Top 9 Best Cycling Apps in 2022!
Summary
TLDRThis video highlights some of the best cycling apps to enhance your riding experience, starting with the popular Strava, which offers features like segments, social aspects, route mapping, and training analytics. It also covers apps like VeloViewer for visualizing data, Komoot for route planning, MyWindsock for weather tracking, TrainingPeaks for structured training, and Zwift for indoor virtual rides. The video discusses other indoor training platforms like RGT and TrainerRoad, each offering unique features for different cyclists' needs. Viewers are encouraged to share their favorite apps in the comments.
Takeaways
- đŽ Strava is a popular cycling app known for segments, leaderboards, and social features where you can track your performance and connect with other cyclists.
- đ Strava offers mapping functionality and training analytics that allow cyclists to build routes and analyze their ride data, especially with sensors like heart rate monitors or power meters.
- đ VeloViewer enhances Strava's data by offering detailed visualizations such as 3D graphs for elevation and the unique 'tile bagging' feature, where cyclists try to cover square miles during rides.
- đșïž Komoot is a powerful route planning tool, ideal for exploring new terrain. It provides detailed base maps and lets users see collections of routes from others for inspiration.
- đŹïž MyWindsock helps cyclists by analyzing weather, specifically wind conditions, along their routes. It offers color-coded maps to show tailwinds and headwinds for precise planning.
- đïž TrainingPeaks is a platform geared towards athletes focused on structured training. It allows users to plan future sessions, track progress, and prevent burnout with detailed training templates.
- đ Golden Cheetah is a free app for deep analysis of ride data, offering granular details like heart rate, power distribution, and peak performance over set periods.
- đ„ïž Zwift is a virtual indoor cycling platform with a large community. It allows riders to train, race, and ride with friends on virtual roads, incorporating training sessions and plans.
- đ RGT Cycling offers 'Magic Roads,' where users can upload any GPX route and ride it virtually. It also provides realistic drafting and cornering speeds, along with customizable data fields.
- đ TrainerRoad is an indoor training app with a simple interface and detailed stats, focused on executing structured workouts. It integrates outdoor ride data from Strava and Garmin Connect for a full fitness overview.
Q & A
What are segments in Strava, and how do they work?
-Segments in Strava are specific sections of a road or trail that users can time themselves on. Each segment has a leaderboard, allowing riders to compare their performance against others who have ridden the same section.
How does Strava incorporate social features?
-Strava allows users to follow their friends and view their activities. If friends ride together, the app groups their rides into one shared memory, making it easy to track joint experiences.
What is the purpose of the mapping functionality in Strava?
-Stravaâs mapping feature allows users to create routes, overlay heat maps, and find popular roads or trails in a given area, which helps with route planning and discovery.
How does Velo Viewer differ from Strava, and what unique features does it offer?
-Velo Viewer works with Stravaâs data but offers unique features like detailed 3D graphs for segment elevation and a feature called tile bagging, where users collect square miles of the world during their rides.
What is tile bagging in Velo Viewer, and why is it popular?
-Tile bagging in Velo Viewer breaks the world into square mile tiles, which are 'collected' when a rider passes through them. It's popular with cyclists who enjoy the challenge of covering as many unique areas as possible.
What makes Komoot a great route-planning app?
-Komoot is praised for its detailed base maps, terrain information, and organizational tools that make it easy to plan routes. It also allows users to explore collections of routes from others for inspiration.
How does MyWindsock assist with weather prediction during rides?
-MyWindsock provides visual wind data by showing the route on a map and color-coding sections based on wind conditions. It also uses hyper-local weather forecasts to predict conditions at specific points along the route.
What sets TrainingPeaks apart from other apps in terms of training?
-TrainingPeaks is designed for athletes who want to plan their training sessions in detail. It helps users balance their workload to ensure they progress without burning out and offers tools to review historical ride data.
Why might someone choose Golden Cheetah for their cycling data analysis?
-Golden Cheetah is a free, customizable platform that offers detailed data analysis, such as power distribution, heart rate, and training load. It is particularly useful for serious cyclists looking for granular insights.
