With the country on lock down and guidance being local rides only are socially acceptable, BC and CTT cancelling or suspending all events until the end of June at present people have been looking for alternatives ways of training and racing. It may have escaped some people’s notice that Turbo Trainers of almost any type are out of stock with suppliers and some suppliers were guilty of extortionate price hikes allowed by the rarely used RRP price tag.
In times past turbo trainers were pretty dumb – you got on, twiddled the pedals for as long as your sanity allowed and got off. However, turbo trainers are “Smart”, well everything else is, so why not. Smart in this context means all sorts of things but one element of “smartness” is having power and cadence provided via ANT+ or Bluetooth. This magic allows you to connect your trainer to you phone app or PC software and record your ride.
Over the years various software applications have been developed to allow you to ride with other people and to race. For a review of training applications head over to DC Rainmaker.
At present the club has been experimenting with RGT Cycling. For the COVID19 period RGT have offered their app for free with their premium features.
HOW: To access RGT Cycling for free, download the app and register for the free subscription. Users can access the Premium features by sending an empty email to rideitout@rgtcycling.com from the same email account they used to register for RGT.
We are running an evening time trial at 1830 hrs each week and links are being posted on the Club Facebook page. In addition, this Saturday 4 April we are going to try the Chain Gang route at 0930 hrs. All events have to be signed up for prior to the event and you must be on the start line at the start time or you cannot enter.
For the Time Trials Simon Cox is publishing a start list of those that have registered (please register by 0800 hrs on the day) and we are doing honesty starts. For the Chain Gang provided 5 riders have registered then it will be a Group Ride with (hopefully) through and offs – it is not a road race!
Although I have not participated in them, BC are running a series of time trials in Zwift and BC South Region have been running an Interclub which sadly we did not find out about until after their third race. Of course it is at the same time as our Club Wednesday TT, so we assume you would rather do that!
We cannot provide advice on how to connect your smart trainer to the app as there are just to many variables but please note you will need an ANT+ and / or Bluetooth dongle for your computer or else the trainer cannot communicate with the computer and the application.