Zwift has transformed the indoor cycling experience.
First launched to the public in 2015, Zwift has consigned the days of mindlessly staring at a wall while turning the pedals on a turbo trainer to the past.
Instead, the training platform enables riders to sync their indoor setup with the Zwift app to power an avatar around an ever-expanding network of virtual worlds. If using a ‘smart’ turbo trainer, the effect of drafting in a group, or hitting a climb, can be replicated by the automatic adjustment of resistance, adding realism to previously one-dimensional training sessions.
But that sense of realism extends beyond headwinds and hills – Zwift has also added a social dimension to indoor training .
Every single avatar you overtake, draft or get dropped by on the game is powered by another real-life rider, and it’s common to be met with messages of encouragement and thumbs-ups (‘Ride Ons’) from other users (aka ‘Zwifters’) when just spinning around one of Zwift’s worlds .
However, Zwift’s social side goes deeper than sporadic examples of kindness or encouragement. Zwift has helped to further cycling’s inherent adoption of communities – the cycling clubs that stretch back to the very beginnings of the sport – albeit in the virtual world.
Like real-world clubs, Zwift’s online riding groups are established for any number of reasons – be it shared interests, location or to promote a particular community.Clubs aren’t only for reimagining a cafe run in Watopia, either. Some have a competitive edge, with members representing their clubs in Zwift […]
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