Winter has arrived in South Eastern Australia with a vengeance. A wild storm has descended from Queensland into New South Wales and brought with it a lot of wind and rain. This pretty much swamps me out from any riding this weekend with the forecast not looking to clear until Tuesday. To say I was disappointed is an understatement, as I was looking to stretch out the legs on the new speed steed. Some other cyclists would say, “Stop being a fair weather cyclist!” or quote Rule #5 or #9, but the reality was that it flooded in my local area and I had no intent of carrying a kayak on my back.

All that was left was to put the bike on the trainer and spin. Yes the torture machine was to be put to use, but I had been itching to try something different out than spin while watching reruns of “How I met your Mother”. I had read quite a few reviews about the social cycling app Zwift. I grabbed an ANT+ dongle and hooked up my laptop to my TV. With the S3 rigged up to the trainer and the app downloaded I was ready to roll.

Zwift_1002

This is a far better way to roll on the torture machine compared to anything else other than watching European pro-cycling races while pedalling in the middle of the night. The whole set up of seeing other riders in real-time virtually in front of you or coming up behind you is quite fun. The sprint segments and mountain climbs with their leaderboards are novel, with a hint of Strava in the mix. The one thing that was not so good was that with a “dumb” trainer (I have an Elite Crono Fluid Gel from 5 years ago) the sensation of drafting, or the variable resistance of climbing or descending along the circuit, was not available. This did detract from the experience, but not so much that I wanted to hop out of the saddle. Still, I reckon it would be even more fun with a Wahoo Kickr on the rear skewer. There was also the strange sensation that I felt when approaching a bend or corner – I found myself looking to the apex of the curve and preparing to lean in with my shoulder.

The screen layout presents plenty of information to you while pedalling. At first it was a bit overwhelming, but after a couple of minutes (or was it a couple of virtual kilometers) it became quite easy to read. I had my Garmin on to give me my indoor speed and cadence, but after a while I only looked down at the trip computer every so often. The table on the right of the screen with the time gaps to the riders in front and behind was a real motivator to pedal harder, to catch the next rider. It surprised me how quickly I fell into the same mindset that I have when I am on it and doing laps at Centennial Park.

Will it ever replace riding out on the road? No way. Was it fun? Yeah, in a Playstation meets riding sort of way. Will I have a go again on the virtual circuits of Zwift? Most definitely! Indoor training this winter is about to get a bit more interesting and competitive.