A virtual bike race
Zwift is transforming cycling indoors and even helped prep one tandem rider for Ride the Rockies
Jason Timmons knew that cycling on the pancake-flat, sea-level roads around Miami couldn’t truly prepare him for the 32,000 feet of climbing he and his son would encounter on their tandem bike during Ride the Rockies.
So nearly two years ago, he joined the growing community of cyclists on Zwift, an app that allows participants riding on connected indoor trainers to pedal through 3-D virtual courses and race, work out and ride in real time with others anywhere in the world. The London-based startup aims to make the mundane chore of riding stationary indoors far more exciting.
“This is how I keep in shape. This is how I (got) get ready to ride long hills,” Timmons said. “It’s my motivator to get the job done.”
It also makes sense for a serious cyclist with a young family in Florida.
“It rains during the summers, three kids, wife likes to go to the gym — so the time to train is early in the morning, before they get ready for school,” Timmons said. “And I don’t have the confidence riding at night anymore.”
Ask any cyclist facing the choice of a frozen forehead, iced toes and frigid fingers during a typical Colorado winter day or training indoors — and most will begrudgingly opt for the trainer.
A cyclist’s speed through Zwift’s virtual courses is determined by the power (watts) produced, adjusted for height, weight and the gradient of the road. A mile in the Zwift world is equivalent to a mile in the real world.
Timmons used Zwift’s multiweek functional threshold training program — four or five workouts per week — to prepare for Ride the Rockies.
“Some days I have more time to ride, I’ll do two workouts back to back,” Timmons said.
Riders need a few things: a bike, a trainer with sensors and a PC or Mac or a compatible iOS device (i.e., an iPhone or iPad). Finally, depending on the sensors, a USB2 ANT+ dongle or a Mobile Link compatible smartphone. A subscription to the app runs $10 per month.
Timmons’ setup is the bike, a Wahoo Kickr trainer (which retails for $1,200 new, but he got a used one for much less on eBay), the iPad with Zwift set on a TV dinner tray he got from his mother-in-law, the iPhone for a mobile link — allowing him to message other riders, if he wants to — a fan, and the TV, where he plays “junky reality shows” that he can keep on in the background.
He has put on 3,000 Zwift miles of training so far this year and roughly 500 to 600 miles outdoors preparing for Ride the Rockies.
Zwift-compatible trainers are connected to the program via Bluetooth, which allows the Zwift app to tell the trainer to increase or loosen the tension to reflect going up or down hills or pedaling on flats, reflecting the virtual course. Drafting behind other riders in the game actually allows one to pedal more easily — just as in the real world.
As you might expect, because the app involves competing or “riding” with other people in the game, a fast internet connection is a must. You can follow the Zwift course on an iPad or iPhone, or you can connect a laptop computer to a TV. Zwift currently has a beta test for using the app natively on 4th generation Apple TV.
The company offers three courses to choose: One made-up course called Watopia, which Zwift continues to expand, adding extensions, including a climb up to a volcano. Zwift also has two real-life courses in London and Richmond, Va. — the latter of which is the loop from the 2015 UCI World Cycling Championships.
When you log in, you have the option of riding in a group with other cyclists, racing against them or doing your own training programs. Each day, everyone rides the same course. In a group ride or a race, you’re surrounded by avatars of other cyclists — who look like players in a video game, but who are moving through the virtual course because a real human is pedaling on a trainer somewhere else in the world. Using a microphone connection or a phone, it’s possible to text and message your competitors.
“It actually gets me the ability to ride when otherwise I might sleep in or blow it off,” Timmons said. “I do it because it’s the best option.”