What makes Zwift popular for indoor training, and how does it enhance the experience?
-Zwift gained popularity for its virtual world that allows users to ride indoors with real-time riders from around the world. It offers group rides, races, and training plans, creating a strong community aspect that enhances indoor cycling.
What are Magic Roads in RGT, and how do they work?
-Magic Roads in RGT allow users to upload a GPX file of a real-world route, which the platform then converts into a virtual route. This feature gives users the chance to ride their favorite outdoor routes indoors on RGT.
What are the advantages of TrainerRoad for cyclists focused on structured training?
-TrainerRoad is a simple and effective app for cyclists who want to execute structured training sessions. It provides detailed metrics like fitness, freshness, and fatigue, and includes curated training plans from professional coaches.
Outlines
đŽ Favorite Cycling Apps Overview
This paragraph introduces the videoâs theme: favorite cycling apps that enhance the simplicity of cycling. The speaker acknowledges that the list is not exhaustive and invites viewers to share their favorite apps in the comments. The first app discussed is Strava, a widely popular cycling app with features like segments, leaderboards, social integration, route mapping, and training analytics. These key features help cyclists compare their performances, track progress, and analyze their rides in detail.
đ Strava's Powerhouse Features
Strava is the main focus here, with an emphasis on its key features. Segments allow cyclists to track their performance on specific routes, comparing times with others. The app also offers social functionality, enabling users to connect with friends and group rides. Stravaâs mapping feature helps plan routes and includes heat maps for popular roads. Advanced training analytics, like heart rate and power metrics, offer detailed insights into cycling performance, depending on the sensors used.
đșïž VeloViewer: Detailed Data Visualization
This paragraph highlights VeloViewer, a tool that leverages Stravaâs data through its API to provide advanced visualizations, such as 3D elevation graphs for cycling segments. VeloViewerâs standout feature, tile bagging, breaks the world into square miles and allows users to collect 'tiles' by riding through different areas. This feature has become popular among cyclists looking to cover vast territories. The platformâs ability to offer unique visual data has made it a favorite for pro tour teams.
đ Route Planning with Komoot
Komoot is introduced as a go-to platform for route planning, offering robust organizational tools and detailed terrain data to help cyclists navigate different surfaces. Whether it's finding smooth roads for road bikes or rugged trails for gravel bikes, Komootâs base maps provide essential information. The app also allows users to browse collections of other riders' routes for inspiration, making it a versatile tool for planning the next adventure.
đŹïž Weather Forecasting with MyWindsock
MyWindsock helps cyclists better understand weather conditions, specifically wind patterns, along their routes. By uploading a ride to the platform, users receive a map with color-coded sections based on wind intensity. MyWindsock provides hyper-local weather data, predicting conditions along the route rather than offering a general forecast. This tool is especially useful for UK time trialists, helping them find the fastest times to ride.
đ Training Peaks: Planning Future Rides
Training Peaks is designed for athletes focused on future ride planning and progress tracking. It helps users create structured training sessions that ensure steady improvement without overexertion. Athletes can analyze their past ride data in detail to better prepare for upcoming sessions. The app is especially helpful for those working with coaches, as it provides a platform to visualize training load and performance metrics.
đ Granular Analysis with Golden Cheetah
Golden Cheetah is praised for its detailed and customizable ride data analysis, allowing cyclists to drill down into metrics like power, heart rate, elevation, and speed distribution. The free app is a favorite for serious athletes, especially those like Stefan, who used it during Everesting prep to evaluate his elevation and power outputs. Golden Cheetahâs focus on granular detail makes it a top choice for riders wanting an in-depth look at their training.
đ„ïž Zwift: Virtual Training for Cyclists
Zwift is introduced as an app that soared in popularity during 2020, offering virtual roads for indoor training. Cyclists can interact with real riders from around the world, join group rides, and even participate in races. Zwift also offers training plans and sessions to help riders progress during the off-season. While the app provides detailed post-ride data, Zwift encourages riders to trust their instincts during races for a less painful experience.
