BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Velo-trainer is a British-designed indoor cycle training app for iPads and iPhones. It works with static trainers and with rollers. The app pairs with Bluetooth bike sensors like Wahoo fitness or ANT speed and cadence sensors such as those from Garmin. The iPad or iPhone shows an aerial image of a cyclist racing around a velodrome track, with the ability to race against others or pace with them. Those who earn "medals" by using the app qualify for money-off and other deals with retailers, including Start Cycles and Totally Fuelled.
The app has been developed by Tony Holt, and allows friends in different locations to create events and train together indoors, whilst still recording and synchronising exercise data with training logs like Strava and Training Peaks.
"I’d tried a lot of training apps and videos, but none really motivate you when the weather turns and you’d sooner be outside with friends," said Holt. "I wanted something that meant there were no more excuses to miss a session on my turbo trainer – creating events and connecting with my friends all over the country using Velo-Trainer made all the difference."
Once paired with Bluetooth or ANT+ sensors, exercise data is displayed on the screen as you cycle around an arcade-style velodrome track. Heart-rate data is also displayed as well as personal training zones.
"Motivation in the cold winter months is hard to maintain," said Holt. "As well as the banter it provides through the live leaderboards, we found that cyclists trained harder when using the training-partner function, and dodged fewer sessions when an event was planned."
The app has a free trial period of a month but use thereafter costing £1.99 a month, or £19.99 for a year.
_
