well - let me explain
Road Grand Tours Cycling is an indoor training app that lets you ride simulations of a selection of real roads around the world on a turbo trainer. Rather than riding in a virtual world, you’re taking on famous climbs and experiencing simulations of real places.
There’s also a range of coach-developed structured workouts and you can create your own course based on an uploaded route file.
If you’re using a smart trainer, RGT Cycling can wirelessly control your trainer to simulate the changing gradient of a particular road or set the wattage required in whatever training session you are tackling.
You can select different views of the road as you ride, including a drone view and a moto camera view, if you want to imagine that Eurosport is following your ride. The forward-facing camera is the standard view but there’s also a rear-facing camera. RGT Cycling’s in-app screen offers a range of data on your performance, as you’d expect.
You can also customise your avatar in RGT Cycling, with a range of different bikes and kit available, including BMC and Ridley machines.
RGT Cycling has majored on making its simulation more like the real world compared to some of its competitors, with a diminution in effort if you draft another rider and the simulated effect of braking into corners. If you want to pass a rider, you need to be travelling significantly faster or putting out more power.
RGT Cycling claims that normalised power output numbers in its app are closer to the real world than on some competitors.
RGT Cycling says speeds are calculated from real-world data for cornering and your avatar is slowed down automatically to stop you rear-ending the rider in front. Ease off then accelerate out and you’re likely to pass another rider pushing out constant power.
Plus you can’t just ride through another rider, you have to ride past them. So you need to make sure you’re towards the front of the pack when you come to climbs, if you don’t want to get blocked.
There are also KOMs/QOMs and leaderboards over parts of each ride, so you can challenge yourself.
How does RGT Cycling differ from Zwift?
RGT Cycling’s routes are based on some of the most famous cycling destinations in the world, including the Passo dello Stelvio. RGT Cycling
Zwift tends to snatch the headlines when it comes to indoor training apps, but RGT Cycling and Rouvy are among a range of competitors offering an alternative way to train on your turbo.
Unlike Zwift, RGT Cycling needs power data to work – either from your turbo trainer or a
power meter on your bike. With Zwift, you can
get by with a cheaper set up using just a speed/cadence sensor and a classic (non-smart) turbo trainer.
Whereas Zwift can be run on a computer/tablet/smartphone alone, with the option of using the Companion app in tandem, RGT Cycling needs both a smartphone and a separate display simultaneously.
Zwift’s main training environment is the Watopia virtual world, with extensions that you can unlock.
That’s supplemented by a daily choice of virtual courses based on the real world, including Alpe d’Huez (or, rather, Alpe du Zwift) and the Road World Championships courses from Virginia, Innsbruck and Yorkshire.
RGT Cycling’s environment, meanwhile, lets you select from eight always-available simulations of real world courses if you take out a premium subscription, or three if you have a free account.
