Review: RGT Cycling Virtual Training App

(2020) Over the past twelve months the views toward virtual cycling apps have evolved. Even today the E-sports World Championship is being held on a virtual platform. What was once viewed as a last resort has blossomed into its own industry. What was once a genre dominated by one name has now been targeted by newer apps. One of those newer apps is called RGT - formerly known as Road Grand Tours - has emerged with fresh ideas and enticing features. We have logged dozens of miles on the platform and encourage you to check out the benefits.

It should be mentioned that a new cycling app will always be compared to Zwift. Zwift has a strong command on the virtual reality indoor cycling market. It is the measuring stick for the industry. Creating a product at or exceeding Zwift can draw considerable attention, and this is how we went into the experience. We all know Zwift. Where does RGT fall in the field?

The RGT app is a mandatory download for the RGT interface as opposed to other virtual riding platforms.

RGT offers similarities. The app requires users to download a screen version for the main source of entertainment such as an iPad or Apple TV while downloading a second separate app for the smartphone. The speed at which RGT’s smartphone app controls the Screen app is remarkable. Swipe through the route boards and Screen responds instantly. The Screen app is rich and impressive, causing us to explore more.

Here is where RGT deviates from Zwift for a moment. RGT offers a free basic experience. Some boards, workouts, and experiences do not cost the user anything. Simple boards - called Real Roads - like Borrego Springs, CA, or Mont Ventoux, France, are complimentary in their experience. Call it a case of loss leader that RGT throws free experiences out there with the expectation you’ll register (currently the monthly memberships are the same). If you’ve taken the time to download the app, you may as well continue beyond these roads.

Once we have selected a board and are dressed and ready, RGT demonstrates multiple inspirations. The board scenery is rich and blended nicely, not pixelated and imbalanced. Roads take on the appearance of actual motorways and the rider can toggle among several viewpoints, including a motoview. Curious as to who is catching in a race, use the ‘look behind’ button on the smartphone app to virtually look back. The toggle will automatically spin back to your viewpoint after a two-second glance. All these functions require a level of detail that stands out from other apps. Speaking of detail RGT creates their own approach to cycling turns. The rider will slow for tight turns, requiring the user to sprint back to speed as in real life. This is an improvement compared to the hilarious descent turns on Zwift that flap back and forth. RGT’s commitment to authenticity shines. RGT provides reality where other cycling apps focus on a gaming approach.

““RGT provides reality where other cycling apps focus on a gaming approach.””

RGT features similar on-screen features for the user to reference throughout any event. Across the bottom is the route’s elevation and competitor placement. At the top right is a box that highlights the immediate course elevation approaching and, again, competitor placement in that short distance. In the same box are speed, ride distance, distance to finish, and amount of climbing for the ride. These are all the metrics riders peek at during events and it is convenient for quick looks. Also available is a colored circle reflecting the road gradient. Green is always nice while red means steep. The top left screen box features wattage, cadence, heart rate, and a nifty little drafting reference providing distance to the rider, watts saved by drafting, and the name of the rider. The watts saved feature is a nice reference for considering the next jump to the group up the road or to hang back and rest for a while longer. Finally down the left hand side are the competitors ahead and behind, their watts/kilogram, and their distance from you. Any hard effort turns the user’s and other rider’s watts/kilogram numbers red, giving everyone fair warning as to who is going hard.

While we were taken to imaginative worlds by the screen, the app had its own information, albeit sparing. RGT can only function through the phone app making it mandatory to play. The app features the name of the board we were riding in and some redundant information. There was the wattage, cadence, heart rate, and slope gradient. There was the same list of riders and their watt/kilogram and distance. Some extra features on the app face include the turn-around (or look behind during events), wave, camera, and a light reconfigure of information referred to as GUI. The wave in RGT is definitely a hearty wave/ salute. In workout mode the app screen showed the intervals and the countdown timers making it extremely user-friendly. One fact that couldn’t escape us was the feeling the app was lacking something, say a map or something else to encourage us to look down. Instead there were moments of wondering what flashed on the phone screen only to see it as it was. This is also where RGT and the smart trainer commence talking to each other making it close to an ‘also-ran’ of a function. 

