala, Partner of Highland Europe, said: “Zwift is a fantastically innovative company and they are certainly leading the way in the indoor training space.”

“It’s a highly scalable business and we’ve been impressed with how they have already managed to expand globally."

The newest rider to earn a pro contract via the Zwift Academy is young New Zealander, Ella Harris.

The 20-year-old enters the UCI pro peloton, joining Canyon-SRAM women's racing team, with ambitions of attacking the spring classics.

A fan of "hard, hilly, undulating races," the newest recruit to the German registered team beat around 5,000 Zwift Academy contestants to the win.

Following a series of workouts, races and group rides on the indoor training platform, Harris joined two other semi-finalists, British rider Mary Wilkinson and Ione Johnson, also from New Zealand, at the Canyon/SRAM training camp in Málaga, Spain where she was eventually selected as the winner.

She'll join 2017 winner, Tanja Erath, whose contract has been extended with the World Tour outfit.

“I can’t believe I did it! I’m so happy,” Harris said on receiving the news.

“I entered hoping, and wanting, to win but when I heard my name called out, it was a feeling of complete shock!

"Now I’m going home to celebrate with my family and friends before focusing on training for my first year in the World Tour. It’s unbelievable.”

The academy began in 2016, making Harris its third recruit into pro racing, with US rider Leah Throvilson - who rode the for squad in 2017 and 2018 - the first.

Harris is the youngest winner of the opportunity - Thorvilson and Erath were 38 and 28-year-old respectively, on selection.

“Ella is another great prospect who showed her all-round abilities during the week here in Málaga," said Canyon-SRAM team manager Ronny Lauke.

"No doubt she will learn a lot from next year on how to adapt to life as a professional rider away from home. I really look forward to welcoming Ella to the team and what she can do out on the road next season!”

Kate Veronneau, Women’s Zwift Academy Lead at Zwift, said: “What another fantastic year it’s been for the CANYON//SRAM Zwift Academy.”

“While the champions of the Zwift Academy are the ones who grab the headlines, and rightly so, it’s important to highlight the thousands of women who took part in the 2019 Zwift Academy - many with very different objectives to the winner. It’s fantastic to be a part of such a community and championing women’s cycling.”

Promotional feature with Tacx

For most people strength is not the limiting factor when it comes to turning the pedals over faster.Unless you’re on the steepest of gradients, vastly over-geared, or an all-out track sprinter, then you’re probably riding well within your capabilities in terms of maximum force at the pedals.

For full-time professionals who are already doing 30 hours a week of cycling, specific work inside the gym is a perfect supplement to their riding. However, for the rest of us, getting stronger without sacrificing time on the bike is a great way to get the best of both worlds.

The purpose of this session is to manipulate your cadence in a controlled environment in order to increase the muscular force required to turn the pedals. A direct-drive trainer which allows for high-torque pedalling without any rear-wheel slippage will make this workout far easier to complete.

It’s important during these workouts that you maintain a strong core and remain stable on the bike. The only thing that should be moving is your legs. If you are rocking and rolling all over the bike then it’s likely that your core strength isn’t giving you a stable enough platform with which to push hard from.

What it’s for

Getting you over steep hills. Improving your muscular endurance, time trial speed and ability to push a big gear.

How to do it

Use a direct-drive trainer that doesn’t suffer from rear-wheel slippage.

Select ERG mode on your trainer and program the workout using your smart trainer software so that you can focus on good pedal technique and low cadence without having to worry about anything else.

It is also possible to pre-program this workout into the Tacx app (free to download on Android and iTunes).

Alternatively, select a riding app that will use your trainer to simulate a long climb and apply changes in gradient

to your ride. The Tacx Neo can simulate up to a 25 per cent gradient, which you’d be hard-pressed to find in the real world.

For extra motivation use the video feature built into the Tacx software, which shows you ascending an iconic climb in real time and adjusts your speed based on your power output.

For the main 20-minute efforts select a low cadence that doesn’t put too much stress on your joints and leave them sore. Between 60rpm and 80rpm is a typical target for this style of workout.

Lift the cadence if it feels too difficult to complete. Focus on hitting the power numbers first and reduce the cadence over time if it doesn’t come naturally. Make note of your power output for these sessions and see how it changes in relation to your heart rate over time.

This is a great way to measure and see real improvements to your fitness.

For your warm-up, rest periods and cool-down, take the strain off your muscles by spinning a lighter gear.

A cadence that feels natural should be the most efficient; try 90rpm to 100rpm for these sections if you’re unsure.

Try a strength session for yourself

1 After a 17-minute steady and progressive warm-up, complete

2 x 20 minute pyramid-style intervals.

2 Each 20-minute block is broken down into 5 x 4 minute segments starting at 80% of your FTP, building up to 90% and then coming back down again.

3 Complete these 20-minute blocks at a very low cadence of between 60 and 80rpm. Maintain a strong core and smooth pedalling technique throughout.

4 For the rest periods and cool- down, select a higher and more natural cadence to rest the legs.

Zwift has announced the latest amateur rider to receive a pro contract via its Academy programme as 19-year-old Martin Lavrič.

The Slovenian rode for continental outfit Attaque Team Gusto through 2017, and entered the competition with hopes of reaching the semi-final and securing himself the Elite smart turbo trainer prize.

Instead, he joined two other finalists at the Team Dimension Data end of season training camp in Cape Town, South Africa - before being selected as the winner.

Lavrič fought off competition from around 30,000 Zwift Academy participants to win a place on the U23 Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka squad.

He called the opportunity "a dream come true."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJU8Hlr3Mow&feature=youtu.be

“I entered Zwift Academy with an eye on a semi-final place, as I wanted to win an Elite smart trainer, but I walked away with a pro contract," he said.

"I have experience racing at a UCI continental level, but this was a huge opportunity for me to get noticed by a top professional cycling team. It will be a huge change, but I’m really relishing the opportunity.”

The other two finalists to join Lavrič in Cape Town were Alex West from New Zealand and Ollie Peckover of Great Britain.

The young rider receives a year long contract, and is the second ever winner of the Men's Zwift Academy Programme, which came to be after the success of the women's version which feeds successful riders to Canyon-SRAM racing team. 

Riders took part in a series of workouts, followed by Zwift races before the finalists were invited for scrutiny offline.

“Having spent some time with the riders here in Cape Town, We’re really confident in Martin," said Elliot Lipski, Coach to Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka.

"He showed real instinct out on the road, and the other riders took to him well. He’s got a great program with us at Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka and a direct route into the World Tour if he proves himself. Now is just the beginning.”

Senior team rider and avid Zwifter, Edvald Boasson Hagen commented: “A few of the senior riders live in Tuscany, where the U23 team are based and I’m sure they’ll keep a watchful eye on Martin.”

