This year at Eurobike, the MyWhoosh stand was the largest indoor training stand app at Eurobike. Granted, it was also kinda the only one, given that Zwift didn’t show up, and others like TrainerRoad have never shown in Eurobike. Nonetheless, whether or not they were the particular only entrant into this contest is besides the point, their booth had easily the particular coolest booth gimmick I’ve ever seen, which was full LED floor/wall thing that wrapped around you with their application inside of it.
Look, I don’t really know how to explain this presentation area within a booth well, so here’s a simple 25-second video I shot from Eurobike:
Point being, MyWhoosh (no relation to Whoop , or Burger King’s Whopper ) had a giant booth along with tons of screens, a lot of trainers, lots of fancy bikes, plus practically nobody riding them. All likely because almost nobody experienced heard of MyWhoosh before Eurobike. So , We volunteered myself to find out WTF MyWhoosh has been.
This quest involved four pieces:
A) Trying out the virtual DIRECTED panel point like any other proper Instagram Influencer
B) Having a discussion with “Their Peeps” in the fancy upper-level Meetings Only portion associated with their booth
C) Actually just downloading the particular app and trying it myself in my shed last night
D) Getting lost in government/corporate holdings statements across all corners of the internet
Having now checked off those 4 pieces, I actually shall present my findings to you. Oh, plus in case you’re new around here – I just write about sports tech and call it like it is. If something is stupid, I’m gonna say this. And if something is awesome, I’m going to say it too. I also probably say the “Quiet Parts” out loud too. I’m not sponsored by any company We review/etc, and if you find this stuff useful, you can become a DCR Supporter , which gets you access to behind-the-scenes videos and plenty more. With that – let’s begin!
The General Concept:
MyWhoosh will be an indoor cycling app that offers virtual worlds, training plans, one-off workouts, and the ability to race against others. The platform is based within the UAE, and has a partnership with Team UAE Emirates (the pro cycling team). While MyWhoosh gets skittish around their own investors, the particular simplified version is the lead/primary investor is usually the government of the UAE (United Arab Emirates), just like it is for Team UAE Emirates and countless some other sport/tourism efforts. Their CEO is Akhtar Saeed Hashmi, also the particular CEO of numerous UAE entities including Royal Technology Services (RTS) plus Mauqah Technology . RTS is the subsidiary associated with The Regal Group, that is ultimately headed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the son of the founder from the UAE. This holdings group is responsible for some $26 billion worth of assets , as part of the particular UAE’s International Holdings Group (IHC) .
These lines are key to understanding the technical and non-technical goals that will MyWhoosh offers. At this particular stage, those two aspects are inseparable. And the result of these roots drives the decisions they make – be it the particular worlds they’ve designed, the bikes they select, and the coaching plans these people build. Their stated goal is in order to increase physical fitness plus sports activity within the UAE .
In the interest of achieving that goal, the platform is entirely free with regard to now. It isn’t clear what, in case any, monetization goals the company has. In the spirit associated with spending money, the organization even has some large prize purchases for races – upwards of $75K/month in prize money.
To date, the company has primarily targeted cyclists in the Middle East, focusing specifically on the UAE (the biggest cities of which are Dubai and Abu Dhabi), Bahrain, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. As such, the company has developed two worlds to cater to all those groups:
A) AlUla: This is a city in Saudi Arabia, for which MyWhoosh has built numerous routes stepping from, mostly with a desert theme.
B) Persia: These routes are mainly based in a blend associated with Bahrain plus the UAE, and include areas such as Dubai and landmarks like the famed Burj Khalifa tower.
Each of those sides has plenty of routes to choose from, as a person can see below. There are routes stretching upwards of 50km, and as short as 4. 9km.
In talking with MyWhoosh at Eurobike though, they will noted that routes with less sand are on the way. They’re planning a Colombia-focused world/routes addition in November, followed by worlds in Australia plus Belgium. The company said they have a rather strong contingent of riders within Colombia today.
From a platform standpoint, the particular app is definitely currently available on iOS/iPadOS, Android, and Windows. Next up will be an M1/M2 Mac edition, accompanied by Apple TV. Presently there aren’t exact timeframes regarding either associated with those though. On the Windows side, the specs are actually the bit high for what are often people’s leftover computers, though this ran upon my two-year-old $249 iPad just fine.
Arguably, the particular masterpiece of MyWhoosh isn’t the virtual worlds, but actually its training plans/platforms. These are put together by a familiar name in professional cycling circles, Kevin Poulton, who can be a former Zwift employee, previous head coach of WorldTour team Katusha Alpecin, because well since coach in order to pro bike riders like Caleb Ewan, Alex Dossett, and Mat Hayman. Once you crack this tab open, it’s clear it is done by a coach.
