Everything you need to know about Rouvy the cycling app

Over the past few months, many of us have had to pivot from our traditional training routines. Many outdoor running and cycling fanatics have found ways to get their sweat fix indoors, including but not limited to logging miles on a MyRun, or MyCycling or Skillrun athletic performance treadmill. While you may not get the same wind in your hair on an indoor ride that you’d get climbing your local mountain, indoor cycling is now more interactive than ever. Large in part because of a slew of apps on the market that bring community and real-life city and mountain scapes to life — without the need to ever leave your home.

Enter Rouvy. Rouvy is an indoor cycling app that offers augmented reality courses and real life routes that you can tackle indoors. First question: What does “augmented reality” really mean? Basically, this is when you take something that is real in the world — like video footage of real roads — and overlay things on top of it (in this case, you — the virtual rider).

While Rouvy is often grouped together with other popular app picks like Zwift, Rouvy certainly has a leg up on the competition. Providing real elevation data with video recordings, the experience proves to be extremely realistic. Plus, it may be as close as some of us can get to the real thing at the moment. Stuck in New York City but want to climb mountains in Spain? No problem. In Italy but hope to check out stage 2 of the Tour de France? You got it.

What makes Rouvy special?

Without a doubt, Rouvy has the most extensive library of real-life terrain and roads when it comes to available cycling apps on the market, with more than 3,000 geolocated routes with synchronized videos, multi-rider mode for group rides, workouts, and online races. The app’s catalogue says that there are more than 2,000,000 kilometers of virtual roads available, which certainly can keep you occupied for some time. Before selecting any route, you can preview the total elevation and distance involved, how long it may take to complete, and peep other user ratings.

If you’re more of the independent type and would like to create your own routes, that’s an option as well. Rouvy works with Google Earth to give users the opportunity to map out their own course, using a start and end pin. Another awesome feature? The app enables users to upload ride videos from action cameras, like GoPro or Optix, and sync them with their own custom routes.

On certain courses, the app generated 3D riders that can help you feel less alone despite the conditions, or you can even add real riders from the comfort of their own home, bringing group training indoors. Granted, this capability depends on what subscription you purchase.

In order to use Rouvy at home, you’ll need a bike, a smart trainer (like MyCycling) or an indoor bike like Skillbike and a device such as a tablet or laptop. An added perk: Users can also upload their own training zones into Rouvy, including their maximum heart rate, body proportions, and FTP values (or the average watts that a rider can sustain for an hour-long effort). Then, the app can help riders navigate the right training zones for their rides, including active recovery, tempo, endurance, lactate threshold, V02 max, anaerobic capacity, and neuromuscular power.

Can You Race on Rouvy?

Virtual racing has become more and more popular in 2020, and Rouvy is in on the action. Whether you’re a professional or an amatuer, there are opportunities for you to get competitive regardless of where you’re at in your cycling journey, with an online and local event calendar that can get you hyped up to get in the saddle — whether it’s racing through the Swiss Alps or tackling scenic country roads near Wichita Falls.

Rouvy and Technogym: indoor training with an outdoor vibe

The proper rise of the virtual cycling allows cyclists to try your hand at some of the most legendary stages of cycling. You have also been able to challenge your friends, participate in virtual competitions, or simply train following a specific program.

Today's indoor cycling technology allows to live cycling experiences in an incredibly realistic way, thanks to professional products - such as MyCycling or Skillbike by Technogym - which, in addition to the accuracy of the intermediate measured data of watts, speed, slope and correct biomechanics, they guarantee connectivity with applications that allow virtual workouts such as Zwift or Rouvy.

MyCycling is the smart trainer that allow to train at home to totally transform your outdoor performance, designed to offer maximum stability during training, especially when simulating outdoor sprints. You can then select the stage or the race from the large Zwift or Rouvy library and live it in a completely realistic way thanks to the video that will immerse you in the race scenario and the product completely synchronized with the route in terms of climb, speed, level of resistance etc.

If you prefer an indoor bike for athletic training, Skillbike is the revolutionary stationary bike that enables cyclists, triathletes and cycling enthusiasts to live the emotion and challenge of outdoor experiences in an indoor environment. When it comes to virtual cycling, Skillbike offers all MyCycling features and therefore connectivity with Zwift, Rouvy, Strava and Kinomap.