We circled heavily in RGT’s Real Road option. Many of the routes are small circuits or hard climbs and nothing in between. Borrego Springs is a four-plus mile square in the California desert ideal for workouts. Mont Ventoux was never explored. Riding it once in virtual reality is once enough. Canary Wharf, UK, was an enjoyable speed workout on a tight city crit course. Here again the detail showed when RGT-recognized segments were marked by a Strava banner. Once the segment is activated, a tracking sweep moves from left to right in a center box giving updates about the effort. Red sweeps mean a slower effort, white sweeps indicate a KOM pace. This is a lusted feature giving real-time assessments. RGT got this right. Expect to see split times and a KOM leaderboard on the side of the road. While we smashed up the Paterberg, we hardly ever saw the KOM split time. A result we fully expected.

To feature the Paterberg is an exciting feature in the virtual world. Where pros bound up the climb in under a minute, we were lucky to do it in double-time.

There was one feature we really wanted to get at in the app: Magic Roads. RGT’s Magic Roads is what sets their product apart. In this part of the app, one can create a route of their favorite real world loop and make it into a course. That’s right, you can ride your own loops virtually on RGT up to 100 kilometers. The scenery is not matched but the gradients, turns, and distances are uploaded for virtual riding. We created a couple of courses: the Bucks County Classic, the Rodale Fitness Park, and a couple of long routes we have wanted to explore. Once the file was created (in this case on ridewithgps.com), we emailed the course to Magic Roads and within five minutes had access to it. We were free to ride it solo, with bots, schedule a group ride, or schedule a race. Those events could be public or invite-only. Those invited do not need to be RGT subscribers. That’s right, you can create your own ride/ race and have Wednesday Night Worlds over broadband. Got a race coming up and want to explore on the smart trainer? Magic Roads is a must-have.

With so many things going for it, what are the drawbacks? Let’s start with Magic Roads. As mentioned this is a revolutionary but it definitely needs some tweaks. Straight roads are key to designing a successful course. Unfortunately that takes away from the authenticity of the experience. Little kinks in roadways run the risk of activating the turn feature, taking away from the real-life feel of a rider shooting straight through a slight turn. Then there were the multiple elevation brick walls, a climb that would regularly go gradually up to 7% only to become 24% without warning. That not only blew us up, it also had us worried about the bike chain with such hard efforts put on it. Finally the courses themselves took on unrealistic looks as roads appeared in what could only be compared to pieces of masking tape laid to mimic a course. RGT is relatively new and we expect this to be ironed out as the technology progresses, but it took away from the experience.

Compared to Zwift, RGT’s population is svelte at minimum. We have yet to ride a board where there are more real riders than bots. Even more perplexing is the detail of some real riders populating the board and not going anywhere for days on end. Do people log on and then go on vacation? We set the fastest time at Canary Wharf one day. We are hardly top-of-the-podium sprinters, so our presence at the top indicates a light population on the downtown route. Once enough riders begin to join, RGT will become more competitive.

Starting line view for the Echelon Racing League stop number three: the Bucks County Classic, which really occurs down the street from our office. The Magic Roads import was impressive in detail.

The question over detail was tossed around. While the screen is smooth and rich, we couldn’t help but focus on the strange waves during the Cape Formentor route that rolls along the spine of the Spanish peninsula. RGT has great detail in places like a rider’s head turning in corners, but looks lacking in other places. Call it balance or call it a placeholder, it’s hard to champion the scenery when some parts are confusing.

It has us wondering where RGT can go from here. The answer is plain as long as the app has good leadership: upward. The potential of the platform is obvious. The struggle comes with pulling Zwift from the clutches of entrenched subscribers who can’t stomach leaving their bike garages, Ride Ons, and monthly statistics. This puts RGT in a unique place, trying to think like Zwift while not emulating it. 

RGT has us excited regarding its potential. It is hoped Magic Roads can be fine-tuned to become the flagship attribute with small patches to its algorithms. Though we were only going to do a short trial, Magic Roads made us sign up for longer. Where Zwift exudes the feeling of a cottage that has had dozens of additions put on, RGT feels like a firm abode that learned from Zwift and made a great platform for further improvements. Continuing with the housing comparison, should we find ourselves issued further stay-at-home issues RGT will keep us sane with the option to virtually ride our same ol’-same ol’ route from our basement.