Eric Min, Zwift Co-Founder and CEO said: “This year’s Zwift Academy has been a step up again... I’d like to offer my congratulations to Martin. I’m really excited to see how he performs next year - we’ll be behind him all the way!”

The 2018 Zwift Academy, along with the Ride for Qhubeka challenge which took place during the week of the training camp, saw 850 bikes donated to Qhubeka, which will be distributed throughout South Africa in order to bring people in rural communities closer to healthcare, jobs, and education.

Indoor cycling was big news last year, and the sweaty march in pursuit of elevated functional threshold power and improved sprint watts looks set to continue.

There's a variety of indoor cycling apps designed to keep boredom at bay for those pedalling indoors - but The Sufferfest has been at it since before applications were even a thing living in your iPhone, let alone Android.

The bringers of pain, misery - and ultimately, glory - have been flogging riders and setting minions on their souls since 2008. Initially The Sufferfest inflicted its "training effects"  via single purchase videos, but more recently it's begun to spread self-inflicted torment via an all howling, all chamois dancing app. 

As sadistic as it all sounds, the sessions have been written by experts at Apex Coaching since 2011 - and the creation of the app allows for effective and precise power targets, especially when completed within a downloadable training plan devised by the minions of Apex themselves.

But of course, training science is not what you came here for. Here are nine things you'll only know if you've frequented the auto-sadisto-dictatorship whose capital is called Agonia...

IWBMATTKYT

You're not a Sufferlandrian if you need to Google that.

The Tour of Sufferlandria is superior to the Tour de France

Because Geraint Thomas never had to ride through molten lava and breathe in volcanic ash to get to Paris, did he?

15 intervals means 16

Do the minions ever stay away from the control desk during the creation of a video? See also: 60 second intervals that last for 90 seconds.

Despite the fact you've done Revolver more times than you've eaten hot lava rocks, you're still surprised and upset every time that extra effort flashes onto the screen.

But hey, 'Fluffy' looked real menacing when chasing you during the warm up, so best crack on.

Your pain cave is a creative shrine to your personal pursuit of misery

Suggested accessories: blizzard fan, comedy sized inflatable hammers (nine of), traditional flag of Sufferlandira. No mirrors - you'll be smashing through them with your pain face.

A three minute effort AFTER 2x20 is totally worth it for an imaginary leader's jersey

Especially when it looks like the above. Plus, you get to dance on the chamois' of your enemies - which is a deep seated desire we all hold, only enabled by the will of Grunter von Agony. If you complete that extra three minutes.

The only thing worse than Downward Spiral's agony is the soundtrack

And yet, you just keep going back to that repetitive Euro dance fest for more doses of the pain shakes.

4DP is actually The Truth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP_Y6tK62ms

Sure: the concept has existed for longer than it's been practicable via Full Frontal - but The Sufferfest brought the Knowledge to us, for which we are eternally grateful (if a little sad that we can't boast about our superior FTPs without having to admit abysmal sprint abilities).

ISLAGIATT

Two hours on the turbo trainer always seems like a good idea, until you actually do it.

Pain is temporary, Suffering is forever

There's no going back once you've gone this deep...

An avid Zwift user has employed the power of interval training to create a workout which celebrates the New York course introduced in October.

Greg Leo 'The Lion', an active Zwift community member, completed fourteen efforts to create the visual representation that might remind readers-of-a-certain-age of a 1990s sitcom set in the city.

>>> Best Black Friday deals for cyclists

The hour long session is titled 'New York #intervalart' - and represents a new dimension to the Strava art that has proved popular enough for marriage proposals and yielded some true works of beauty in the past.

With an average power of 195 watts (for Greg), the session includes greyed out efforts below zone one, as well as zone four/zone five combos that are particularly pleasing to the eye - plus two special sprint spikes for the Worldwide Plaza and the Chrysler Building (we think).

In the comments, Leo warned: "it’s not easy" - and with a Training Stress Score of 78, it looks like he's not wrong.

Zwift allows users to create workouts, follow existing sessions (probably based more closely on exercise and physiology than colours and height) - as well as providing group rides and races.

Zwift New York was unveiled last month, and marks the fifth 'world' for the indoor training game, following the recent release of the Innsbruck-Tirol 2018 UCI Road World Championship course.

Other creations include the original and mythical 'Watopia', London and Richmond.

The newest Zwift course is not an exact representation of New York as it is now. In keeping with other Zwift worlds, such as the Volcanic islands if Watopia, users have been transported 100 years into the future - to a city where cars hover (which would be most handy for all involved).

In New York, Zwift riders can choose between ten different routes - including a 9.7 kilometre route around Central Park, spinning (or smashing) past landmarks including The Guggenheim, The Met, the El Dorado Hotel and Tavern on the Green.

Other routes Zwifters can explore in New York are...

• RISING EMPIRE - 20.7km // 376m Hit the KOM in both directions on this climber’s course
• PARK PERIMETER LOOP - 9.7km // 126m The outermost loop of the park
• THE HIGHLINE - 10.5km // 179m Ride elevated roads in the skies above Central Park
• LADY LIBERTY - 12.3km // 206m A steep climb up to the KOM before a long lap around the park
• MIGHTY METROPOLITAN - 20.0km // 318m  Traverse most of the park and elevated roads in a meandering loop
• ASTORIA LINE 8 - 11.5km // 142m Named for the first NYC subway line, take a figure 8 path around the park
• KNICKERBOCKER - 22.4km // 365m This mostly flat route has some grit in it with one trip up the KOM via the steep route
• GRAND CENTRAL CIRCUIT - 6.8km // 144m Circuit course that takes the steep route up and down the KOM with a short loop around the Sprint in between
• EVERYTHING BAGEL - 34.3km // 545m Hit the Sprint and KOM in both directions on this long, looping route
• THE 6 TRAIN - 6.5km // 69m The shortest route around the park is flat and fast

Zwift are giving athletes the chance to support worthy causes, including Adrien Costa who lost his leg earlier this year.

The virtual training gurus are bringing back ‘Ride With Reason,’ a fundraising drive that lets you support charities while training.

Back for it’s second year, the 2018 edition of Ride With Reason will help support the young rider whose leg was amputated after a climbing accident earlier this year.

Former Hagens Berman Axeon Costa, who stepped away from cycling in mid-2017, suffered a severe leg injury while rock climbing in California in July.

>>> Former Italian pro Andrea Manfredi dies in Indonesia plane crash

While climbing the north ridge of Mount Conness in Mono County, a two-tonne rock gave way and crushed Costa’s leg against a boulder.

The severity of the injury to the American’s leg left doctors no choice but to amputate.

Now you can help with Costa’s medical expenses, by taking part in ‘Climb for Costa' from November 5-11.

This year you can support four different causes by taking part in Ride With Reason – Adrien Costa, the charity Qhebeka, Great Ormond Street Hospital and World Bicycle Relief.

