Summer is officially over here in the UK – the weather has turned and, more importantly, the clocks have gone back.
With that in mind, many cyclists in the northern hemisphere will be dusting off their indoor cycling kit and thinking about how they can survive, or even enjoy, the months of riding ahead.
If you’ve been riding your bike out in the ‘real world’ for the past six months, though, you may be wondering what – if anything – has changed in indoor cycling, since you last mounted your bike to a smart trainer and loaded up an indoor cycling app.
In this article, then, we’re going to round up all of the major recent developments in indoor cycling. There are new apps and software updates aplenty, plus plenty of new hardware options to explore.
But which, if any, might be worth your time and/or money this winter? Let’s find out.
TrainingPeaks acquires indieVelo
The big story of recent days was the news that TrainingPeaks – an app that, until now, focused on training plans and performance analytics tools – has acquired indieVelo, a free virtual indoor cycling app.
Although it has a user interface and graphical style similar to that of Zwift, indieVelo says it puts performance verification and realism at its heart.
This includes “real-world physics” with simulations of “wind, positioning, drafting, collisions, cornering, braking, racing lines and realistic speeds”.
There’s also a greater focus on virtual racing, with track cycling formats such as scratch, points, keirin and elimination races included alongside more traditional events such as time trials and road races.
Race organisers can even opt to include things such as neutralised zones in races, to help avoid the sudden jump start that occurs at the beginning of practically every Zwift race or group ride.
As you might expect, the app has now been rebranded as TrainingPeaks Virtual.
As an independent app, it was free to use, and TrainingPeaks has committed to keeping the platform free until March 2025 (presumably to give riders a chance to try it out). Unsurprisingly, though, you’ll need a premium subscription to access it after that.
At the time of writing, premium subscriptions to TrainingPeaks cost $19.95 per month, $49 per quarter or $124.99 per year.
As well as gaining access to TrainingPeaks Virtual, though, you’ll also get everything else TrainingPeaks offers, including training plans, performance analytics and so on.
Can TrainingPeaks Virtual compete with Zwift?
As with any new virtual indoor cycling app, the big question is whether it can compete with Zwift – the 800-pound gorilla in this space.
According to DC Rainmaker, indieVelo recently announced it had reached 40,000 accounts.
Add this to however many Premium subscribers TrainingPeaks already has (presumably a lot more, although we don’t know exactly how many), and it seems TrainingPeaks Virtual might already be able to piece together a strong active community.
This is important because its large active community has been critical to Zwift’s success in recent years (just as a lack of such a community contributed to the downfall of some competitors, such as Wahoo RGT).
After all, if every time you log on to an app the virtual worlds are empty and there’s no one to ride with or race against, it’s unlikely to be much fun.
Of course, TrainingPeaks Virtual will likely be a long way from the “roughly 1 million subscribers” Zwift CEO Eric Min told Bloomberg it had back in February 2023.
However, with Zwift having increased its prices by around a third this year – to £17.99 / $19.99 (plus sales tax) / €19.99 per month or £179.99 / $199.99 (plus sales tax) / €199.99 per year – there will doubtless be some people willing to try free or cheaper alternatives this winter.
Seasonal Zwift updates
While the core gameplay loop of Zwift remains much the same, it’s fair to say the developers behind the market-leading app haven’t been resting on their laurels.
While the price has increased recently for the first time since 2017, Zwift continues to release updated content, bug fixes and events as time goes by.
We recently covered the major changes coming to Zwift this fall, but here are a few highlights in case you missed that.
As part of its 10-year anniversary celebrations, for example, Zwift has announced its hub world, Watopia, is getting another expansion early this November.
Details are limited on exactly what to expect, but Zwift says the expansion will "build off the history of Zwift and take Zwifters back in time”.
On top of this, Zwift is rolling out its Zwift Racing Score system, which aims to refine how virtual racers are categorised. The aim is to more assess accurately the abilities of every racer on Zwift, leading to fairer and more competitive races.
Beyond this, community events such as the Tour of Watopia, Zwift Academy and the various virtual racing leagues Zwift hosts will no doubt continue to prove popular this winter among those with competitive itches to scratch.
Rouvy’s Route Creator is now live
If you prefer a more realistic take on indoor cycling, Rouvy recently rolled out its new Route Creator feature.