đ RGT: The Magic Roads Experience
RGT Cycling is discussed as an alternative to Zwift, known for its realistic drafting and cornering mechanics. A unique feature is 'Magic Roads,' which allows users to create virtual routes from any GPX file and ride them on the platform. RGT's customizable data fields and slightly lower price point appeal to a growing number of users. The app's algorithms create a more realistic riding experience compared to other virtual cycling platforms.
đ TrainerRoad: Focused Training Sessions
TrainerRoad offers a no-frills approach to executing structured training sessions, with an emphasis on efficiency and data visualization. Although it is more expensive than some competitors, it provides detailed insights into fitness, freshness, and power metrics. The platformâs calendar helps users track upcoming sessions and integrates outdoor rides from Strava or Garmin. TrainerRoadâs curated training plans, developed by professional coaches, cater to a variety of disciplines.
đŽ Wrapping Up the Best Cycling Apps
The conclusion reiterates the focus on cycling apps that improve the overall cycling experience. The speaker encourages viewers to share their favorite apps and comment on any that may have been missed from the list. By subscribing and engaging with the channel, viewers can stay updated with more cycling content.
Mindmap
Keywords
đĄStrava
đĄSegments
đĄVelo Viewer
đĄTile Bagging
đĄKomoot
đĄMy Windsock
đĄTraining Peaks
đĄGolden Cheetah
đĄZwift
đĄMagic Roads
Highlights
Cycling apps can enhance the simplicity of riding by offering new features and tracking tools.
Strava, one of the most popular apps, offers segments, leaderboards, social features, mapping, and training analytics.
Stravaâs segments allow riders to compete on local climbs or trails, tracking their time against other cyclists.
VeloViewer enhances Stravaâs data by creating 3D graphs of elevation data and offering a unique tile-bagging challenge.
Tile bagging involves ticking off square miles as cyclists ride through them, turning route exploration into a game.
Komoot is another popular route-planning app that offers detailed terrain information to help cyclists plan better rides.
Komoot users can access collections of routes from others for inspiration and to discover new adventures.
MyWindsock provides weather and wind analysis, showing cyclists where they will face headwinds or tailwinds on their routes.
MyWindsock integrates with UK time trials, offering riders detailed predictions based on local weather conditions.
Training Peaks is designed for serious athletes, focusing on future training plans and long-term progress tracking.
Golden Cheetah is a highly customizable and free platform for analyzing cycling data in granular detail.
Zwift gained popularity during 2020, offering a virtual riding experience with a community aspect and indoor group rides.
RGT Cycling features Magic Roads, allowing riders to upload routes and turn them into virtual rides on the platform.
TrainerRoad offers a simpler, no-frills approach to indoor cycling, focusing on structured training sessions.
The rise of indoor training apps like Zwift, RGT, and TrainerRoad provides cyclists with new ways to stay fit and train year-round.
Transcripts
one of the reasons we all love bikes is
because of how simple they are however
there are some cycling apps out there
which help enhance that simplicity if
you want to take your riding to the next
level so we've put together our list of
our favorite cycling apps which we think
do exactly that now this isn't an
exhaustive list so if you've got your
favorites do drop them down in the
comments because i think we'd all love
to see them first up though well it
could only be one couldn't it
[Music]
well we couldn't start a cycling apps
video without mentioning the biggest one
of them all obviously strava now there's
many many features about strava but i'm
just going to go over the key headlines
for those of you who might not be aware
of its existence first up we've got
segments segments are parts of the road
or trail which have been chopped up and
it allows you to then go and post the
time
all of the segments have their own
leaderboards attached to them so you can
go find your local climb give it a ride
and then see where you match compared to
all your other fellow riders
next up we've got the social aspects of
strava meaning you can follow your
friends and see what rides they're up to
and if you've been out riding with them
then it will group them together and you
can have a nice memory of your day out
next up we've got their mapping
functionality which allows you to build
routes within the platform and also
overlay a heat map so you can find where
all the popular roads are and trails in
a local area which is super handy lastly
we've got all the training analytics so
once you've uploaded your ride to the
platform you can then go in and look at
all the numbers now depending on how
many sensors you have on your bike such
as maybe a heart rate monitor or a
cadence sensor or a power meter you're
going to be able to look at all those
different numbers and see how taxing a
session was
now that really is just scratching the
