indoor cycling

Longest Ride

| Richard

Many people – OK, nobody, actually – ask me what my longest ride was, either in real life or virtually.

The answer is 162.89km virtually, and I rode this back on 25 February 2024 on FulGaz.  They say:

“Are you up for the challenge? Located in the stunning California Alps, the “Tour of the California Alps – Death Ride®” course crosses three Sierra Nevada mountain passes, for a total of six highly categorized climbs. Included are both sides of Monitor Pass, both sides of Ebbetts Pass, and both sides of the Pacific Grade. For the first time ever, FulGaz is excited to have the complete 2024 route available to ride.”

The main difference between riding it virtually with my setup and riding it in real life is coasting. On my trainer, if I stop pedalling, I stop. Completely. So unlike real life you have to pedal up hills and then pedal down the other side, which makes it really hard work.

But at least I could stay in the Pain Cave all day avoiding family who’d come to stay.

So the stats: 162.89km, 3,973m of climbing, an average speed of 25.1km/h, taking 6 hours, 31 minutes and 40 seconds, and burning 5,880 calories.  Garmin Connect thought I was overreaching…

FulGaz/adidas/Strava Graphic
FulGaz/adidas/Strava Graphic

Groovy ROUVY

| Richard

Well I’ve taken the plunge and paid for a year’s subscription to ROUVY (£160 for the year) to run alongside my existing FulGaz (£86) and JRNY (£135) subscriptions. Yes, September’s going to be expensive with both ROUVY and JRNY renewals, the former for virtual cycling and the latter for the Bowflex T56 Treadmill (and indeed JRNY do virtual rides as well).

My favourite remains FulGaz for its real-life simulation and the way the rides cover road, path and gravel tracks, all filmed from bikes.  It’s also excellent value for money with my individual subscription having a free companion subscription that my wife uses. It integrates with Strava and it emails you a FIT file after each ride, but Garmin Connect integration is still over the horizon but promised.

JRNY is expensive and has no other app integration, so I record my treadmill runs on my Apple Watch Ultra 2 (for Strava) and at the same time on my Garmin f?nix 7S (for Garmin Connect).  But it is needed to have the big screen on the treadmill up and running (ho-ho) with either the structured workouts we don’t use, or the Explore The World runs which we do use, or the integration with Netflix so Alison can keep up with series that we don’t watch together.  The one subscription covers all the family.

ROUVY – owned by the same people as FulGaz – offers videoed rides from a vehicle and superimposes an avatar of you plus those for others on a group ride or ‘ghost’ riders, so it’s not as game-like as Zwift, and it does integrate with both Strava and Garmin Connect.

If you want to try it, here’s an affiliate link which will get me a £7 credit and get you 50% off your first two months.

All The Gear…

| Richard

Nearly all of my riding is virtual: the UK’s roads aren’t up to road riding and the UK drivers even less so, seemingly filled with frothing, enraged gammon motorists hating all those “woke” cyclists, blah, blah.

So the only time I actually ride on the road is when I’m away on holiday in Fuerteventura, when I hire a road bike from the guys at Easy Riders Bike Centre.

I tend to wear just regular gym/running tops in the pain cave, but I do wear my ‘monkey pants’: a couple of pairs of Giro padded cycling shorts (Giro Chrono Sports Shorts).

Giro Chrono Sports Shorts

Giro Chrono Sports Shorts

At least that way I can have a modicum of comfort in the saddle.

But I’ve had a change of heart and decided that when I am out on the roads in Fuerteventura, I could probably use some actual cycling gear, so I’ve gone out and used a load of those promotional links you get from completing various challenges on Strava and bought some gear.

Specifically, these: a Le Col club bib and jersey from their club essentials range with some cycling socks and a Castelli jersey in Soudal Quick Step colours.

Le Col CC Pro Jersey Le Col CC Pro Bib Shorts Castelli Soudal Quick Step Aero Race 8S Jersey

 

July 2025 Stats

| Richard

July was mainly spent in Bangkok and my hotel apartment although great overall was a disappointment in terms of the gym: both the treadmills and the cycling machines were previous generation: no Bluetooth connectivity, just the little LED dots on the screen.

This meant that my usual  John Hallas’ Weekly Challenges and the FulGaz French Tour 2025 that I started couldn’t be completed in time.  Running on the treadmill also exacerbated my existing knee problem (necrosis and no cartilage) meaning I stopped exercising at all, only starting again when I got home.