This enables subscribers to upload video footage and GPS data of real-world routes, which Rouvy will then turn into augmented-reality routes – placing your avatar in the 3D world as you ride.
The hope appears to be that it will prompt a wealth of user-generated content on the app, with riders from all over the world uploading their local routes for other users to try out.
Of course, it could also be useful for racers looking to upload data from specific courses to train on in advance of events.
The downside is that the pay-off for this feature might take some time to realise, though, because Rouvy users will naturally need to get out with camera equipment to record videos to upload.
Still, all of this comes on top of its existing offering of augmented-reality routes from popular cycling destinations around the world – and at $14.99 per month for a single user, Rouvy remains slightly cheaper than competitors such as Zwift.
MyWhoosh is still free
If you’re tired of the ever-increasing cost of subscriptions, MyWhoosh – the Abu-Dhabi backed virtual indoor cycling app – is still free to use.
Similar to Zwift, MyWhoosh offers a variety of virtual worlds to ride in, training plans to complete, and events, group rides and races to take part in.
As with TrainingPeaks Virtual, MyWoosh can’t yet boast an active community as large as Zwift's, but having recently hosted the UCI Cycling eSports World Championships in Abu Dhabi, it appears to be on an upward trajectory.
The only catch with MyWhoosh is you’ll need a device to measure your power output – such as a smart trainer or power meter – in order to use it.
Unfortunately, you can’t get started with a ‘dumb’ turbo trainer and speed/cadence sensor, as you can on Zwift (check out our guide to the best Zwift setups for every rider if you want to learn more about this topic).
Read our guide to the best free indoor cycling apps for more cost-effective options.
New hardware
We’ve seen a number of new smart trainers and indoor cycling accessories launch this year, with new options at almost every price point.
Arguably, though, the technical progress with smart trainers has flatlined somewhat in recent years, and given this, if you’ve already got a good smart trainer there might not be much point upgrading this year (more on this shortly).
New smart bike frames
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the highest-profile development in indoor training tech came from Zwift with its launch of the Zwift Ride smart bike.
This modular indoor bike frame is available separately for £749.99 / $799.99 / €799.99 or for £1,199.99 / $1,299.99 / €1,299.99 with a Wahoo Kickr Core smart trainer included and makes owning a dedicated smart indoor bike far more accessible than before.
Of course, the catch is the Zwift Ride frame is only compatible with a number of ‘Zwift Ready’ smart trainers (we have a full list in our coverage of the launch), and – unlike most other smart indoor bikes – only works outside of ERG mode with the Zwift app.
Of course, as with a Peloton bike, it’s not difficult to see why Zwift would design its hardware to be compatible only with its own apps (spoiler: it wants to lock riders into the Zwift app so it can keep banking the subscription money).
However, it’s something to consider if you’re more app-agnostic.
In contrast, the Elite Square smart bike frame promises much greater compatibility.
Priced at £1,199.99 / €1,250, the Elite Square is compatible with a number of existing Elite smart trainers plus a number of models from third-party manufacturers such as Wahoo, Tacx, Saris and Magene.
Although it’s more expensive than the Zwift Ride smart bike (especially once you factor a smart trainer into the cost, if you don’t already own one), it should still work out cheaper than a dedicated smart bike, and offers more adjustability from a bike fit point of view than the Zwift Ride.
Most crucially, though, it doesn’t limit you to only using the Zwift app – making it more versatile and perhaps more future-proof.
A cheaper Wattbike
Perhaps with one eye on these new smart bike frames, Wattbike also released a cheaper smart indoor bike – the Wattbike Proton.
At £1,795 / $2,499 / AU$3,749, it’s certainly not ‘cheap’, but it undercuts the Wattbike Atom (£2,395) by £600 and once you factor in a compatible smart trainer to the cost of the Elite Square smart frame, it starts to look more competitive.
Compared to something such as the Zwift Ride, the Wattbike Proton also offers vastly greater adjustability and is compatible with practically all the major indoor cycling apps available.
The Proton can also access the free Wattbike Hub app, which offers a wealth of training plans and workouts at no cost.
New smart trainers from big names
At the same time as it announced the Square, Elite also announced a couple of new smart trainers – the Avanti and the Justo 2.