From November 12-18, you can take part in the Zwift x Dimension Data Ride for Qhubeka.

The event will be led by pro riders during the week, with the aim of donating 500 bikes to donate to people in need in Africa.

>>> Zwift: Everything you need to know 

In the following week, you can ride in support of The Gordon and Tana Ramsay Foundation, partnered with Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity.

Zwift will be donating $25,000 to charity as part of the challenge.

Finally, from November 25 to December 1, the chosen charity will be World Bicycle relief with the aim of donating 250 Buffalo Bikes to developing countries.

During each of the events you complete a set challenge to unlock in-game kit to support each of the charities involved.

If you complete each of the challenges throughout the month, you unlock a special kit for your avatar.

The evenings are drawing in and the roads are taking just a bit too long to dry, which means indoor training season is here.

As we all prepare to break out the turbo trainers, put the summer bikes into storage and reluctantly plan gym sessions, Zwift have been working on something new.

The indoor training experts will soon be releasing the latest location for their social media-meets-smart trainer software.

New York is the newest option to be added to the growing list of scenery and Zwift have teased some of the details.

So far we know the new course will include 24,945metres of new roads, 498 sycamore trees, 506 lamp posts, 10 new cycle routes , 13 running routes, 389 elevation metres and 28 hot dog stands.

>>> Zwift: Everything you need to know

But the one thing Zwift have not revealed is the release date.

The teaser video ends with “coming soon.”

Earlier this year, Zwift launched a new Innsbruck course ahead of the 2018 UCI World Championships.

That brought the total number of courses up to four – Innsbruck, London, Richmond and Watopia.

Zwift is a turbo trainer game that enables you to link you turbo trainer up your computer, iPad, iPhone or Apple TV, letting you ride with other cyclists in a virtual environment, therefore helping to alleviate some of the boredom associated with indoor riding.

As well as competing against others riders in Zwift racers, those seeking specific training sessions can access workouts designed by professional coaches, and these can be completed in groups with riders completing efforts at the same intensity based on a percentage of their FTP.

Indoor cycling platform Zwift has partnered with clothing brand Black Sheep Cycling to offer an online version of its 'Man Ride' - which aims to raise awareness of men's mental illness.

Every day in the UK, 13 men take their own lives due to mental illness, one in five men in Australia suffer from a form of mental illness and in the USA men are four times more likely to commit suicide them women.

>>> Indoor cycling platforms explained 

The goal of the Black Sheep 'Man Ride' and its 'Global Man Ride Day' on October 7 is to create a conversation around the statistics and encourage discussion of men's mental health.

“The metaphor between the high and lows of cycling and mental illness are marked,” says John Polson, Black Sheep Managing Director.

“But more than that, the Man Ride is our way to engage an entire community, break down the stigma associated with men’s mental illness and carry the conversation across multiple continents and platforms.”

https://vimeo.com/187275702

The official Man Ride 2018 will see 10 self-supported riders covering five continents in five days - they'll ride in Oceania, America, South America, Europe and the UK, starting from October 3.

Their finish line will arrive on October 7 - the second successive 'Global Man Ride Day.'  This will be celebrated with 15 rides around the world, as well as a virtual Zwift ride.

To help partakers get some training miles in, there's a series of 'Brunchie' rides being held on Zwift in the run-up to the event, too.

Studies have shown that cycling can be good for mental health, but competitive sport has a tendency to draw in people who can be more susceptible.

Graeme Obree famously suffered with depression, and told Cycling Weekly: "Whatever it is, the nuclear reaction that drives [athletes] on is also the thing that leaves them susceptible to being depressed. It’s not that sport makes people depressed.

"A lot of people who suffer from depression have a tendency to have obsessive behaviour – that’s why more of them exist in the top end of sport. The sport is actually a self-medicating process of survival.”

Zwift users have the opportunity to join Canyon-Eisberg riders for a virtual training camp in the lead up to the Tour of Britain.

The three day indoor training bonanza kicks off on Tuesday this week, with the likes of team riders Andy Tennant, Harry Tanfield, Max Stedman and Ryan Christensen set to take part.

One rider who completes the camp will win the opportunity to follow the OVO Energy Tour of Britain from the inside of the Canyon-Eisberg team car.

There will be two group workouts, plus a group ride, followed by a short race. All three sessions will take place on the indoor training platform, kicking off at 7pm BST.

Zwift workouts allow riders of all abilities to complete intervals - based on their Functional Threshold Power (FTP) - together, without being spread out by differences in fitness.

>>> Indoor training apps compared 

The group ride will act as a finale for the virtual camp - and will comprise of a 45 minute group ride, followed by 15 minutes of racing.

The final session - on Thursday August 16 - will also be an opportunity for those taking part to ride and chat with the pros from the team.

Canyon-Eisberg Zwift training camp schedule:

• Tuesday August 14, 19:00 BST, Group workout
• Wednesday August 15, 19:00 BST, Group workout
• Thursday August 16, 19:00 BST, group ride, starting at 2.5W/kg for 45 mins, finishing with a 15 min race

Canyon-Eisberg is one of four UCI pro-continental teams to make the selection to ride the Tour of Britain, after Harry Tanfield's success at the Tour of Yorkshire earlier this year.

The race sets off from Pembrey Country Park, Wales, on September 2, concluding in London with a criterium on September 9.

The Zwift Academy is back for 2018 and the online training platform has once again teamed up with Team Dimension Data and Canyon-SRAM women's team to seek out two hidden talents and award them a pro contract each.

The Academy is now in its third year, having funnelled three new riders into the pro ranks - 2017 winner Tanja Erath, 2016 winner Leah Thorvilson who had her contract extended this year, to Canyon-SRAM plus former speed skater Ollie Jones who found himself a home at Team Dimension Data's under-23 squad.

>>> Indoor cycling apps compared

Speaking at the London launch, Team Dimension Data's Mark Cavendish - a self-confessed Zwift convert - said: “I joined the pro peloton after coming through the British Cycling Performance Academy. At the time this was a brand new concept to try and help talented British riders break through in continental Europe. It's exciting to see another new, even more radical route to the professional peloton with Zwift Academy."

Former triathlete Erath took up cycling following an injury which halted her running - racing fixed gear crits and then entering the Academy, having borrowed a turbo trainer from a friend.

>>> Beginner’s guide to indoor cycling: all you need to know

Erath has been racing with the team throughout the season and told Cycling Weekly: "It's still intimidating and mostly I'm really nervous before races - but everything I do and every move I cover for the team I feel like I'm learning. I'm able to protect my team mates and work for them, and they seem pretty happy with that and say I'm adapting quickly. It's super fun and I love every race day."

