Regular readers of the blog will remember that back at the end of 2020 I lost patience with the Tacx app and moved over to Rouvy for my winter training. You can read about my break up with them here.
Despite the influence of a major company like Garmin at the helm their app felt empty of riders and lacked a racing and community feel.
I didn’t have the correct hardware to run Zwift or RGT so its android app (powered by Bluetooth) left Rouvy the sole option.
Having said that my first impressions were good, it didn’t feel like the best of a bad lot and after getting up a level in the career structure by mid December I was ready for my first race.
That was a really good experience, and you can find out how I got on by clicking here.
And so my life and lockdown rolled on with me hauling myself up the Stelvio and taking part in the GCN Cheddar Gorge challenge.
It’s not all been perfect though and my advice to Rouvy is that there are still some fundamentals to work on and make better to improve the experience.
I entered a race last Wednesday evening but the app was so slow opening and then loading me into the event the other riders were gone.
It was only by 30 seconds so I hit the pedals to try and catch up. The app crashed. I reloaded (taking three minutes to get me back to the start line) and then 3 minutes into the ride and a way off the back of the peloton it crashed again.
Game over.
I did check the Facebook page for Rouvy members and it appeared I wasn’t the only one to have issues with that race but I found that in the days after that I couldn’t get back online.
I get that there are snags with software but Rouvy isn’t free so I do expect good service as much as possible.
It’s important to note that since last week an update has been put in the Google Play store and I have found the stability a lot better since then.
I have been using top down map view as opposed to AR in the main though.
But hey, I am nitpicking over some issues that were frustrating for a few days but in the context of being able to ride and race whilst in lockdown I am not going to complain.
Give it a try!
Fendrien 