VirtuGo & RoadGrandTours Zwift alternatives thread: opinions please

mariamartinez

So I hear VirtuGo is opening its doors soon and right now it is letting in more people try the beta if you ask nicely. I have Zwift but its gone up to a frankly ridiculous monthly of £12.99 in UK and $14.99 in US (and it will for everyone this Dec even if you got the early bird rate) so I am planning to discontinue very soon. Roadgrandtours is also in beta and maybe launching soon but I havent tried it. I also havent seen OneLap but its live if you can log on isn't it? Or you could go a different direction and get https://maximumtrainer.com which is entirely free.

So my question is simple. What do you think about these Zwift alternatives. I realise they have a low riding population but lets be honest Zwift not long gave up on its own blue ghosts.

supermurph09

mariamartinez wrote:

So I hear VirtuGo is opening its doors soon and right now it is letting in more people try the beta if you ask nicely. I have Zwift but its gone up to a frankly ridiculous monthly of £12.99 in UK and $14.99 in US (and it will for everyone this Dec even if you got the early bird rate) so I am planning to discontinue very soon. Roadgrandtours is also in beta and maybe launching soon but I havent tried it. I also havent seen OneLap but its live if you can log on isn't it? Or you could go a different direction and get https://maximumtrainer.com which is entirely free.

So my question is simple. What do you think about these Zwift alternatives. I realise they have a low riding population but lets be honest Zwift not long gave up on its own blue ghosts.

It's only not worth £12.99 a month if you aren't using it imo. ( I don't pay £12.99 a month but I would ).

mariamartinez

Hmm I am using it but not regularly, so it is not worth it to me I have decided. Each person decides whether paid training platform is worth it for them as only they know their financial position, however the alternatives are likely to be around half Zwift price which could be a game changer if they work just as well (or better!)

slowbike

I didn't renew my BKool sub early summer because I wasn't sure if I was going to carry on - and tbh - I don't use the turbo in the summer.
I like bkool simulator because I can ride where I want to ride - even uploading my own GPX to follow - rather than where the operators want me to ride - plus I get the option of a completely flat velodrome if I want to just tap out a rhythm for a bit. I didn't like it because the number of riders to ride against was practically zero - there's nobody to draft and nobody to challenge yourself against - unless you do one of the organised sessions (my time just doesn't work like that unfortunately) - I say nobody to challenge yourself against - there were usually a few people on velodrome sessions that you could chase/lap or just try to stay in contact with - but it's certainly not a Zwift session with everyman and his dog on a bike....
As it happened - Bkool offered me a deal on a years sub - which was cheaper than Zwift to start with and now even cheaper - so I've got Bkool for another year and I'm happy that I can target my efforts on the turbo without the distraction of everyman and his dog overtaking me and tempting me to chase!

PinarelloPrince

Have I missed something here? An alternative to Zwift that doesn't work on phone/tablet or Apple TV?

Really?

MiddleRinger

Road Grand Tours: This is the closest in likeness to Zwift, with other virtual riders on course, virtual drafting, etc. It displays a lot more data on screen and aims to be more realistic and less "gamey" than Zwift. Some people like this, others don't. At present there are only a couple of short courses to choose from (but you can choose, unlike Zwift). I wasn't a huge fan personally but it certainly has a LOT of potential and I'll probably re-visit it in the future.

The Sufferfest: This is a good option for structured training. The interval workouts are all set to UCI race footage or epic climbs. It really helps to keep you focused on the training. It's not really a direct "competitor" to the others, but something different. Much less just ride the trainer and much more proper training program.

FulGaz: This is purely riding real routes, no virtual world or competitive element. There are so many routes to choose from ranging from iconic climbs to flat beach routes to race courses. The filming is top notch, all filmed on a bike so it feels more realistic. It's great, but lacking something. Not sure what. Plus because it's real footage, you never catch the guy in front no matter how many 400W efforts you lay down, haha!

green_mark

IMHO, based on my participation in betas:

Road Grand Tours - The most developed alternative at the moment. Its key strength and also its key weakness is that it tries to replicate real rides fully.
The problem is that there is more to real rides than just the visuals right in front of you. For example, going up Ventoux there are the glimpses in your peripheral vision of the views as you go through the forest, then the vast expanses, thin and windy atmosphere when you get to the top. But the Ventoux in RGT involves 2 hours+ of climbing through the forests with the same types of tree. There is no sense of progress and frankly it gets very boring.
Zwift changed this for their Alpe d'Huez, in that they keep adding little elements that make you feel you are progressing - with houses, construction works, scarecrows, radar stations.
Some of the rides in RGT do have that progression and are excellent - Formentor and Stelvio. Other rides not so much.

VirtuGo - too many software bugs at the moment and worlds are somewhat limited.

OneLap - needs a lot more work on graphics.

Sufferfest - I'd say that is a more intuitive replacement of Trainerroad than of Zwift.

jgsi

Rouvy.. just over £6.
Basic but pretty much what I require for turbo motivation.
Plus feature is that I can run it on an Android Note clipped onto the bars for Sufferfest vids or a video route .

In fact the Android runtime is a winner. It connects over ANT/BLE instantly
I personally dont need 'races' to train - in fact 'races' probably give you bad training.

I dont need hi end 4k graphics or pretend to be outdoors when I am not. I use a basic direct drive turbo so all this hill climbing feel is wurst.
Push the turbo out , go get bike, clip bike in, clip phone on, start app, start pedalling to Sufferfests .
Keep the tech simples.

PinarelloPrince

Am I right in saying the only things currently available on Apple TV are Swift and FulGaz?