The experience has changed her perception of her rider type, Erath said: "I didn't really have much explosive power, but when I switched to fixed gear racing and I talked to my coach about it and we worked hard on accelerations. Then I did the Zwift academy, and I've since been told 'you're a sprinter'.

"It seems like I have some talent in the sprints, but I kind of forced myself into triathlon. I don't think I would have learned that I'm suited to this kind of riding without the experience I've had with Zwift."

Men's winner Ollie Jones has been back on the indoor trainer recently, having suffered some injuries following early season crashes. But he's back racing now, and looking forward to the coming months.

"I've had a few setbacks, and been injured, but that has allowed me to do a lot of structured training indoors. I've been doing a lot of short, sharp stuff, none of the longer, four hour rides that you'd do out on the road. Coming into the second half of the season I'm feeling positive and looking forward to getting back to racing."

Jones, who says sport is "in his blood" entered the Zwift academy already knowing he did well in races on the online platform, but adds: "I was in it to win, but for many it's a great way to share an experience and improve overall fitness. It’s a great challenge for people of all abilities.”

Entry to the 2018 Zwift Academy is now open. The programme consists of 10 workouts, four group rides and two races - all starting on August 6; 20 semi-finalists (10 men and 10 women) will be unveiled in early October.

This year, Zwift wants to see riders who are not contending victory complete as much of the Academy as possible, so it's added four 'unlocks' - one after each quarter - where rewards will be available both online and in real life.

Eric Min, Zwift CEO and Co-Founder said: “Unfortunately I can’t win a pro contract, but I will be taking part and am keen to see how my FTP improves again this year.

"As an extra incentive for people to complete the program, we will be donating one Qhubeka bike for every 10 graduates of the Men’s Zwift Academy to support the Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka cause. It’s a fantastic program that helps deliver better transport to remote areas of Africa. Get enrolled, get fitter and help a worthy cause in the process.”

All riders will be offered premium access to Today's Plan for the duration of the Academy, enjoying a full set of tools to help them analyse their progress. Users will also be able to see how they stack up against those in their age group and across the overall competition.

Until now I’d never used Zwift, my turbo was made in the early 90s and I’m not sure it’s compatible.

Yes, it is true I have been heard to scoff at those on it, especially when it’s a nice day out but my main reason for non-participation was the set up cost so I just did without.

>>> Alpe du Zwift lets you climb you-know-where on your turbo

However, when I saw they’d built a virtual Alpe d’Huez I knew I had to get myself there and give it a try and within seconds of me Tweeting my interest, Matt Payne from Full Speed Events invited me to try on his set up.

Every year from 2005 I’ve ridden up Alpe d’Huez at least once and since the advent of Strava, my times have been logged so I can compare my efforts across the years.

My attempt is usually performed mid-drive between England and a holiday in Italy and involves me jumping out the car, dumping the family at the Casino supermarket, doing a 30 minute warm up and then attacking the mountain.

Over the past few years my times have been freakishly similar as you can see in the picture, this is just my limit, this is as fast as I can go. I did do a good PB last summer, but for the first time I left the family at home and took my old super-light hill climb wheels instead.

As I’d never used Zwift before I first went round to Matt’s for an acclimatisation, and yes, it was amazing. No I will not be on it all the time, and no it won’t replace riding outside, but compared to sitting on the turbo staring at a pool of sweat on the floor and a stopwatch it is a quantum leap and I loved it.

It’s nuances did need a bit of getting used to, and thanks to Matt having put in the hard kilometres I pretty much had my pick of available kit, so once I was happy we set my attempt for a week later.

I was weighed, we calibrated, I warmed up for about 35 minutes and then I hit it and in a nutshell, it’s pretty much bang on. I knew what I wanted and expected it to feel like and it delivered - oh it delivered.

From the off you will notice on Zwift, or at least I do, that I find I am riding two to three sprockets higher at the back than I would be in real life.

Having had a trial run on the system the week previous I was ready for this so hit the base of the climb in the 39x23 instead of the 39x27. If it was to ride true then I knew that if I was comfortable in that gear on the first ramp then I would not need anything lower higher up.

Just like the real thing the first kick up to bend 21 is a killer and you have to hold back even though your excitement tells you to attack it. The key is to find a rhythm, a place somewhere between comfort and discomfort then take two per cent off that.

I’ve never ridden with power before or a heart rate monitor, I’ve always just relied on feel so it was fascinating to see the array of stats in front of me and to have Matt calling out my average power splits between each of the famous 21 corners.

How the program reacted to the bends was what I was really looking forward to seeing; would they offer that brief respite you get on the real thing, would there be 21 points of salvation that punctuate the pain?

Honestly I think they were spot on, especially the wide left hand turns where just like on the Alpe you get the chance to spin out before hitting the next solid ramp. I was disappointed with not being able to look out over Le Bourg-d’Oisans from turn two though, but I’ll let that slip.

Upon reaching the bend where in real life La Garde would stand I anticipated a slight relaxing of the slope and it arrived, in fact all the tiny nuances were where I remembered them.

When the gradient did ease the temptation was to change up a sprocket which I did briefly but as soon as I felt I was going just a fraction too hard I changed back.

Sitting on a metronomic 110rpm, which is a fair bit faster than I would pedal in real life and turning out a consistent 330+ watt average I was still trying to keep a lid on it to save a bit for the end.

Through Dutch corner, which is subtly marked with a field of orange tents (which maybe during the Tour will hide a horde of drunken fans?), there’s another lull and by now the pain was setting in.

When riding the real thing it’s usually at bend four where I properly begin to suffer and start begging for it to end and this was no different. I was guessing I had paced it just right, my wattage had been about as consistent as it could be and now I just had to fight to get to the finish.

On the actual Alpe between bends four and three there’s a long straight open stretch where your morale can dip significantly as you see so much road ahead, but on Zwift there’s a tunnel, and much more varied scenery which are both very welcome distractions.

I’d been chasing a rider from Hong Kong almost all the way up, he had started about two minutes in front of me and was now in sight, I had to close a gap of 20 seconds but I was on my absolute limit.

I got to bend one and was on my knees but I could not give up and it was now that my target time came on screen. I think Matt, whose excellent encouragement was just about the only thing keeping me moving, had been hiding it from me so I didn’t focus on it.

It said 44 minutes exactly, so naturally I wanted to do ‘a 43’. I tried to sprint, but like on the real mountain from bend one to the village is purgatory, it’s one of the steepest sections and on Zwift it’s no different and I screamed once across the line.

The clock stopped at 44.01. I fought as hard as could but could not get the extra two seconds I needed, still I was happy with that time.

Of course the scenery is different, and you can’t go for a lazy breakfast in Le Bourg-d’Oisans, or stock up on chocolate covered waffles in the Casino supermarket, but if you strip it back, and this is what I wanted to find out, the feel of the ride is pretty much exact.

