- Indoor training keeps getting better and better.
It's getting more immersive, more realistic, and more fun,
and in this video, we're going to show you an app called Rouvy
which allows you to ride, race, or train
virtually in real places, so in places like
the Stelvio Pass, outdoors, and many more.
Now before we carry on and show you the app
and all the features and things that you can do in Rouvy,
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(air whooshes)
(metal screeches)
There are quite a few indoor training apps out there.
Some of them use virtual worlds and virtual reality,
and others use interactive videos.
Rouvy is different because it uses augmented reality.
What is augmented reality, I hear you ask?
It takes the real world and projects virtual images onto it.
So in this case, you or I cycling on a real road
that really exists.
So there's loads of options to choose from
within the Rouvy app.
So you could cycle up the Stelvio Pass or the Paso Ciao
or the Ironman Coeur course if you're tri-curious,
but there's absolutely loads to choose from.
I mean, there's even a partnership with the Tour de Suisse,
meaning you get to ride stages
of the beautiful Tour de Suisse, as well,
which is rather exciting.
Rouvy has over 7,000 kilometers of routes
including 70 iconic places and over 3,000 odd films.
All the videos effectively offer
basic levels of augmented reality
in that you can ride them virtually and see your stats.
However, there is a selection
of dedicated augmented reality videos
that offer a greater level of augmented reality
with avatars, road signs that appear,
and other features too.
What's really cool about it is if you're training
for a specific event or you're going to a specific place
and you want to train and prepare for a specific climb
that's in that event or maybe even the whole route itself,
you often can.
So for example, if you were doing the Maratona Dolomites,
you've got the Paso Ciao there and the Valparola
and several others.
So you could practice those climbs
in the comfort of your own home.
If you speak to any coach,
they'll say regardless of what you're training for,
one of the most important things
to include within your training is specificity,
and you can't get more specific than training
for the specific climbs that you're going to be doing
in your chosen event, which is really cool.
Just looking through here,
I've spotted that there is the Valparola,
and the Passo Valparola is a climb
that I actually everested last year.
So it's quite a special one for me,
and one that I'm very familiar having ridden
up and down it 12 times in a day. (laughs)
So I'm going to click on that one and fire it up
and have a ride, that, and see how it goes.
So we select the climb, dead easy,
and then it gives you the option to pick your senses
and pay your senses if you haven't already.
But it's all very intuitive and very straightforward to do
and pretty quick.
So there we go.
It's connecting my turbo and my heart rate strap.
To use Rouvy yourself, you can use just a standard
non-smart trainer if you pair it with a speed sensor,
and this means that you'll have to adjust the resistance
manually yourself so when you get to a steeper point,
it tells you in the video, and then you just turn up
the resistance and make it a little bit more difficult,
but to get the best and most immersive experience,
I suggest using a smart trainer like this Elite Toretto X,
and the reason it is that it automatically changes
the resistance for you when you encounter a less steep
or steeper section of road.
When you get on a steep section of road,
you really feel the difference.
It's mad how it accurately replicates
the changes in gradients, what you get in real life.
This is a climb I feel like I know like the back of my hand
having ridden it 12 times in a day (laughs),
and I remember this bit.
I love this bit 'cause this bit's only 4%,
or it felt a lot flatter when I was doing it,
and it is in the game, but then there's the bits
that I remember hating where the gradient ramps up,
and the trainer responds and it gets much harder.
I've also got fond memories of this hotel
coming up on the left 'cause that's where we were staying,
and I remember about halfway through my ride,
Emma Puli was waiting for me there
with the greatest apple strudel I've ever had
in my entire life (laughs).
Good times.
In addition to the videos that are built into the app,
there is the option to create your own videos too.
User-generated content is supported,
but the professionally done videos on climbs like this,
they've often been filmed on motorbikes or on cars
meaning that the footage is very smooth,
as I'm sure you can see,
and the resolution's nice and clear too.
