Considering that it is a mainly static pursuit, indoor training has come a long way in the past ten years or so.
‘Traditionally, indoor training was a necessary evil for committed cyclists to get in shape for spring,’ says Mattia Gomiero of Italian turbo trainer company Elite. ‘It was the whole “pain cave” culture. Trainers were expensive even though they were rudimentary, sessions were monotonous, and it was a solitary activity.’
Over time, aspects of this started to change as technology developed. Trainers got interactive and companion software was introduced, improving user engagement. The ‘pain cave’ started to morph into the ‘ecosystem’, where connected devices spiced up the experience in terms of interest and variety. Then Covid happened. The pandemic affected almost every area of the cycling market, but for indoor training in particular it was perfect.
‘Due to factors such as furlough and the lockdowns, demand was unprecedented,’ says Chris Snook, Zwift’s PR director. ‘Pre-Covid we’d seen strong growth year on year and had just had our biggest winter to date. When Covid hit we repeated those winter figures again, but during the summer.’
New beginnings
Covid triggered adjustments in how indoor brands did business and shaped their future plans. ‘We could have grown even more,’ says Snook, ‘but we were hamstrung by trainer availability. They were sold