Each corner reacted as I would have expected, each bend arrived with the regularity I remembered. Yes some familiar landmarks were missing, as were the two photographers who sit on bends five and three all day, every day, but that aside it was just excellent and I’ll be back when my legs stop hurting to break 44 minutes.

In the spirit of transparency and fair sport, here are the details of the attempt. I was weighed right before the start and took no performance enhancing drugs, honest.

Equipment

Virtual Bike: Canyon Aeroad with Zipp 202 wheels

Actual Bike: Time carbon with Campagnolo Record and Zipp 202s

Turbo: Tacx Vortex Smart – Spin down calibrated to rider's bike using Tacx Utility program

Link: Ant+

Program: Zwift – Spin down calibrated to turbo after 15mins of riding using Zwift program

Virtual rider extras: Std Helmet (can’t be too careful kids!), no mitts, long socks

Actual rider extras: No Helmet, no mitts, long socks

Settings

Programmed Rider Height: 181cm

Programmed Rider Weight: 73kg

Actual Rider Height: 181cm

Actual Rider Weight: 74.3kg including shorts, socks & base layer taken after breakfast & approx 1.5l of fluids

I was expertly aided, tutored and encouraged in my attempt by Matt Payne from Full Speed Events and if you want to enlist the help of Matt in an attempt on the Alpe, or use any his coaching services then get in touch.

With a life time in cycle sport including 20 years in retail and manufacturing, Matt is also an ex-racing cyclist on the road and track, riding National Hill Climb Championships from Ditchling Beacon to Luddenden Foot. He has for the last 15 years been a race announcer and commentator covering road, track, cyclocross and MTB.

He is also importantly a real Zwift addict which is put to good use at Full Speed Events who use Zwift as part of their bespoke coaching, guiding and consultancy work.

Promotional feature with Zwift

Indoor cycling app Zwift has unveiled a week of women's rides, training sessions and races to celebrate International Women's Day.

The platform is hosting its second 'Zwift Women's Week', taking place between Thursday March 8 and March 15, though it’s keen to emphasis its ongoing support.

>>> Check out the Zwift Women's Week events and rides on offer here

"We're trying to make the Zwift women's experience the best it can be; it’s not about cramming as many women's events in to one week as possible - it's a peek at what's to come, introducing new personalities, new features, new events, that are going to make the Zwift women's experience even better," explained Women’s Strategy Lead at Zwift, Kate Veronneau.

During the week, riders will be able to complete training sessions led by notable female athletes such as Dani Rowe, Kristen Armstrong and Zwift Academy riders Leah Thorvilson and Tanja Erath. There will also be group rides hosted by women at Zwift HQ, as well as 'Fearless Racing' competitive events.

Veronneau says the 2016 Zwift Academy - from which Thorvilson graduated - was instrumental in creating a strong women’s community on the platform. It became even more popular in 2017 with five times as many academy graduates.

“What started as a talent identification competition, actually turned into this incredibly encouraging, supportive international community of women cyclists. We recognised that this community had slightly different needs and wants sometimes than the men's community - and we wanted to make sure we were always considering that when we create events and opportunities.”

Explaining how the women’s community is different, Veronneau says the riders “encourage each other, in a way that is a little different to the men's community sometimes,” adding that Zwift will be offering more spin inspired sessions “for women that are really busy with careers and children and everything - that might typically go to the gym and knock out a quick spin.”

"Cycling in general is very slanted gender wise, and we recognise that we have to be very proactive in making sure there's a lot of different types of rides for women, and we're bringing in coaches and riders for the women's community to be inspired by.”

Riders taking part in the week will have the opportunity to unlock new items: the Liv Langma Advanced SL road bike, kit by 'Bad Ass is Beautiful' brand Betty Designs and Zwift’s own Women’s Week kit, which uses bold colours, and isn’t afraid to stand out.

"The motto behind Zwift Women's Week is Fun, Fearless and Fit. [When we designed the kit] we didn't want something overly girly, to placate the community at all - we wanted something that was very strong and stylish.”

The rides on offer during the week, and partnerships being made with brands like Liv and Betty Designs, should work both ways.

“Riders will be able to cycle with big names in women's cycling - and that exposure can make people pay attention to the women's pro scene as well, and be a little more invested in that which is what the pro scene needs too - the exposure, people knowing these names and wanting to watch racing.”

"Our partners - Rapha, Liv, Specialized, SRAM, Betty Designs - are all companies that lead the industry in providing awesome opportunities for women - designing for women, engineering for women, not just slapping pink on something, really considering the different needs, biology and mechanics of women when making kit - these are the companies we really want to promote.

"They’re all about getting more women on bikes - and that's what we're all interested in - getting more women riding bikes more often.”

A 21-year-old from New Zealand has become the first male rider to earn a professional contract with his performances on Zwift after being given a deal with Dimension Data's development team.

Ollie Jones, a former champion speed skater, fought off the competition from more than 9,000 other riders to land the deal with the under-23 Dimension Data for Qhubeka squad as part of the Zwift Academy programme.

Jones was one of three riders to attend the Dimension Data team training camp in South Africa, having completed a six-week training programme on Zwift, then fighting off 10 semi-finalists in a two-week programme of indoor and outdoor riding.

>>> Zwift launces new 'group workout' feature so you can train together

Together with the other three finalists, fellow Kiwi Sam Mobberley and Australian Nick White, Jones then went through a week of further challenges and riding with Dimension Data riders such as Mark Cavendish and Edvald Boasson Hagen, before being told that he had earned his pro deal.

"To say this is a dream come true is the understatement of the year," Jones said."It’s a life-changing experience and I still can’t believe it’s happening. Now I’m onto the next challenge of making the move to a now home in Lucca, Italy and doing everything I can to support my team-mates in the season ahead."

Watch: Garmin Edge 1030 unboxing

Jones is the second rider to land a professional contract through performances on Zwift, with American rider Leah Thorvilson having turned pro with Canyon-SRAM in 2017, and recently being rewarded with an extension to her contract.

Dimension Data team principal Douglas Rider said that he was pleased with his new recruit, and that the chance to have Jones attend a team training camp had proved that he had the all-round ability to succeed as a professional rider.

>>> Zwift has just hiked its prices by more than 60 per cent and lots of users really aren't happy

"Finding the next young talent is never easy, but Zwift’s reach and data collection opens our team up to the whole world," Ryder said.

"Of course, there’s no substitute for the tactics, bike handling, and skills a rider needs in real-world racing, but these finalists presented us with the raw materials we need to find the next generation of world class talent.

"This isn’t a marketing gimmick; many of our riders are passionate about riding Zwift and they’ve seen first hand what a capable rider Ollie is. We’re super proud to have him on the team."

Promotional feature with Tacx

It’s easy to lose form over the winter but sometimes there is good reason for it. It’s often said that you have to go slower in order to get faster. For the rider who prioritises summer race performances above all else, a long winter programme can reap big rewards.

