Rouvy has been busy this year managing virtual races, creating new courses, and fine-tuning its augmented reality feature. On top of all that, they recently introduced the following:
- Ironman World Championship Course with Augmented Reality
- Time Trial Bikes
- Drafting
- Running
- A new pricing structure
NEW IM KONA AR COURSE
Not long ago, right when COVID-19 hit, Rouvy signed a multi-year partnership with Ironman and started hosting virtual ironman races, and making Ironman courses available in Augmented Reality.
Their latest course is the ironman world championship bike course in Kona, Hawaii. Which usually takes place in October.
The bike course is the same iconic 112-mile Ironman World Championship bike course that you might be familiar with if you’ve ever done a triathlon or watched Hawaii’s annual Ironman World Championship race.
The course starts from the Kailua-Kona pier area and head up Palani road and then loop around and through Kailua-Kona for the first 10 miles before heading out on the iconic Queen K Highway and through the lava fields all the way towards Hawi which is the turnaround point before heading back to Kailua Kona.
This course is available in Augmented Reality and you can ride it yourself if you feel like riding 112 miles, indoors, on your smart trainer.
TT BIKES
They also added time trial bikes. Or road bikes with shorty aero bars. I am not exactly sure why they decided to go with road bikes with clip-on aero bars, instead of actual TT bikes that are typically used in non-draft legal races, like Ironman races. Either way, you now have the option to choose a time trial bike or a road bike with aero bars. The TT bike should be more aero resulting in faster speeds and also a little heavier so a little slower on the climbs.
DRAFTING
One of the benefits of group riding is experiencing the drafting effect while being in another cyclist’s paceline. Drafting usually occurs when you are behind another cyclist reducing the wind resistance and the amount of energy required to pedal.
You can see the drafting indicator on the screen as your avatar move behind another cyclist- the green bar shows the distance between you and the cyclist in front.
You enter the draft zone when you are 15 meters away. The closer you are the better the draft effect.
For the best drafting effect, you need to be as close as possible to the cyclist in front of you in order to maximize the impact of this feature. I am not sure how much drag reduction you will experience, but according to Rouvy, it can be between 27% to 50%.
RUNNING
This is currently in public beta and right now only 4 courses are available for running and only 3 of them are in Augmented reality. You can switch to the running mode by tapping the little running icon which you can find in the bottom left of the screen. Running is currently free. So if you don’t have a Rouvy membership, you can still try running out.
You need to pair a footpad or a compatible treadmill. I used the Runn device. I talked about the Runn treadmill speed sensor device in another post/video which you can find here.
To pair your footpod or the Runn speed sensor, go to the connect sensors menu and click on Speed Sensors, and it should search and find any compatible running device you have. It didn’t find mine immediately and I had to go to “Display All” and select My Runn device.
After that, I was off and running.
On the bottom of the screen, you will find the elevation profile of the run course. And on the top display, you should see your pace, cadence, and heart rate if you have a heart rate monitor paired. I didn’t have mine paired and that’s why it’s not showing there. The avatar form will also change as you change your speed. As you run faster, the avatar and video speed will change. The same happens when you slow down and come to a complete stop. Overall, I thought it worked well and the video quality was actually good and smooth.
PRICING
Rouvy updated their prices. They announced the price increase back in August. The Augment Reality was free to use. But as of October 1st, everyone is now required to buy a subscription.
You can select to pay $15 per month or $14 per month for a 6 months subscription. Or $12 per month for an annual membership.
If you are a current subscriber or subscribed before the price increase, Rouvy will not increase the price for you and you are locked into the old price as long as you don’t cancel.
Also, ROUVY no longer supports the purchase of subscriptions via iTunes or Google Play.
And family sharing remains the same. 2 family members can use one subscription. So that is an additional saving for you if you have more than one family member interested in cycling in your house.
That’s all. Hope you find this post helpful. Thanks for reading!