I'm currently enjoying the peace and serenity
of riding solo up the Valparola,
but there is the option to ride with others as well,
a little downhill bit, (laughs)
and you could log on with one of your friends,
arrange to do it at the same time,
you could ride up the climb together
either racing or doing it solo, which is nice,
and also you can put on bots as well.
So anyone that's ridden this within the app,
you can select them as a bot to ride against,
either get someone to chase or someone to chase you
which is kind of cool.
You can see I've actually put a bot on down at the bottom,
but they're (laughs) behind me at the moment.
Although that's not going to last much longer
at the speed I'm currently riding. (laughs)
It's nice to have the social element though,
it's really cool, and according to Rouvy,
there's races that you can do as well,
and apparently there's around $10,000 in prizes
given out annually for races on Rouvy.
Nice.
So we're approaching the top of the Valparola now,
and you can sort of see the view,
but it's bringing back very strong memories for me.
I mean, I would have loved to have used this tool
to train on for this climb.
I mean, the preparation would have been excellent.
'Cause it's very representative of the effort,
but there I can see coming into view
that big hotel that's right at the top,
and every time I'd come up this climb
when I was everesting, I'd see that there,
and I'd be like yes!
Thank goodness.
That is always a nice thing to see,
and then when you get up to the top here,
the views are just incredible.
It's actually the site of an old World War I battlefield
as well, fact.
But that's a beautiful place. (exhales)
I've switched on to a different climb now.
This, as many of you will recognize,
is the Stelvio Pass coming up from the Bormio side.
It's an absolute epic climb.
It's like got to be one of the climbs to do before you die.
Without a doubt, definitely a top 10,
and this is the famous 14 tornado section about half way up,
14 hair pins that, it's like spaghetti
draped across a mountain,
but it's mad being able to just do this
in the comfort of your own home,
and if you were going out there
for a once-in-a-lifetime trip to ride it,
as many people do and make that pilgrimage,
it's amazing that you could practice and prepare for it
at home in such a specific way.
As part of the augmented reality experience,
you can see there's a rider up ahead of me there,
and little signs appear on the side of the road.
They pop up, and they tell you what the gradient is.
That one ominously says 14%.
Great, that's my favorite gradient,
but I'm catching this dude.
There we go, see you later.
(laughs) I'm getting competitive with bots.
Anyway (laughs), there's another one up there.
So I think I'm going to try and catch him as well (laughs).
I'll show you, bot.
But, well, Stelvio is tough,
but right up until this moment, all I've shown you
is mega epic climbs, but Rouvy isn't just climbs.
You can also do flat rides as I'm quite relieved about,
and I'm sure many of you will be as well.
Now in addition to the flat rides
and flat routes that are on here,
there are also workouts and training plans.
So you don't have to just do rides up big climbs.
You can do structured interval sessions as well.
There's lots you can choose from
that have been created by expert cycling coaches,
but you can also input your own interval session
from something like TrainingPeaks,
and there's a session builder in the app as well.
So you can build your own session.
(groans) I'm getting pretty tired.
(laughs) Oh, man.
Oh look, 11%.
(breathes) I'm just very thankful,
(laughs) as I get to the top there.
I'm not everesting this today.
It's not an easy climb, but if you want to everest it,
then you can do in your own house.
(laughs) That'd be insane.
Oh, so to use Rouvy, you'll need a subscription,
and they offer a 14-day free trial without a credit card
which means if you do forget to cancel it
after the end of the 14 days,
you won't get roped into paying, which is nice,
but if you do want to carry on after the 14 days,
then it's $10 a month from there on in,
and it's supported on a number of platforms.
So you can use iOS, Android, Windows, and also Mac
which is currently in a beta mode. (exhales)
However, Rouvy is offering an extended 30-day free trial
to the viewers of this video.
To access it, simply click on the link
in the description below.
I hope you've enjoyed this first look at Rouvy
and found it clear and informative,
and if you have, then please give it a thumbs up.
Share it with your friends.
Now to watch another video on indoor training,
you can click down here on my Direto X.