surface of what strava is capable of so
i've linked an article below which goes
into a bit more detail alternatively
head on over to the platform set up an
account and get going because it is very
simple to use
okay so this one isn't quite as big as
its big orange brother but it does offer
a lot of very cool unique features and
this is obviously velo viewer now what
bella viewer does is it works on the
masses of data that strava has in its
api and then pulls it into its own
platform and then displays it in a
multitude of fascinating ways some of
which being the following firstly you
can look at segments in a very different
way and it will create these really nice
3d graphs to show you elevation data for
example the elevation data from segments
can be shown in a 3d graph but also
showing the twists and turns giving you
a really realistic image of what you're
going to be up against it's really no
wonder that pro tour teams use it so
often next up a feature that is unique
to velo viewer and something that has
got a lot of riders hooked is this
process of tile bagging
now tile bagging might sound a little
bit strange but it does make a little
bit more sense when you know how it
works what you're going to be doing is
when you do a ride it breaks the world
down into square miles now when you pass
through a square mile it ticks off that
box and essentially people are going out
and trying to collect them all i think
the record stands somewhere around 49
000 tiles back which is pretty
impressive but i know that that was done
by an ultra endurance cyclist so i would
be amazed if you get that far
so that's velo viewer i think it works
really well as it piggybacks off strava
and uses all that data but it does have
some key features of its own so
definitely one to check out
next up we're going to talk route
planning and for us here at cycling
weekly we're really big fans of commutes
now no doubt a lot of you have heard of
it already because we have talked about
it on the channel in the past so if you
want to look into it in a bit more
detail i'll drop a link to that video
below now as a bit of a serial route
planner myself i end up having
absolutely loads of them but with the
organizational tools you've got within
kamu it does make it really easy to
navigate
the amount of information that's on the
base maps is really helpful especially
when it comes down to looking at the
terrain it's going to let you know
whether it's going to be smooth enough
to get a road bike over or actually if
you can end up hiking your gravel bike
over some rocky crags
now with commute you've got the ability
to see other people's collections of
routes that they've planned as well so
if you're looking for a bit of
inspiration about where to head to next
then take a little look around on the
platform and you might just find your
next adventure
one of the things that can often play a
habit with our rides is the weather now
there is a tool out there which can help
you mitigate some of those risks and
this is my windsock now what my windsock
does is is that it gives you a visual
representation of the weather that
you're going to be up against namely the
wind
now what you can do with my windsock is
upload your ride to the platform and
then it will show you your route on the
map and then it will color code
different parts of the route depending
on how windy or how much of a tailwind
you'll have on those particular sections
now an extra little feature that my
windsock includes is that it has all of
the uk time trials uploaded to the
platform so you can really work out
when's going to be fast and when you're
going to have to dig a little bit deeper
now one really interesting thing about
how my windsock provides this data is
that it works out the anticipated
progress of the rider around the route
and then uses hyper local weather
information
to work out what the conditions will be
at that certain point of the ride so
it's not giving you a blanket coverage
of this is what it's like at the very
start it's gonna work it out as you go
around
so if you really want to utilize the
tailwinds that are out there then my
windsock is the one for you
[Music]
training peaks is the platform of choice
for so many athletes and that is because
it is most geared towards training
now while some apps are really good at
looking at your previous sessions
training peaks is great for planning out
your future ones and working out exactly
how hard you're going to be able to work
for future training sessions it's going
to allow you to make sure you're doing
enough to make sure you're progressing
but not do so much that you then burn
yourself out now training piece will
also show you all your previous ride
data and it really allows you to drill
into your historical data so you can
really see what you were doing and
really go into some granular detail
although those training templates can be
effective it's by no means as effective
as having a human tell you what to do
and hold you accountable to them so
traineepix really is for those athletes
that want to take their riding to the
next level and use a coach
we're going to continue on the vein of
training and looking at historical
granular data so next up we've got
