Making data make sense

During a phone conversation, Zwift ceo Eric Min speaks energetically and enthusiastically about cycling, and “Zwifting” in particular from his London office. I tell him about a discussion during a recent group ride: several riders were talking about their experience on the recently released “Alpe de Zwift,” talking about climbing it as if it were real. Min is not the least bit surprised.

The indoor cycling market is doubling in size every year, he says. The people who’ve latched onto Zwift’s technology to train are some of the most passionate, dedicated and vocal users.

Early this year, Zwift released a running app. People use Zwift in more than 150 markets around the world. (Canadian users make up about 10 per cent of this global user base.) The company currently employs 160 people with 75 new hires added in the past 12 months. Min will welcome 100 more in the next 12. More than 300 Worldtour riders have used or currently use Zwift to train. This kind of momentum in health and wealthness in the virtual world will mean more technology will come to this growing segment within cycling.

“Zwift is way bigger than cycling,” says Min. “With technology, outdoor cycling becomes an experience, the destination you go to ride outside urban areas. But you train indoors.”

Not long ago, many thought training indoors would take the form of wearing VR headsets, riding on smart trainers in completely immersive environments. Hardware, however, has been very slow to catch up with the demands of fitness users: models need to be wireless, less-expensive and exercise-ready (sweat-proof) for them to be of any appeal. (Min maintains that riding in front of a 40 foot screen is just as immersive as wearing a headset.) His team will add more virtual worlds to the community as it continues to grow, both to give more people a taste of group rides and training and to fast-track the skills needed to ride comfortably in a pack.

Fans with variable wind speeds that fluctuate based on rider output; smart bikes; indoor bikes with additional play that better mimic riding outdoors – these are all coming soon to the world of virtual riding. New lower-cost smart trainers, such as the stac Zero contactless indoor trainer that uses magnets to generate resistance (for aluminum wheelsets only), will steadily emerge, bringing more affordable training devices to more people.

But what is being done with all the data being uploaded from these training sessions and from cyclists in general, wonders Andrew Buckrell, an engineer and the designer of the stac Zero. From communities like Zwift and Strava, we see a deluge a data that tells stories about the kinds

of rides cyclists are doing, and the kinds of niches that haven’t been filled by the industry.

“Data collection has become so pervasive, and access to data so much easier. The question for the future is what we do with all this data, and how to apply it to training physiology, the physical parameters that make cyclists faster and fitter,” Buckrell says. The future of training, cycling and technology, says Buckrell, is on the industry to make sense of it all.

With power meters, head units with navigation and electronic shifting already on many bikes, it’s hard to imagine cycling with an even greater amount of technology baked into every ride. But cycling’s giants and startups will find a way to make it happen, leveraging tools that will make tires faster, and more puncture-resistant; make virtual communities appear more real; create clothing that’s more technologically refined; build bikes faster, stiffer and who knows, maybe even lighter.

One thing is certain: cycling is continuing to add new innovations. It always has, really. Tullio Campagnolo’s quick release, the mountain bike designs of Tom Ritchey and Gary Fisher, Shimano’s Total Integration brake/shift levers, Look Bicycle’s early carbon-fibre frames and even Giant’s compact geometry tcr are just a few examples of bike tech that is now completely part of the discipline. New technology, as the safety bicycle itself once was a long time ago, has always been part of cycling.

As for what technology’s coming next, the crystal ball might not be any clearer. But it will be, soon.

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