The platform has 2 intertwined components here. First is the teaching calendar, which allows you to overlay education plans plus individual exercises, with details like instruction load displayed to the right.
And the second is the particular training programs, and then the structured workout routines they contain. Within the exercising plans each has the various build parts, but perhaps most interestingly even allows you to start a training plan with a specific phase. Meaning, if you decide in order to do a race in 6 weeks, a person can jump right in half-way through a training plan, skipping the earlier phases if you’ve already got that foundation. You can also of course just pick any given workout from within these types of, which are usually organized fairly well, and easily show each component.
Further, when you’ve obtained TrainingPeaks, Today’s Plan, or even TrainerDay – you may even import your workouts into MyWhoosh and onto the schooling calendar. That’s pretty cool, especially when you remember the particular platform is certainly free.
In terms of racing plus group riding, there were group rides set to start when I jumped on. I actually couldn’t easily figure out how many people got joined an existing group ride, or had been slated to join an upcoming one. Some of all of them showed total allowable participants, but it wasn’t consistent across the UI. Either way, point becoming, that exists.
A big push for MyWhoosh is around racing and price purses. We see another Zwift alumni there, Jacob Fraser, who led Zwift’s esports realm, and continues that focus at MyWhoosh. The company provides a weekly racing series, called the Sunday Race Club, along with a monthly prize purse of $96, 000. MyWhoosh says they’ve got a bunch of different automatic performance verification pieces in place, including leveraging heart rate data, power data, historical data, and simply whether or not a human can actually put out that will effort. Plus, hopefully down the road, automatic dual-power recording as shown within the menus.
As with Zwift, race can be a component of the platform – but it doesn’t tend to be used simply by the majority of users (group trips yes, competitions less so). And so while MyWhoosh (like Zwift) is throwing a lot associated with money in those realms, it often feels like most of it is for show/pride, rather than for the benefit of nearly all users.
Finally, there will be a garage where a person can tweak your kit to several jerseys plus numerous bikes. Assuming obviously you want a Colnago bike. Because that’s the only bike brand you can choose from. But hey, in the event that you possess to be forced to use the single brand name – go big!
With that, I chose the particular default bike and default kit, and go to it
My First Ride:
For last night’s ride, We poked around a bit first trying to decide what to do. At the time I actually jumped around the platform, this showed roughly 500 people actively online. For context, I cracked open the particular Zwift companion app, and it showed just under 5, 000 people on the internet. It had been around 9PM Amsterdam-time, therefore a bit late in the evening intended for most riders in the Middle Eastern (11PM), where MyWhoosh has historically focused. Thus, I am actually impressed it acquired that numerous people on then.
1st up was the pairing screen, to pair upward my smart trainer. In my case, I had my older Tacx NEO 2 that I’d be using, along with the brand new HRM-PRO In addition chest strap. I did pairing via Bluetooth, plus had no problems getting everything paired quickly.
Interestingly, if you poke close to that menu a little, there’s a dual power recording option they say is usually coming soon. This is something that many people (as well as many racing organizations, and actually a research paper upon Zwift cheating ), have begged Zwift in order to implement). So Kudos to MyWhoosh to get at least hinting it might become coming. Plus if a person look above, it furthermore seems to imply there is Wahoo Direct Connect support too (the icon next to Bluetooth).
Once combined up, I could choose my world that will I’d end up being riding within. I poked around pertaining to a while, and ultimately decided on some thing that included Dubai. I have been in order to Dubai more times compared to I possibly could count, so I’d at least be able to judge the particular feel a bit.
Then, given MyWhoosh has heavily focused on the structured training piece, I decided to give that the whirl meant for this trip. I went in and out of various options designed for structured exercises, and proceeded to go with this one here:
I adjusted the FTP accordingly after this screenshot, though, this didn’t seem to ‘stick’ when We opened up the workout a moment later via adding it to the calendar, reverting back in order to a default setting. No biggie, you can very easily adjust the particular FTP value here plus it scales immediately.
With this, I has been off and cooking. On the whole, the user interface was pretty easy to understand just for a first ride. Likewise, the trainer responded appropriately to the commands sent to it, and our sensors almost all seemed to cooperate because well.
As you approach every segment within the workout, it is a virtual gate of sorts like Zwift does, indicating a new chunk of the workout is coming up next.
Along with any new platform, there is a learning curve. Yet, I think this first-ride is definitely also the best possible scenario for companies to take feedback plus incorporate changes, before the rider simply gets used to things ‘being the method they are’. Most associated with my modifications would be that the text in the particular workout builder is both duplicated in some areas, too small in other people, and non-useful in the last section.
