For a change of scenery for today’s virtual bike ride I moved to Rouvy. I tried Rouvy once before back on November 16, 2019 when I uploaded the GPX file from one of my routes. Today I chose one their routes, Avenue of the Giants, in California. Rouvy doesn’t create a fictional world but uses video from the actual roads on the selections I saw. My other ride didn’t have video, just the route map with an icon moving as I rode. Avenue of the Giants is 19.88 miles long with 610 feet of climbing. It is mostly flat which is one reason I chose it since I wasn’t sure how it managed the smart trainer resistance. I think my trainer put the resistance at 100% and I didn’t see a setting to change it but there may be one. I don’t know much about Rouvy’s settings. I got out of the saddle once on a short climb. I don’t think any climbs exceeded 4%. I installed the Rouvy companion app on my phone but after a few minutes it stopped syncing with the ride. I need to learn more about the app. The sensors connected to my desktop computer via Bluetooth, not my phone like Zwift can.

No crowds like Zwift. I rode with Will, Emma, and Peter for the whole ride. I don’t know if they were actually riding or bots. I liked the left nearby riders panel that showed how much distance between me and them. The climbing feet count down instead of up like Zwift.There is a separate screen that shows the route when I clicked on the icon in the upper right corner. I didn’t see a camera control but a few times during the ride the camera shot changed. The information blocks in the upper left corner could be a little larger for my eyes and the distance to my monitor. They show the upcoming road profile % change and above that is my sensors’ data.

I don’t remember where it was in the ride when I deer ran across the road in front of me and for a second or two the riders in front of me disappeared because the deer would run through them. Traffic on the left passed and parked vehicles dotted the sides. I don’t know if there were sounds because I was listening to America’s Top 40 from 1-13-1973 on SiriusXM Sevenities on 7 channel.

What prompted me to try Rouvy was an email with a discount code for one month. It is interesting alternative. Another one I plan on trying is MyWhoosh. It is free with ads in the game. Routes appear to be in the Middle East. I’ll be back on Zwift for virtual rides too.

GPX in Relive.cc doesn’t follow the road exactly in the video below.