>>> How to do a fat burning HIIT session (video)

However, if the thought of saying goodbye to your friends when riding uphill or not being able to compete in your local cyclocross race as you’re in a ‘base phase’ is too much to handle, then you may want to maintain some good form over the winter.

Focusing your training around power and duration rather than speed and distance is a far smarter way to track your progress. An accurate and reliable power meter is a must for this style of training. This is why the new wave of direct-drive smart trainers such as the Tacx Neo and Tacx Flux are helping people all over the world to train smarter.

Improving your aerobic endurance should never be neglected regardless of the time of year so this session is designed to improve it while spending short amounts of time working at your V02 max. It should help you to maintain the ability to work at your full capacity so that those spring rides don’t feel like a shock to the system.

What it’s for

- Maintaining a good level of fitness over the winter months.

- Getting you to the start of spring with a solid level of fitness.

- Taking time to improve your aerobic endurance correctly rather than race yourself fit when it’s too late.

How to do it

Use a smart trainer and software which controls the resistance for you. Pre-program your workout so that you can concentrate solely on the effort at hand and not be tempted to take cheeky rest periods.

Don’t take any rest after the 30-second V02 max efforts; get straight back on to your target power.

A trainer such as the Tacx Flux with high inertia and a heavy flywheel will give a more realistic road feel for this session, making it much more enjoyable.

Having a trainer which offers accurate power readings will help you track improvements in your fitness over time.

If you have a stable turbo-trainer which allows for out-of-the-saddle riding then try this for your 30-second bursts so that you can incorporate more muscle groups and produce higher power outputs.

Try a VO2 max session for yourself

1 After a 20-minute gradual and progressive warm-up complete 2 x 20 minute intervals at 85% of your FTP with a 30-second V02 max burst at the start of every five minutes.

2 Ensure there is no rest after each V02 max burst and you get straight back on to 85% of your FTP.

3 Take a long eight-minute recovery in between the two intervals and gently spin the legs out.

4 Cool down at 70% of your FTP in order to keep your heart rate elevated right through to the finish.

12 months on from winning a competition on Zwift that saw her get a contract in the professional ranks, Leah Thorvilson's real-world performances have secured a new contract with the Canyon-SRAM team.

Thorvilson, a former U.S. Olympic trial marathon runner, fought off 1,200 other riders and went through three rounds of competition as her performances on online turbo training platform Zwift were assessed by professional coaches, before being offered a contract.

>>> Five turbo training mistakes to avoid (video)

Going in at the deep end with races in Belgium in the spring, Thorvilson struggled at first, posting a number of DNFs, before finding her feet later in the season and completing her first Women's WorldTour event at the Ladies Tour of Norway in August.

Clearly seeing progress, Canyon-SRAM have offered the American a new contract for the 2018 season, with Thorvilson looking forward to chasing results for herself as well as the team.

Watch: Five turbo trainer mistakes

“Last season I worked very hard, but I think I also gave myself some grace with the end result. Everything was new and I kept looking only at the positives," Thorvilson said.

"This coming year I will be holding myself to a higher standard. I was given this chance because people believe in me and that I can be more. I aim to prove them right.

"Personally I’d also like to take some podiums on the Belgium and Dutch national level races if I race them again next year, and to have a good performance in the time trial and road race at US nationals."

>>> The best turbo trainer deals: Up to 50% off indoor training tools

The news comes as the 2017 Zwift Academy was whittled down to the 20 semi-finalists, 10 men competing for a spot on the Dimension Data development team, and 10 women looking to join Thorvilson at Canyon-SRAM.

From those groups, three men and three women will be chosen to join team training camps in December, when the final winners will be selected.

Very occasionally cycling in splendid isolation is exactly what you need, but most of the time we are better together.

Ride regularly in a group and it’ll pay dividends in fitness gains — not to mention the craic and banter of social riding.

Traditionally, we have thought of group riding as an outdoor-only pursuit, but that is steadily changing as clubs and training groups cotton on to the potency of training together indoors too. I have visited several such sessions to witness first-hand the sweaty spectacle and assess the fitness merits; I am, for the purposes of this feature, the cycling spy who came in from the cold.

>>> Zwift: Everything you need to know

Until recently, putting the best bike away for winter heralded a return to solitary confinement. Turbo-training used to be solo and lonely. Not anymore. The club-organised group turbo session in a church hall or the like is a well established, though often underrated, phenomenon.

Indoor group riding is moving on, too, using the latest in smart-trainers and technology to optimise training; some groups are even booking altitude chamber sessions.

Eyewitness account

The air is, to put it politely, scented; the condensation is running down the windows; and the music is pumping out. The turbos are spinning and whistling.

It’s the weekly group session at Otley Rugby Club, run by local training company In-Gear Coaching.

Ex-second-cat racer Jonathan Farnaby is now in his second winter season running these sessions and is in no doubt about their value.

Watch: Dos and don'ts of winter training

“It’s the best training hour I do all year,” he says. “I come out of winter at my fittest, ready for the racing season.”

There is certainly a lot of under-the-hood expertise in these sessions — and plenty of on-the-night individual attention too. Farnaby designed the series of six-week programmes with input from a brains trust of local racers, including Nathan Edmondson, brother of pro rider Josh, and Tom Barras, a hugely experienced domestic pro who spent last season as DS to the NTFO team (now sadly no more).

Tonight Edmondson is prowling among the riders, glancing down at the Garmins and keeping a close eye on people’s HR readings and form.

“It’s a bit more than your average turbo session — we look at individual riders, offering verbal feedback on everything from pedalling technique and gear selection to position on the bike,” says Farnaby.

Riders take their cues from a big screen mounted up front displaying a series of intervals, based on heart rate.

“It’s surprising how many people, even people who’ve been racing for years, turn up with an HRM and don’t know how to use it. We teach them how to get the best from it,” says Farnaby.

The sessions are all aimed at one ambition: to build sustainable power.

“You should see a significant improvement over six weeks in the area of sustaining Zone 4 — that’s what this whole programme is about.

“Every six weeks we start a new programme, so it’s cumulative over the winter but we can differentiate for newcomers who join part way through.”

There’s a mixed bag in tonight with some of the dozen or so riders clearly no slouches on the bike; others are here to build fitness from a lower base. Rob Dickinson, 40, is in the latter camp. “You just go harder when you’re surrounded by other people,” he says. “There’s definitely a social element to it as well. But more than anything, it’s increased my fitness. I really enjoy it.”

Farnaby agrees that the communal aspect feeds into the training effect: “People tell us they just can’t sit on the bike at home and do the same thing.”

Having fun with a group of regulars is all very well, but one veteran of the sessions, who has attended every single one since they started, is certain they work. “I’m in my sixth decade, that’s all I’m saying,” says Tim Garwell, who rides with a well-known and hard riding Saturday morning group of cafe racers.