Take with regard to example the text in the particular yellow box on the side that will says “Sprints into Zone 4 #1”. This is actually the title of the workout. That’s good, but because it offers multiple numbers in this, and is the largest written chunk within the screen, a person visually keep looking on that thinking it’s telling you which usually interval or such you’re on. But it’s not. It’s just telling you the particular name of the exercise. I’m not sure this can be needed right here. The actual guidance is the tiny white textual content at the upper center associated with the screen, which as you can see in this particular photo is certainly hard to read against the transparent background.
Similarly, there are a random line that extends straight-up in the middle of each chunk of the workout in the particular little exercise overview upward top. Logically, you’d think this is showing you the place within the workout chunk, but in reality, it’s simply a static pointer that will stays in the middle the entire time, simply no matter exactly where you are within the workout. I’d suggest this will get ditched, and use a few color shading or such instead. Again, this is mostly aimed at helpful feedback through someone doing a workout for the first time. I poked around in the settings several, but did not see any kind of obvious ways to change much here.
When it comes to graphics, I was running a 2-year-old apple ipad, which, I actually think is probably par for that course for most people. They don’t have Apple TV yet, else I’d have used that. The particular graphics were fine, but nothing visually stunning. The buildings felt mainly repetitive, plus aside from specific landmarks, were just about all kinda the blur. To be fair, that’s not really that unlike Dubai itself. Or also Zwift in certain realms.
I do like the numerous camera options that were available, albeit the particular button upon the ipad tablet for changing said camera views was the smallest button known in order to mankind. Once my fingers became sweaty, this was an iffy proposition at best. But , MyWhoosh has an automatic camera altering option that can just keep scrolling slowly through the 10+ digital camera views. It’s cool.
Now, with 25 seconds or so left in my ride, my iPad went kaput and ran out of battery. Apparently the newly purchased battery bank just couldn’t keep up with things in real-time. Obviously, that’s my fault. However unfortunately, the application lost most my ride data. Unlike most additional platforms that will can recover all yet the final few seconds of a workout, this was unable. Upon the iPad powering back up, there had been no evidence that I had ever started a ride, let alone nearly completed it. Hopefully, that is something these people can address down the particular road.
Had I completed it, it would have pushed the trip to the Strava plus TrainingPeaks accounts as I experienced set up, and it would have also marked off our TSS in the MyWhoosh calendar inside the app. This particular calendar feature is something that most other virtual-cycling apps (with worlds) are lacking, so it’s a nice touch.
Wrap-Up:
Very first, let’s look at the particular technical aspects. As a platform, MyWhoosh does a lot of the fundamentals quite well. From a first-use standpoint, this easily paired up to my sensors, and I was able to get riding quickly and easily. There’s a boatload associated with structured training options, which seem well designed and clearly targeted at focused coaching. And for individuals that already have their own structured teaching plan within one of the big training platforms, this will be a literal easy-button to having those workout routines automatically control your wise trainer, pacing you with the sets.
Looking at the worlds and graphics, it’s OK, but wasn’t really earth-shattering to me. It felt roughly on par with the interior trainer industry today. There are things you can nitpick in terms of realism on every platform, plus things that each platform will well. This doesn’t stand out to me one way or the various other. Given how much each of these two sides looks such as each other nowadays, there is not a ton of variety. It’ll become cool in order to see them open up the Colombia, Australia, and Belgium worlds/routes and see exactly how things appear then. While Zwift gets lots of criticism for its images (often deservedly so), they will have managed to find the balance between top-end looks and something individuals can actually run on their particular computers.
Next, there’s the business aspects. Just as I frequently discuss the company realities associated with companies like Zwift or even TrainerRoad, I’m going to do so here as well. MyWhoosh’s biggest challenge right now is really not specialized, nor the lack of people upon the system. Nor is it trying in order to launch in the same point in which the particular entire indoor training business has hit rock-bottom. Instead, its greatest challenge is usually going to be wanting to court a Western audience. It’s going to be seeking to convince people to invest time and energy in the training platform, even a free one, that might disappear tomorrow simply because the singular funding stream disappears after a bureaucratic change of heart.
And I do not have a solution for that (for either MyWhoosh or consumers). Getting more competition in the space though is great for consumers. And in this case particularly, having a lot more competition that’s willing to throw someone else’s money from something in order to develop features is great for customers too. Heck, maybe as a result, Zwift will start taking their training plans/calendars seriously. Or, maybe not. Again, We don’t know.
But what I do know is that within many ways, this really is kinda like a Kickstarter project. I’d treat it since such, even if you aren’t paying for anything. Enjoy the platform if you want, but also understand that along with such an opaque funding flow and massive expenses, it is entirely plausible it might simply disappear.
With that – thanks regarding reading!