golden cheetah golden cheetah is free to
use and it's incredibly customizable it
allows you to analyze your data in
nearly any way you could imagine i know
it was great for stefan's everesting
prep as he was able to look at elevation
time heart rate and power meaning he
could see that a sub 12 hour was a
feasible goal
you can see your overall training load
such as seeing your peak power for set
periods you can see how much power we
are pushing out on the hills and other
sections really clearly heart rate
distribution and power distribution over
long rides is very interesting too as is
speed distribution so this is what
golden cheetah is great at it's that
granular detail it's the stuff that
otherwise you might not have been able
to look at on other platforms so if
you're really taking your riding
seriously and you want to know what
you're actually capable of then golden
cheetah that's going to be the one for
you
next up we've got an app that saw a
meteoric rise in 2020 for obvious
reasons and that app is zwift and that's
because zwift allows you to ride on
virtual roads on an indoor trainer
what zwift have created is a semi-open
world with hundreds of kilometers to
ride on there's also a fantastic
community aspect to zwift because when
you head out onto those virtual roads
you'll be able to see riders around you
who all represent real people training
at home themselves you can also go on
some group rides with your friends and
also try your hand at some zwift racing
now zwift also incorporates zwift power
which allows you to really delve deep
into the data numbers after you've
finished a ride however i would say if
you're in a zwift race would rather not
look at the zwift numbers but recommend
riding off instinct instead because it
makes it hurt a little bit less
zwift also incorporates training
sessions and training plans so you can
ensure that you keep progressing through
those winter months
now staying on that indoor training
theme next up we've got what i would say
is best of the rest compared to zwift
and that is rgt now rgt has some
incredible features one of which being
incredibly unique to them which is
called magic roads now magic roads are
where you can build a gpx file on any of
your favorite route builders send it
across to rgt and then they'll turn it
into one of their magic roads meaning
that you can plot a route anywhere in
the world and then go and ride it on
their platform
now one thing that people really love
about rgt is the engine that drives the
platform they've got some incredibly
sophisticated algorithms meaning that
the drafting is a lot more realistic and
people do enjoy it a lot more and also
cornering speeds again also feel a lot
more realistic so that is something that
people do tend to favor over and above
zwift
now with rgt there is less of a network
effect than there is compared to zwift
because of those lower numbers but we
are seeing more people moving over to
the platform and that is for a whole
number of reasons first up being the
customization of the data fields which
people do really appreciate you've got
the more realistic speed that i just
mentioned you've got the magic roads
function again one that i just mentioned
you've also got that lower price which
comes in slightly cheaper than zwift of
the competitors to swift rgt deserves
the most honorable of mentions and
that's because they're not trying to
compete on the same terms but rather do
something quite different
for our next indoor training platform
we've got trainer row now trainer road
is something for those who just want to
get on and execute their training
sessions it's very paired back and it's
a very simple tool but it is effective
it is quite expensive at 1995 us though
so compared to the others it is fairly
punchy in terms of price however it will
let you see your fitness your freshness
your fatigue and your power curve on
some really nicely displayed graphics
what's particularly nice is the calendar
there you can see the sessions that you
have coming up and are all plain to see
with the stats on the far side totaling
the relevant metrics you want to be
keeping a track of but in addition to
that it pulls through your rise from
strava or garmin connect so the work
you're doing outdoors is fully taken
into account for a full picture of your
fitness progress
trainer road is also particularly good
for its curated range of training
sessions made by professional coaches
now these are there to help you achieve
your goals no matter what your
discipline be that off-road riding
triathlon road racing or time trialing i
think training road is going to be for
those who just want to get on and
execute their training sessions without
the sensory overload of a virtual
training world
so there we have it that's our list of
cycling apps which we think makes
cycling a little bit better if you want
to take your riding a bit more seriously
do let us know down in the comments what
apps you're using and if you think we
missed any of our lists if you enjoyed
the video drop it a like subscribe to
the channel for more content and i'll
see you again very soon
[Music]
[Music]
[Applause]
you
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)