Sharing my two cents.

Rider Info and set-up:

• Triathlete who rides almost 100% virtual
• Wahoo Kickr
• Wahoo HRM
• Apple TV 4K
• iPhone 11
• Coached workouts that consist of targeted intervals and free rides
• Excellent in-house WiFi with extenders on all levels of the house

I started with Zwift and thought it was awesome. At a minimum, it sure beat watching Seinfeld reruns. I found Rouvy (and Fulgaz) when I searched for ways to virtually re-ride courses I had previously raced.

I switched to Rouvy for these reasons:

1. ERG mode in Zwift is unreliable so I don't use it for interval workouts. I've troubleshot it using all the tips and nothing works. The best I can tell is that it worked fine on my iPhone 5C but not on my 11.
2. The group rides are almost never ridden the advertised pace and that's particularly hard for a lighter rider who's FTP is right at the top of the C-Level. C-Level rides usually go from 2.5w/kg to 3.2. I can ride 3.5+, but not for 60-90 minutes which is what many C rides turn out be. That leaves me riding largely alone on my easy rides. I did find a few groups with disciplined rides, but their ride schedule infrequently matched my training days/times.
3. I didn't particularly enjoy or participate in Zwift's social aspects. In fact, in-ride messaging or giving a "Ride On" has caused me to lose connection at times.
4. Rouvy lets me upload or create my own course using GPS programs or Garmin downloads.
5. I have not had any Rouvy connection issues.

Initially, when I started to become fond of Rouvy, I thought I'd keep them both because Zwift racing is clearly better, but I just don't do enough of that.

I use Rouvy A/R for my rides and Rouvy Workouts for my intervals. They don't have a Rouvy Workouts app on the Apple TV 4K so I have that on the phone and just screen mirror to the Apple TV. All you see are your metrics and intervals in graph form, but that's perfect for me since I'm usually watching TV or cranking the tunes.

I think it probably comes down to preference. I actually like the loneliness of Rouvy that some people lament compared to Zwift. What I found on Zwift, is there was no such thing as an easy ride for me. I'd hop on with the intention (and prescribed workout) of a longer, easy ride. Before I knew it, I was attached to a group of people riding much harder than I wanted to simply because I was too competitive and stupid to let them go. I just couldn't not race. Every. Single. Ride.

I am liking rouvy more cause times are realistic with what I do on a TT bike, and when riding solo zwift's repetitive graphics/courses do not cut it. Love being able to preview race courses.

For Rouvy and Fulgaz can folks clarify some things for me?

I wanted to try the Rouvy trial but wasn't even going to bother if the library of routes wasn't what I thought. Are the user routes all available, or all private? As in, when you sign up you only get Rouvy's routes then have to add your own? Or if there exists a Gran Fondo Asheville or something a person uploaded, you can go do that?

Primarily, I would do intentional workouts in ERG on Zwift or do 2x20 up specific climb repeats on Zwift. I've enjoyed Zwift, just getting world and route boredom. I don't race Zwift, I find the cheating and unrealistic nature a bit ridiculous.

I'm a time triallist, it would be neat to go record a practice run on some of my courses and redo them for workouts.

So the questions are:
-What routes do you get in trial and subscriber? Just Rouvy plus yours? Or Rouvy plus yours plus other user's?
-What happens if a recorded ride has a fair bit of stops, how does it handle that if you pedal on past versus stopping at the light? Does the video just do a super fast dismount/remount?
-Does the current version have power/heartrate overlay? From the website video it appears so.
-Zwift works out the CRR/CdA based on their algorithm. Rider height, weight, power, and what bike in game. How does Rouvy do this? Would be kinda of shit to do my TT routes in TT but the software presumes a crap road bike on slow tires and I'm doing a lot slower time.

I have a 42" TV on a wall swivel mount and use an older Mac on the current required version of OS that Zwift requires as a minimum (as of December). So, graphics on Zwift look fine.

The available routes for Rouvy Trial are very limited.

As subscriber you will get a lot of routes you can use for training or TT. (one chapter is dedicated for TT courses)
-As far as I can see you can use all routes from Rouvy and all routes somebody has uploaded. I do not know if you can set them as private or public.This morning I was training on our home stretch one of the guys prepared and uploaded in Rouvy.
-at recorded stops the video just runs and can be a little bit disturbing in the visual experience ;) Don't try a video where somebody on a MTB was following/recording a meandering course. Got a little bit motion sickness.
-power and HR will be shown on the screen and you can manage some settings how they will appear.
-Crr/CDA will be determined more or less like in Zwift. Unfortunately they are standad values and do not match the real world outdoors.
Could check this on the mentioned home stretch this morning. With same power I am missing about 2 km/h indoors. But that are the other guys missing too. The indoor ranking matches the outdoor ranking.
-To create your own courses you will have to do some work to get a satisfying experience. On the Rouvy homepage there is a description/tutorial how to do it.

Currently I like Rouvy more than Zwift, I have been places I will never see in RL. e.g. New Zeeland, where my daughter was living for 1/2 a year.

Best is just try the monthly subscripion and check it out. You can easily unsubscribe and later resubscribe like in Zwift without loosing your preferences and trainings.

I tried it (again) and had the same experience. Made myself use it for a few weeks and was largely alone on all of my rides. Cancelled before the free trial ended and maintained my Zwift subscription. I WANT to like Rouvy, but it's just not for me.

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Human Person

I'm pretty sure you can set your uploaded routes to be private, but I don't think most people do. There are tons of user created routes that run the gamut from good to terrible.


