Cyclopaat, an alter ego with a twist
A while ago, I was recording a round-trip through my backyard with my GoPro HERO 9, to be shared with those of you who would like to create a Real Life Video (RLV).
If you are on an indoor cycling platform that supports using your own, like Rouvy or BigRingVR that is.
I had a route in mind that would be just under two hours, which would be more than enough for most indoor sessions.
Disclaimer: this “Indoor Training Tools Update” post may, like the previous ones, get reviewed or updated every now and then. The reviewed tools / platforms also frequently get updates or added features.
As a result, I cannot guarantee that features or prices mentioned here are still accurate at the time you read this or any of my previous posts.
Over the years, since 2016, I’ve written about my experience with indoor training tools, most of which I have used or at least tried to use.
My two earlier posts are here (last updated December 2017) and here (January 2019).
Before we broke up, I’ve written more about Rouvy than any other and besides the occasional mention, I will not spend more words on them here.
(But I stick to my previous observations and recommendations on them. They’ve increased their prices to $12/€12 a month, no “yearly bonus” discount – the non-conversion of USD to EUR is weird…)
Disclaimer: this post may, like the previous one, get reviewed or updated every now and then. The reviewed tools / platforms also frequently get updates or added features. As a result, I cannot guarantee that features or prices mentioned here are still accurate at the time you read this post.
A few years back, I wrote a post on indoor training tools / apps which I had used or intended to investigate further.
That post has had two inline revisions and another revision would not make it more readable, so I’m dedicating a new post to it 🙂
First, I realized that I only mentioned the Sufferfest in one of the revisions, but the original post had no entry on Sufferlandria at all.
This was probably due to my voluntary exile out of Sufferlandria, but in hindsight, I think it was unfair to leave them out altogether.
So, let me first right that wrong…
(Not interested in the ‘how the Dura Integra came to be’? Jump to the actual review)
Earlier this year, while at the LBS for some preparations on my Sensa Trentino, I was going through the latest brochure of Sensa Bikes.
As you (probably / should) know, I have modified my Giulia G2 to look like a TT bike, by replacing the standard handlebar and aero bar clip on with a 3T Vola cockpit.
However, I quickly found out that this meant I couldn’t (comfortably) ride any serious mountain stages, so I got the Trentino.
And as it also didn’t quite fit the profile of a true TT bike, the pages in the brochure with Sensa’s TT and Tri bikes, caught my eye.
Sensa offers two bikes in that segment: the Dura Integra and the Dura Triathlon.
While I figure(d) the triathlon bike will offer a slightly more comfortable geometry and position because of the length of the courses you will ride with that, I didn’t quite like the look of it.
Not that it would matter much, because surely there was no way in hell the boss would allow the purchase – or even trade in – of my just over a year old Giulia, right?
Wrong…
I became a Rouvy Legend somewhere last year, meaning I completed all the tasks of the career path. Which would have meant that I could finally retire and die in peace, if it wouldn’t have been for a drastic change in the career concept.
After my ‘Tour de France 2017‘, I had a few spins in and just outside my backyard, but by October 1st, I was ready to start the indoor season.
My main app for training is obviously Rouvy which has been my favorite for the past two and a half years or so (see my original post on indoor apps from February 16, 2016).
As I own a vast collection of films with footage from just about every major EU/US climb, scenic ride and Ironman track, I have enough to watch while training, other than what Rouvy itself offers. And sometimes I use ‘free ride’ mode for a recovery spin, in which case I put on one of these films too.