“I try to stay with them and most of the time I can, and I’m old enough to be the grandfather of some of them. And I’m sure it’s because of the tremendous benefit I get from these sessions.

“I used to do a lot of turbo when I was time trialling a few years ago and I could hurt myself then. But I think as you get older you need people around you. Training as a group is far better — when you see other people sweating, it makes you put the work in. It’s something I really look forward to every week.”

It’s not just a boys’ club. Caron Rolph, 48, is among the indoor converts. “I love the social aspect and we extend it to outside because we arrange group rides as a result of these sessions,” she says. “But it’s not just the social side — I definitely get better and one thing I’ve noticed is that my cadence has improved.

“I feel a real sense of achievement completing the sessions. I feel it helps me year round.”

The session ends with a warm-down, before the riders unhook themselves from their machines and towel themselves down. Then there’s cake.

“One of the nice things about these sessions is that one of the riders’ wives always makes some cake for afterwards. It’s healthy of course. Tonight it’s banana cake,” says Farnaby.

Smart-trainers for hire

The smart-trainer revolution, coupled with innovative and engaging software such as Zwift and Trainer Road, has transformed the turbo experience. But there are two significant barriers: the hardware is expensive, and the software can be bamboozling for newbies.

Many cyclists who have heard of the smart-trainer, tech-driven revolution and would like to jump on board, find the barriers too high.

The market is responding, and around the country smart-trainer studios are springing up. The deal is simple: somebody else worries about the tech and the cost, and you just rock up and pay a small per-session sum to use the equipment.

Paul Vousden is an entrepreneur who has taken the plunge and set up what he believes to be the UK’s first indoor smart-training studio, in Kendal, in the Lake District.

It’s kitted out with 12 top-of-the-range Tacx Neo smart-trainers and three 50-inch TV screens. The tech-fest is proving a big draw for local cyclists, with more than 300 regular riders on the books.

“It’s bring your-own-bike, which people like because they’re in their ideal position, and the software links everything together so you can train as a group but with all those additional benefits of a smart-trainer, like power readings and loads of other data,” he says.

“You get all the data on a screen in front of you but it’s also recorded and analysed. We can upload it straight to your Strava or Training Peaks account, or even to your coach.”

Daytimes tend to cater more for the solo rider who would like to get a taste of the social riding environment offered by Zwift, without the hassle of a complicated set-up at home, whereas the evenings appeal to local clubs or groups of friends. Recently Vousden ran a virtual race between all the competitors in the same room.

The 300-member-strong Kendal CC is on the studio’s doorstep and competition secretary Helen Jackson says the facility has proved popular with members, and she’s noticed an interesting trend: “We’ve got a real mix of members, like most clubs. What I have found is that the newer members just expect this kind of data and tech. They have probably never done what older members have done in winter, which is get on a creaky old turbo and stare at the garage wall.

“For the newer members, to be sitting on a smart-trainer in front of a load of data is normal — it’s what they expect.”

The more traditional members have also taken to the opportunities the studio provides: “I’m not saying we’ve had no negativity. And, to be honest, I would rather be riding my bike outside. But take the other night — we had 50mph winds and it was dark and cold — and it just made sense to do something inside.”

The idea of suffering together has wide appeal, adds Jackson: “People do like to come with a friend or a group. And when the studio is full it really is a great atmosphere.”

Going hypoxic

A hypoxic, or hypobaric, altitude chamber reduces pressure and sucks some oxygen out of the air to simulate the conditions you might get at the top of Mount Teide or the Tourmalet. Add in some Wattbikes, a few club-mates and you have the makings of a truly alternative turbo session.

“It’s a right laugh,” says 27-year-old club rider Tom Whale. “There were six of us and it’s just good fun watching each other suffer. There’s quite a lot of grunting and some screaming at random intervals and then you fall off your bikes and pedal home exhausted at about seven miles per hour.”

Whale, a member of Leeds-based Alba Rosa CC, is lucky enough to live near the OTE Performance Centre in his home city. It’s got a fully rigged sports lab, including the chamber, and it’s available for rent.

The chamber has six Wattbikes and staff provide coached sessions for riders who book it out for a block of six weekly sessions. “The Wattbikes are really sturdy and solid. I think I recorded my highest ever sprint power during one session and although I didn’t make full use of it, they record a huge amount of data that you could download and study to your heart’s content,” says Whale.

The chamber in Leeds can simulate altitude of up to 2,500m above sea level, at which ‘height’ the effects of going hard are felt immediately, explains Whale: “We did one reverse pyramid session starting out with a one-minute interval at 150 per cent of FTP. That was really hard — you feel the effects immediately, much, much quicker than doing something like that under normal conditions. Your lungs start to burn much sooner than you’d expect. You feel much worse, much more quickly.”

Throw in short recoveries between intervals and the session quickly becomes a “pretty horrible experience”. But does it work?

“To be honest, I did start going well after them, but I have no idea whether the sessions did that,” says Whale, an atmospheric scientist who takes a keen interest in sports science.

Indeed, the jury is out on whether short-term exposure to hypobaric conditions can bring gains. The benefits of longer-term exposure are well understood, which is why pro riders spend extended periods training at altitude.

The thinner, less oxygen-rich air stimulates the production of natural erythropoietin (EPO), boosting the production of oxygen-carrying red blood cells. Shorter-term exposure to altitude may not have the same benefits, partly because, as Whale notes, perceived exertion is increased and you may think you’re going hard when in fact the exertion is only moderate.

Perhaps the most important element is the novelty of such sessions. “It’s great fun — I would definitely recommend it,” concludes Whale.

Training in groups: why does it work?

The morale-boosting effects of coming together with like-minded people, in the same space, with the same ambitions to work hard, are well known. But is there any evidence that it’s effective?

The area is surprisingly little studied, but one study, reported in Psychology Today, threw a little light on the area. Researchers had 136 cyclists work out for 30 minutes on stationary bikes, alone and then all together. They were asked to fill in questionnaires afterwards, rating feelings of stress reduction and energy.

The social sessions were found to be more effective, and left participants more tired than the solitary sessions, suggesting they had worked harder.

The researchers concluded: “Exercising with others may increase tiredness due to increased competition or workload.”

Which group session is for me?

The best group session for you depends on your fitness aims and budget.

Club turbo session

Expect to pay: £3-£6

Where: Usually a church hall or school gym.

Kit: BYOB (Bring your own bike) and own turbo.

Tuition: Many of the better sessions incorporate structured sessions and a programme.

Pros: Usually run by someone who knows what they’re doing.

Cons: Unlikely to give you the chance to sample the very latest smart kit.

Contact: Your local club.