The video is synced to GPS points, so yes, if the video had a stop in it, it will go past that quickly if you keep peddling. It can be a bit off if the route doesn't have GPS sync points close to either side of the stop. On the better routes it's usually not very distracting.


Yes, it has power/heartrate/speed/cadence/etc on the overlay


I don't know what their algorithm is, but they also have worked out something. I don't know who is more accurate, I do know that although you can change the reality level (Resistance feel) when training in Rouvy it doesn't allow you to change the resistance feel in racing mode.


In general I've found the graphics requirements of Rouvy to be less than Zwift, since it's mostly doing video playback with overlays vs rendering the whole scene. But, I have had issues on high speed downhills with lower power computers, where it would eventually lag out to the point where it crashed. That was on the older Rouvy software, and on a older windows laptop that ran Zwift at about 10 fps.

Thanks!

I think I may give it a one month try. I forgot I could pay for a single month to try out the full experience. I have all my TP and Zwift workouts setup so will use that for ERG for the month and the long rides in Rouvy.

I don't mind riding alone and like the visual variability of new routes. Long rides in Zwift are a bit meh for me as I don't want to do the 200 person group rides at unrealistic rubberbanded paces and such. I would rather be alone and accomplish a mountains fondo route or something.

* I've not tried zwift. I've seen it and read a bunch, but it is anecdotal.

I've been riding Rouvy for 3 years and really like it. I'm not looking for the social aspect of things. All of my outdoor rides are by myself anyway. If I want to friend someone and reach out to them after a race/ride, I'll do that. I really like the true view video to the graphics I've seen in Zwift.

For those that say it's lonely or Zwift rides often turn into much higher efforts than advertised and you end up riding alone. After selecting a course to ride in Rouvy you can select other riders who have completed the course to "ride against". I think up to 4. You can see a list of riders, their watts/kilo to finish the course and their finishing time. From there you can select maybe a couple faster and a couple slower to race against and keep you motivated.

There are some courses that are definitely not rider friendly. Especially, if you ride rollers, like me. If they're filmed by a rider they can be a little unstable. The car ones have all been fine.

I have not had any connection or video drop outs during my time. I don't download courses prior to riding/racing. I'm using my home wifi, an i5 v7 processor laptop hooked to a large tv. My Assioma power pedals sync fine and my Garmin cadence sensor.

For me, it just works. I try to race as much as I can as I prefer that to riding alone. If I can't find a race, I'll find a course suited to my feelings that day, pick a few riders to compete against and get out there. I like it a lot, especially when compared to riding rollers and watching old Paris-Roubaix races. Racing keeps my motivation and enjoyment at a high level. The big plus is seeing the real scenery from France, Italy, Australia, Japan, California...

just my $0.02

have fun
Barry

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Great things never come from comfort zones.

I don't get why people find Rouvy lonely. I just add twenty riders slightly faster than me amd slightly slower than me including some of my old rides and I get to race a whole bunch of riders including a former version or myself. I find that part fun. Sure I am not really socializing with anyone but most of my exercise is solo around work life anyway.

^^this^^
A better way of saying what I rambled on about. If they are no races, find a course, pick some other racers and you have a race. And they're all people with the w/kg your looking for.

Basically EVERY TIME I ride rouvy I am "racing" a bunch of guys and gals. I have no clue who they are, but it does not matter. If I want to "race" at 220W, 210W, 200W, 190W, 180W, 170W then I just pick riders in that range of watts per kilo. Of course, I can feel more like a super hero when I pick my "Cat E" ride relative to myself (170W group) than the Cat A ride relative to myself (220W group). But its always racing of some kind (or should I say, the Cat E group is like a group ride where I can win sprints, whereas, Cat A group, I am just trying to stay close to the studs I put on the course). I don't understand why people don't think they can race on Rouvy. Plus I do it on courses that I want to.

Last night I rode the 20km IM Frankfurt course, but this time I decided to just ride "with no one". Turns out I ended up 7 seconds slower than when I TT'd the course in July....I felt like a hero, but realize i am 8 lbs heavier and also the air in my room is cooler and I had not "fixed" my weight in my profile, so the fatter me was able to generate good watts, and the cooler temps cooled the fatter me. The reality is that I did not fix my weight, if not I would have likely been a minute slower vs July.

PS. I should add that if you arrange with your live buddies to show up and ride at the same time, you're inherently racing them if you start at the same time. That feature is always available. You can also see your virtual riders you put on the course (at same time as your live buddies), but I don't think they see your virtual selections.

These replies make is seem like going from Zwift to Rouvy would be like switching from iPod to Zune.

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I swim fast because I'm afraid of sharks.

More like switching Ferrari and Lamborghini. They are totally different platforms that approach training from alternate perspectives. They suit people with different training priorities.

More like iOS to Android.

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Answer to below question: it can't, but you can go on the website to "community" and utilize the map and filters then type in the name into the app to ride it.


I guess a few years ago I tried this and don't recall so I had to bite it to try a month.

Color me enraged so far in that on my Mac I cannot search routes by map or filter by routes that have video or something. All I can do is guess at names of routes that aren't the ones in the pre-collected Rouvy categories like "Vuelta" or "Americas".

Like, I had to guess at some route names to find a video of a ride near Caesars Head park. I shouldn't have to do that.

That will be an absolute deal breaker unless someone can point me the right way or support can point me the right way. If I can't even effectively filter like "has video" in my search results then that's shit.

I wonder if it is a PC versus Mac thing as on their website I clearly see their version of the app being able to do this.