Is it time to break the Zwiftopoly?

[@EvolveOutdoors]

Exactly why I'm into open source. By the people for the people, not by the overpaid CEO for the shareholders.

[@burgess_and_his_bike]

Care to share any open-source options mate? Would be interested- not for this, kinda locked in now, but for future and for viewers.

[@storegga]

zwifting since early days then rgt, now mywhoosh. they got the uci deal for two annum too. plus its damn free. that extra dosh will get me a closed road sportive each year

[@burgess_and_his_bike]

Yeah I’m keen to give it a go. I don’t see how Rouvy can compete with a free platform but we will see what it’s got.

[@ZenEndurance]

The cyclists brain - "This one app is getting too expensive. I'm gonna sign up for three more!"

[@burgess_and_his_bike]

That’s how capitalism works dude. Zwift has created a monopoly and thus can charge extortionate prices. By moving to other platforms you create competition, which pushes companies to compete for the consumer, thus driving down prices. It’s literally the basis of your economic system.

[@lewisburrough7429]

Just left Zwift after a monthly subscriber since 2019. MyWhoosh just got the UCI contract. Going with it. Also rumours of transfer levels between the two.

[@burgess_and_his_bike]

Do you mean transferring over the level that you’re at? Rouvy is looking cool, albeit paid, but it has a partnership with Lidl-Trek that I didn’t know about so Trek and Giant bikes on there. Also probably the best character customiser so far.

[@ConstantRider]

I feel you missed a key component why people use these apps. Training. For me these apps are tools to train on. More specifically, Power for some workouts, RPE for others and a 3rd key metric which is HR. I don't believe any of the app, including Zwift does the latter two well and everyone is fixated on FTP, while an increasing amount of coaches in the real world are subscribing RPE and HR as the yard stick.

[@burgess_and_his_bike]

Definitely the focus of the actual reviews so I’d recommend checking them out. Pumps up the views too which is nice 😉

[@realukbloke]

The big question for me is whether any other platform has critical mass to support events - specifically races with enough attendance to actually make them competitive and interesting. Online cycling without competition is incredibly dull. You need multiple event types x multiple categories x multiple courses x multiple times per day x enough racers and that turns out to be a lot of active users. Zwift is by far the largest platform and has a huge daily events calendar, but struggles to fill them all out with enough riders. I'd be interested in whether any other platform can compete.

[@burgess_and_his_bike]

Totally agree, and this is the main issue I had with Rouvy (check out the video if you want thoughts). MyWhoosh I’m working with this week and I am cautiously optimistic.

[@SwimBikeRunStu]

I think its pretty cheap for what you get for 🙈 I will be sticking with zwift. Interesting to see the others though. Great video 👌

[@burgess_and_his_bike]

Thanks dude. Watch this space. More coming at the end of this week with the Rouvy review

[@paulw677]

I look at it like this....I have an annual sub for TrainerRoad which is US$189/annum. Looking at a year in cycling and thinking about what has the most impact on my fitness or performance at a target event (say Peaks Challenge) nothing comes close to the value I get from that subscription. I don't discount that the price hike was big & that's both disappointing and another additional cost to absorb. It's also the first increase since 2017. It'll be interesting to watch your series and see how those competitors stack up for you

[@burgess_and_his_bike]

I agree with you that TrainerRoad is the best coaching platform, but I don’t think that many people use these for coaching. I know that I currently am not in the position for that. Also, trainer road isn’t a virtual world so unless you’re really into graphs some entertainment helps. It is the first increase, but it’s a large one at a time where people can ill afford it. I think it is tone deaf. Anyway, thanks for your interest dude, Rouvy starts tonight. I’m looking forward to it.