Spin class

Expect to pay: £5-£25

Where: Usually in a purpose-designed city centre space or gym.

Kit: Often on ‘spin bikes’ — fixed gear with a lever to alter resistance.

Tuition: Often shouty! May not be roadie-specific. Sessions tend to focus on ill-defined ‘aerobic’ or ‘strength’ categories.

Pros: Can be good fun.

Cons: Lacks specificity for a competitive cyclist’s training programme.

Contact: Via internet search.

Specialist

Expect to pay: £7-£15

Where: Hyperbaric chamber or hi-tech studio.

Kit: All bells and whistles — often with smart-trainers or Wattbikes.

Tuition: If there isn’t any, be wary.

Pros: Novelty. Chance to try thebig-money kit.

Cons: Effectiveness uncertain.

Contact: Local knowledge — ask around.

If you are in the market for a turbo trainer, should you buy a regular unit or a ‘smart’ one? Smart turbo trainers feature computer control and either Bluetooth or ANT+ connectivity.

This allows you to pair devices such as phones, tablets, and accessories such as speed and cadence sensors.

The resistance can be fluid, direct drive or magnetic like a regular turbo but will feature some degree of power measurement so you can quantify your workout.

>>> Eight ways to make your turbo sessions more enjoyable

Smart turbo trainers cost around £270 for a basic unit and as much as £1,200 for the most sophisticated. For comparison, a basic non-smart turbo typically costs less than £100.

What does the extra outlay get you?

Units such as the Tacx Neo and Wahoo KICKR use built-in power meters that take a direct measurement. They often offer a very quiet and more realistic ride feel.

Cheaper smart trainer options like Tacx’s Satori Smart (£259) have fewer features, are noisier and offer algorithmic power, meaning your power output is estimated using computer software.

As assistant manager at JLT-Condor and a coach with TrainSharp, Dean Downing is no stranger to turbo trainers: “I hate turbo trainers, but I did train a lot on a Wattbike during my racing career.

"Working as a coach, many of my clients work full-time and have families so they don’t want to go out at 8pm in the dark and cold.”

Find a turbo for you 

Personal preference

Downing adds that a turbo can be beneficial “if you need to do a structured quality training session and have limited time.”

Asked if he would recommend the athletes he coaches purchase a smart turbo, Downing replies: “It ultimately comes down to personal preference. One of my clients uses a Wahoo KICKR and Zwift, while another trains with a Stages power meter on a standard turbo. It’s about breaking the boredom down.”

Designed to make the most of apps such as Zwift and TrainerRoad, smart trainers have the potential to challenge the tedium that’s often associated with conventional turbos.

>>> How to dress for wet weather cycling

Zwift allows you to ride virtual reality courses in a multiplayer environment. Top end units such as the Neo can adjust the resistance you feel, to recreate the sensation of both ascents and descents in these virtual worlds.

Professional rider Alex Dowsett told us: “Zwift set up the full shebang in my garage.”

But he added: “I’ll always pick rain over indoor training. However just recently I’ve had a knee problem, so was advised to train on the turbo because I could stop quickly if I was in pain and the warm was better than the cold for my injury.”

Learn to ride in the rain 

Dowsett admits the social aspect of apps like Zwift should not be overlooked.

“Riding with people online does make time pass more quickly and you get goaded into upping the effort to be competitive.

“So if you can’t ride outside then it’s a very, very good substitute and it does provide something different.”

Many smart trainers also allow you to create your own courses and ride simulations of real climbs and roads. If you are riding a gran fondo in the Alps, you can replicate the efforts of the climbs and descents in your own home — handy if you live somewhere flat.

Read more on turbo training 

Zwift: Everything you need to know

The Zwift turbo trainer game has taken cycling by storm, but if you're not up to speed here's our complete

Five mistakes to avoid when turbo training

Winter is coming so you will soon be reacquainted with your turbo trainer: here are the top ten no nos

Opinion: Six reasons why I'll be avoiding turbo training

As the weather and riding conditions take a turn for the worst, I won't be tempted to dust down the

Four of the best indoor cycling sessions for turbo training

The boredom of the turbo-trainer is the cyclist’s annual test of motivation: here's how to both enjoy indoor training and

Our take

Despite being seen by many as modern day torture devices, turbos are great for getting in short but high-quality structured training sessions around your other daily commitments.

>>> How to ride with a power meter

A smart turbo can make time pass more quickly and these sessions are less dull if you struggle with motivation. In addition, power data, including that from algorithms, provides feedback that can really improve the structure of your workouts.

If your lifestyle dictates that most of your training is turbo-based this can help justify the added expense of a smart trainer.

>>> Race warm-up: How to do it and why it’s important (video)

However, if you want to take your turbo to races for warming up, factor in that many smart trainers require a plug socket.

Should you buy a smart turbo trainer?

Yes: Kurt Bogaerts, manager of An Post-Chain Reaction

“If you can make training more interesting with virtual reality environments, then it can make it more fun than just doing exercise.

"By relating training to something in reality, such as a climb in the Tour, you can get much more motivation. It allows you to do really good quality training but with a better feeling than just being on a turbo because the problem is that it is really boring.

"A lot of An Post riders train regularly on turbos because the countries they are from have bad weather.”

No: Alex Dowsett, Movistar rider

“It’s about actually having your own plan for training properly on a turbo or out on the road. I think our cycling world is heading increasingly towards just racing all the time with apps like Strava and Zwift.

"They are fun, don’t get me wrong, but racing doesn’t necessarily make you fit. To improve your racing you really need a structured training programme and then you’ll see the benefits tenfold and be getting KOMs, QOMs and winning races for days.”

The Sufferfest, the video-based indoor cycling programme, has signed an exclusive deal with David Lloyd Leisure to roll out the platform in spin sessions across the country.

Developed by world-class coaches and driven by soundtracks, storylines and real race footage from the world's biggest races, the gym company hopes The Sufferfest will transform the indoor cycling experience for its customers.

Participants will be able to spin their way though important moments of the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia, World Championships and even Paris-Roubaix with on-screen instructions informing them what efforts are required.

>>> Interview: Sufferfest idea man David McQuillen

While the dedicated spin sessions include an instructor, the classes can also be run virtually, allowing members to make the most of the videos at other times.

Michelle Dand, David Lloyd Leisure’s group health and fitness manager, said: “We’re thrilled to be the first nationwide health club operator in the UK to be exclusively partnering with The Sufferfest to offer our members this exciting and inspiring programme, which has been taking the indoor cycling world by storm.

>>> Why self-torture on the turbo trainer is a necessary evil

“Every video features bespoke cycling workouts aimed at achieving great results, on screen instructions and incredible footage from the world’s best races, providing a perfect blend of motivation, guidance and entertainment for riders of all abilities.

“Members will lose themselves in the drama, excitement and adrenaline of world-class bike racing!”