So here are July’s stats:

July 2025 Statistics

July 2025 Statistics

Activities: 18 Distance: 230.32km Time: 10:07:13 Calories:  10,766

Turning to my weight, at the end of June I weighed 87.9kg and at the end of July I weighed 88.7kg, which is up by 0.8kg; all those beers and Thai food! Body fat percentage was up from 25.6% to 26.3% no doubt due to all those meals.

So August needs to step things up and I need to knuckle down.

June 2025 Stats

| Richard

June was busy, busy, busy but we managed to get away for a few days in the champagne region of France, staying in a couple of fabulous hotels, and visiting some of our favourite champagne houses.

Most of my time other than that was spent in the Pain Cave for more FulGaz rides, mainly my usual  John Hallas’ Weekly Challenges, but also the FulGaz Winter Escape Tour 2025, which they put out for the riders in the Southern Hemisphere (remember that FulGaz was started in Australia).

I also managed to cram both mountain bikes into the ST and take them to Windsor Great Park for some real life cycling too!

Anyway, here are June’s stats:

June 2025 Statistics

June 2025 Statistics

Activities: 30 Distance: 368.75km Time: 19:36:58 Calories:  17,971

Turning to my weight, at the end of May I weighed 87.0kg and at the end of June I weighed 87.9kg, which is up by 0.9kg; all those croissants and champagne! Body fat percentage was up from 24.8% to 25.6% which wasn’t bad considering the fine dining.

I’m not sure what July is going to be like, as I’m off to Thailand for three works on business.

FulGaz Coastal Explorer Tour

| Richard

An email from FulGaz today prompted me to go and have a look at their Coastal Explorer Tour that ended at the end of May 2025:

FulGaz Coastal Explorer Tour

FulGaz Coastal Explorer Tour

More specifically, I took a look at the results for Stage 7, the final stage, and hence the overall General Classification. Yes, I ended up the overall quickest time for the Tour. Quite chuffed…

FulGaz Coastal Explorer Tour General Classification Result

FulGaz Coastal Explorer Tour General Classification Result

May 2025 Stats

| Richard Morris

May began with me looking forward to a long weekend in Cornwall on the BMW R1250RT and that didn’t disappoint, even if it – meaning Cornish Pasties, cream teas, and pub meals – led to a few days off from the Pain Cave.

Most of my time other than that was spent in the Pain Cave for more FulGaz rides, mainly my usual  John Hallas’ Weekly Challenges, but also the FulGaz Winter Escape Tour 2025, which they put out for the riders in the Southern Hemisphere (remember that FulGaz was started in Australia).

Anyway, here are May’s stats:

May 2025 Statistics

May 2025 Statistics

Activities: 27 Distance: 444.96km Time: 17:47:57 Calories:  18,569

Turning to my weight, at the end of April I weighed 86.8kg and at the end of May I weighed 87.0kg, which is up by 0.2kg. Body fat percentage was down from 25.6% to 24.8% which wasn’t bad considering the pasties.

April 2025 Stats

| Richard

April was me coming down to Earth with a bump after a really enjoyable March.

Most of my time was spent in the Pain Cave for more FulGaz rides, mainly my usual  John Hallas’ Weekly Challenges, but during April (and May, although I finished it in April!), the FulGaz Coastal Explorer Tour.

Anyway, here are April’s stats:

April 2025 Statistics

April 2025 Statistics

Activities: 23 Distance: 359.88km Time: 14:29:04 Calories:  14,823

Turning to my weight, at the end of March I weighed 86.1kg and at the end of April I weighed 86.8kg, which is up by 0.7kg. Body fat percentage was up from 22.6% to 25.6% which I think is more realistic.

FulGaz Challenges

| Richard

I realised I hadn’t done a proper update on the main challenges I did on FulGaz last year and this year: the Grand Tour 2025 and more importantly, perhaps, the Ironman Pro Sprint Series.

I can’t link to them, sadly, because with FulGaz’ acquisition by ROUVY, the event pages have disappeared.

Happily, though, I managed to screenshot the overall leaderboards/General Classification (“GC”) tables so I would have a permanent record of how I placed overall.

So here’s the GC for the Grand Tour 2025:

FulGaz Grand Tour 2025 GC

FulGaz Grand Tour 2025 GC

And more importantly, here’s the GC for the Ironman Pro Sprint Series:

FulGaz Ironman Pro Sprint Series GC

FulGaz Ironman Pro Sprint Series GC

So, second on the Grand Tour and third on the Ironman Pro Sprint Series; not bad for an old fart like me.

Today my Ironman Pro Sprint Series medal arrived!