VamP

I appreciate not everyone is into racing, but this is Zwift's winning edge. Anyone wants to unseat them will need to build a solid racing and group ride community.

If you're not using it then £12.99 per month sounds like a lot, but IRL racing is £15-25 per race entry fee, plus travel plus crashes, plus a more significant time commitment. In that light Zwift is an unbelievable bargain.

For someone like me (collarbone recovery) Zwift is literally a life saver.

jgsi

VamP wrote:

I appreciate not everyone is into racing, but this is Zwift's winning edge. Anyone wants to unseat them will need to build a solid racing and group ride community.

If you're not using it then £12.99 per month sounds like a lot, but IRL racing is £15-25 per race entry fee, plus travel plus crashes, plus a more significant time commitment. In that light Zwift is an unbelievable bargain.

For someone like me (collarbone recovery) Zwift is literally a life saver.

s'ok for testers , bu gger all use for road racing ;-)

VamP

JGSI wrote:

s'ok for testers , bu gger all use for road racing ;-)

It's a different experience to road racing, but it's very absorbing all the same. Damn sight more fun for 60 minutes than a traineroad over and under interval session, and with similar physiological impact.

The drafting effect is reasonably well modeled, but of course the whole crucial aspect of moving around the bunch is missing.

slowbike

having other LIVE riders to ride with is certainly more engaging than the "do this level of effort for this time" - for some anyway ...

my wife prefers the more structured approach whereas I prefer a slightly freer training session - no doubt she's improving faster. I have done a few structured training sessions (available in bkool simulator - works with any turbo though) and I can see the attraction - I just like to mix it up a bit - which is why I like the flexibility of where I ride within BKool ...

jgsi

Thats why I have moved back to trad intervals for off season work.
Keeping it simple but with a small amount of tech to keep motivation up.
I did a lot of ZZwift racing but on analysis, it was not paying off for me. As an experiment I wanted to know.
Their cack handed and set in concrete w/kg model to drive the races just pee'd me off more than not pee ing me off.

VamP

My perspective is that I hate the turbo. I'd rather be knocking out structured training outdoors, but that is not possible. Zwift has made indoor training tolerable for me, doing structured interval on the turbo makes me want to chew my feet off.

slowbike

JGSI wrote:

Thats why I have moved back to trad intervals for off season work.
Keeping it simple but with a small amount of tech to keep motivation up.
I did a lot of ZZwift racing but on analysis, it was not paying off for me. As an experiment I wanted to know.
Their cack handed and set in concrete w/kg model to drive the races just pee'd me off more than not pee ing me off.

I've not tried the Zwift races - just tried a basic ride a couple of times a couple of winters ago (created trial account) - I think they've introduced some more structured sessions now as I see friends doing FTP sessions - I just found the Zwift experience a little underwhelming (compared to the simulator I was using) as you had no choice as to what course you rode and have to decide on the road if you're turning left/right - I can see the benefits as a free ride or joining friends/sessions as there's always plenty of people to ride with. But that's the benefit/limitation of restricting the circuit.

kingstongraham

Slowbike wrote:

JGSI wrote:

Thats why I have moved back to trad intervals for off season work.
Keeping it simple but with a small amount of tech to keep motivation up.
I did a lot of ZZwift racing but on analysis, it was not paying off for me. As an experiment I wanted to know.
Their cack handed and set in concrete w/kg model to drive the races just pee'd me off more than not pee ing me off.

I've not tried the Zwift races - just tried a basic ride a couple of times a couple of winters ago (created trial account) - I think they've introduced some more structured sessions now as I see friends doing FTP sessions - I just found the Zwift experience a little underwhelming (compared to the simulator I was using) as you had no choice as to what course you rode and have to decide on the road if you're turning left/right - I can see the benefits as a free ride or joining friends/sessions as there's always plenty of people to ride with. But that's the benefit/limitation of restricting the circuit.

The races are the only draw for me. Structured sessions you can get elsewhere as well as Zwift (even though they are good too), but the unstructured hard workout you get from having to push a bit more than is comfortable to stay with a group needs a critical mass of users, and the organisation for enough of them to be in the same place at the same time.

VamP

Same for me really. Although I did the Innsbruck Recon ride with Matt Hayman a few days ago, and that was a really nice way to get an hour of tempo in. A proper live Q&A session with a pro, and a nice guy to boot.

mariamartinez

VamP wrote:

Same for me really. Although I did the Innsbruck Recon ride with Matt Hayman a few days ago, and that was a really nice way to get an hour of tempo in. A proper live Q&A session with a pro, and a nice guy to boot.

live Q&A on zwift?

how does that work?

do you chat whilst riding on the app or is there some kind of spin off for this?

dannbodge

mariamartinez wrote:

VamP wrote:

Same for me really. Although I did the Innsbruck Recon ride with Matt Hayman a few days ago, and that was a really nice way to get an hour of tempo in. A proper live Q&A session with a pro, and a nice guy to boot.

live Q&A on zwift?

how does that work?

do you chat whilst riding on the app or is there some kind of spin off for this?

There's an in "game" messaging system.
You can use it any time regardless of what event is going on.

VamP

Exactly, you can chat/message either directly in the Zwift environment, or on the Companion app.

stevewj

Zwift too expensive at £12.99 a month ???
I ride on Zwift every day. Used to ride IRL every day and include a coffee stop. Medium coffee = £2.00 +. Say five stops a week = approx. £40.00 a month. Know which I think is better value !

Typical Analytical

Um...whatever software comes with your trainer? Do you know anything about training? Do you want to?

mariamartinez

thanks for all the replies so far. Trying VirtuGo currently