Corona has an effect on all of us, I hope you get through it well. For many of us, work is at low-level right now, or we're (forced) working from home. In this blog I want to give you 1 thing to de-stress and relax in these times : the RGT Group rides.
What do you need :
- Indoor Bike trainer (preferable a smart-trainer)
- Laptop
- Internet
- Mobile phone
There are no costs involved and the installation is child's play.
RGT is an online platform for indoor cycling, such as Zwift and Bkool and many others, but RGT does differ from their competitors on a few points. In a next blog I will go deeper into RGT Cycling, for now I will focus on the RGT group rides.
Why are these rides ideal, especially in these times:
- First of all the RGT social/group rides are a lot of fun to ride online together. You ride in a group and the nice thing about RGT is that drafting...keeping each other out of the wind, is very well thought out and developed. So it is really important to stay together and cycle the ride together.
- As a group you ride alone on a RGT route (they have about 8 of them), so not with all other (unknown riders) shooting by, which often makes it confusing.
- The chat function is simple and is also just a chat for your group ride.
- You can configure the camera in different ways, so you can keep a good overview of your group you are in
- With good drafting you can save a lot of energy and you can also ride head over head as a group.
- The graphics look great
- Control of the application while cycling is done with your phone, you don't need your laptop/keyboard at all (except to watch the ride of course).
- 1 for all, all for 1, especially on the social group rides, there are also other group rides but those are the races
- You can organize the group rides yourself on 1 of the 8 routes of RGT but you can also organize a group ride on any route you want as long as you have the GPX.
- I myself regularly participate in Lou's group ride, for Europe it starts at 16:00 (4 PM) in the weekend and now during the Corona also on weekdays. This group ride takes about 50-60 minutes (4 rounds) and is very social, we keep the group together, we use the chat, there are groups that cycle on quite a bit but just cycling along is also fine. Highly recommended. We cycle in the desert of America of Borrego Springs, a flat race.
First install the Apps from RGT on your mobile phone and your laptop.
After the installation start the application on your laptop, start the mobile app. You need to connect both with a code and then you are ready to go.
On the Mobile App select ' Socialize' :
As I said, I join Lou's group ride as you see in the screenshot. Join event. You will get an email with the confirmation. Then 15 minutes before the ride start, setup your equipment and do a little warm-up. You see in the screen that your equipment is connected, you see some watts you already do.
If it is the first time connecting or you want to check it, click the power button in the screen, or the heart rate button, to see if your equipment is connected.
Watts and how far away you are from the one in front of you, to go drafting.
What do you need :
- Laptop
- Internet
- Mobile phone
There are no costs involved and the installation is child's play.
RGT is an online platform for indoor cycling, such as Zwift and Bkool and many others, but RGT does differ from their competitors on a few points. In a next blog I will go deeper into RGT Cycling, for now I will focus on the RGT group rides.
Why are these rides ideal, especially in these times:
- First of all the RGT social/group rides are a lot of fun to ride online together. You ride in a group and the nice thing about RGT is that drafting...keeping each other out of the wind, is very well thought out and developed. So it is really important to stay together and cycle the ride together.
- As a group you ride alone on a RGT route (they have about 8 of them), so not with all other (unknown riders) shooting by, which often makes it confusing.
- The chat function is simple and is also just a chat for your group ride.
- You can configure the camera in different ways, so you can keep a good overview of your group you are in
- With good drafting you can save a lot of energy and you can also ride head over head as a group.
- The graphics look great
- Control of the application while cycling is done with your phone, you don't need your laptop/keyboard at all (except to watch the ride of course).
- 1 for all, all for 1, especially on the social group rides, there are also other group rides but those are the races
- You can organize the group rides yourself on 1 of the 8 routes of RGT but you can also organize a group ride on any route you want as long as you have the GPX.
- I myself regularly participate in Lou's group ride, for Europe it starts at 16:00 (4 PM) in the weekend and now during the Corona also on weekdays. This group ride takes about 50-60 minutes (4 rounds) and is very social, we keep the group together, we use the chat, there are groups that cycle on quite a bit but just cycling along is also fine. Highly recommended. We cycle in the desert of America of Borrego Springs, a flat race.How does it work?
First install the Apps from RGT on your mobile phone and your laptop.
On the Mobile App select ' Socialize' :
Then select 'Group rides'
Scroll through all events, find an event that suits you, start times are presented in your local timezone. :
As I said, I join Lou's group ride as you see in the screenshot. Join event. You will get an email with the confirmation. Then 15 minutes before the ride start, setup your equipment and do a little warm-up. You see in the screen that your equipment is connected, you see some watts you already do.
If it is the first time connecting or you want to check it, click the power button in the screen, or the heart rate button, to see if your equipment is connected.
You will see more people joining the group ride, and make sure you start doing a warm-up before the count down hits zero. Also the last 30 sec, start pushing a little bit more, so at the start you directly go with the flow.
When the ride starts, you only need the app on your mobile phone if you want to :
- change camera
- chat
- end ride (red button)
During the ride, switch camera from 1st person, to drone view to see how you are positioned in the group. Watch the draft percentage in the left-top in green. Here you see exactly how you draft and save energy. When your power is in red, this means you give to much power, you will see this at corners and downhills. Play around with it and.... HAVE FUN !!!
So :
to check your draft (important in a group ride), in the left top corner you see in green if you save
On the right you see the chat messsages from your group ride
Overview :
Hi Edwin - many thanks for the write up.
ReplyDeleteWith the group rides, do you need to be at a suitable 'level' of fitness?
I've just signed up for RGT, however, I'm certainly not that fit and have some health issues - not helped with my work that has mostly involved sitting staring at a computer screen for the past 31 years (self employed designer).
I'd hate to participate in a ride, only to feel like I am holding the group back. Maybe, until a time when I am able to participate in such events, I would be better 'cycling' solo so to speak.
Anyway, I hope you are well and again, many thanks for the post
Hi, just try it out, escpecially the Lou's ride, this one is very social. Lou can help you in the ride. I saw from others rides that in the beginning they hold-on for 1 round and after a few weeks of training they hold steady in the group. They draf a lot :) Just try... Also look for the special FB group...let me know if you need more help ... succes !!
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