The Justo 2 (£1,099 / $1,199 / €1,099) is an upgraded version of the original Elite Justo, which I reviewed in late 2022.
Although Elite claimed it featured “significant improvements” over the original model, the only major change to the spec sheet was the addition of WiFi connectivity (the original Justo required an ethernet adaptor to connect to the internet).
That’s certainly a ‘nice to have’ feature (WiFi can offer a faster and more stable connection than Bluetooth or ANT+), but in our experience it’s usually not a game changer.
The Avanti was perhaps the more interesting new trainer, though, coming in at the more affordable price of £749 / $849 / €749, yet offering premium features such as WiFi connectivity, +/- 1 per cent power accuracy and a 2,100-watt maximum power output.
On the subject of affordable smart trainers, the £399 / $399 Jetblack Victory was also launched this summer.
Despite its relatively low price, it offers WiFI connectivity, automatic calibration, +/- 2 per cent power accuracy, an 1,800-watt maximum power output and comes with a Zwift Cog pre-installed.
If its performance matches its spec sheet (and there’s reason to expect it will, given Zwift partnered with JetBlack to create the excellent-but-now-sadly-discontinued Zwift Hub smart trainer), this could be the wallet-friendly direct-drive smart trainer to beat.
Fortunately, we won’t have to wait long to find out – I’ve got the JetBlack Victory and Elite Avanti in for testing, so look out for reviews of those trainers coming in the next few months.
At the other end of the pricing spectrum, we’re also hoping to test Tacx’s latest flagship smart trainer – the £1,749.99 / €1,999.99 / $1,999.99 Neo 3M – this winter.
Like Wahoo’s flagship Kickr Move, the main innovation for the Neo 3M compared to its predecessor the Neo 2T was integrated fore-aft movement.
Beyond that, Tacx has promised improvements to the Neo 3M’s power accuracy, but the lack of WiFi capabilities might irk some people at this price.
Is it worth upgrading your smart trainer?
If some of those upgrades seem fairly minor at a glance, you’re not wrong.
As I argued in a column on gamification in indoor cycling this time last year, smart trainer hardware appears to have plateaued somewhat.
Indeed, earlier this year, Wahoo simply relaunched its existing Kickr Core – a trainer that originally launched back in 2018 – upgraded with a Zwift Cog and rebranded it as the Kickr Core Zwift One.
It’s fair to say the Kickr Core was ahead of its time in 2018, but that it’s still a competitive model some six years later shows things haven’t moved on significantly since.
As a result, though, some may be wondering whether there’s any point upgrading to one of the latest smart trainers.
Of course, the answer to that question will be an individual one – as with buying a new bike, whether or not it’s ‘worth’ upgrading to a new model largely depends on what you’re upgrading from.
If you haven’t yet taken the plunge on a direct-drive smart trainer, there’s never been a better time to do so.
Wheel-on smart trainers, such as the Tacx Flow Smart and Wahoo Kickr Snap, offer good performance at accessible prices, but the difference in ride feel you get from stepping up to a direct-drive model such as the Kickr Core remains significant.
And with direct-drive smart trainers available at lower prices than ever before, thanks to massively increased competition in the market, now could be the ideal moment to make the leap.
If you already own a direct-drive smart trainer, though, I’m less convinced it’s worth splashing out on something shiny and new.
The Elite Direto XR I use to benchmark power meters, and test indoor cycling apps and accessories, still provides a fantastic experience when paired to an app such as Zwift, for example.
As detailed in a High Mileage Heroes feature on the trainer, that it’s missing a few modern conveniences such as WiFi and automatic calibration doesn’t affect the day-to-day experience much.
What if you don’t like riding indoors?
If you’ve made it this far and have decided you’d rather ignore all of this and just ride outdoors this winter, then don’t fear – we’ve got plenty of resources to help you too.
As well as tips on how to get a road bike winter-ready (or a gravel bike, if you have one), there are loads of helpful tips in our guides to winter road cycling and winter mountain biking, plus plenty more around the site on topics such as waterproof jackets, winter gloves, winter road bike tyres and so on.
Now though, I want to hear from you. Do you plan to spend the winter indoors, spinning away on a turbo trainer or will you be braving the elements and riding outdoors no matter what? Let us know in the comments below.
