Does this mean virtual racing will have some real legitimacy? I’m not a virtual racer, just starting a discussion, its kinda slow around here lately.
I don’t think this is for racing accolades so much a scouting the course and getting you into their system.
E.g. not sure if you can handle a 70.3? Try out a course and see how you do
I don’t think this is for racing accolades so much a scouting the course and getting you into their system.
E.g. not sure if you can handle a 70.3? Try out a course and see how you do
Hopefully it’s better than their virtual racing. I saw people in my AG riding 2:10 virtually who had never and still have never broken 2:45 for a bike leg.
Good for the Fulgaz crew though!
I hope they don’t put the devs that re-did the ironman website on fulgaz, that’s a sure way to totally kill the application.
I don’t understand this. If IM wants to provide IM courses for training/scouting/practice, then it seems way more cost effective to partner with FulGaz (or any other similar platform) and buy effective developers to create the ‘content’. Now, it seems as if they will be responsible for that AND whatever non-IM content they choose to provide plus the customer management plus any calendaring, performance metrics, tech development, training plans, etc. That is a pretty big lift made bigger by the competition. Zwift could create IM course xyz and crush this effort. SYSTM, while smaller, has (at least) two new tools (relative to the old SUF, RIP) that could be deployed pretty quickly for IM courses - they have ProRides (ERG mode of races from pros scaled to your 4DP) and On Location (training course overlaid on real world footage with narration). They have a third category - A Week With - which is exactly as it seems - seven days of riding with a pro. A mashup of these could be very cool for IM courses at lower effort than creating the entire virtual IM world in Zwift (guessing here). IOW, unless IM wants FulGaz to compete at the level of other platforms (more than just IM), if they are successful at all, other platforms are better positioned to eat their lunch on this point. I’m predicting that IM will regret this purchase.
I purchased a subscription to ROUVY primarily for the IM courses, they had some agreement with IM. But they’re no longer showing up so the agreement must have ended. After using both FulGaz and ROUVY, I’m just going to stick with Zwift. While it was fun riding the various IM courses after once or twice it was sort of boring.
I purchased a subscription to ROUVY primarily for the IM courses, they had some agreement with IM. But they’re no longer showing up so the agreement must have ended. After using both FulGaz and ROUVY, I’m just going to stick with Zwift. While it was fun riding the various IM courses after once or twice it was sort of boring.
can you guys educate me on this? i’m pretty familiar with rouvy but not fulgaz (except i always dug the name). i always felt that rouvy was the perfect partner for IM, and the example that always comes to my mind is how much better prepared people could have been for the nice 70.3 worlds if they’d “seen” the course in rouvy. not just the power, the hills, etc., but how variable and twisty the course is. blind turns and stuff. so, yeah, there’s the virtual racing and group riding experience, but also race prep, assuming you have all those courses logged.
my question is: is fulgaz as prepared to provide that experience in the way that rouvy was/is?
I love FulGaz and I hope this is good news.
I will change to Rouvy five seconds after Active.com finds a way to monetize this acquisition.
I really enjoyed the Ironman courses in Rouvy as well. Mine are still showing up though so I assumed they would remain. If they end up being taken out of Rouvy I’ll have to cancel.
I purchased a subscription to ROUVY primarily for the IM courses, they had some agreement with IM. But they’re no longer showing up so the agreement must have ended. After using both FulGaz and ROUVY, I’m just going to stick with Zwift. While it was fun riding the various IM courses after once or twice it was sort of boring.
can you guys educate me on this? i’m pretty familiar with rouvy but not fulgaz (except i always dug the name). i always felt that rouvy was the perfect partner for IM, and the example that always comes to my mind is how much better prepared people could have been for the nice 70.3 worlds if they’d “seen” the course in rouvy. not just the power, the hills, etc., but how variable and twisty the course is. blind turns and stuff. so, yeah, there’s the virtual racing and group riding experience, but also race prep, assuming you have all those courses logged.
my question is: is fulgaz as prepared to provide that experience in the way that rouvy was/is?
I felt that Rouvy and FulGaz were far more similar than any difference between them. First off, the coaching, training, etc., that both offer are not up to the standard of Zwift. That said the augmented reality of both were a nice feature but not a significant aspect of the ride. The benefit of having users upload a ride was significant for both, as you could ride the same course in a few ‘different’ versions depending on how many filmed the course. There were times on Rouvy where the changes in trainer response lagged the elevation change for too long a period. I thought FulGaz did a better job than Rouvy converting uploaded courses into a smoother ride. However there were times that I wanted to repeat a course and couldn’t remember if it was on rouvy or FulGaz. So I would say FulGaz is up to par with Rouvy. IM didn’t really do a lot with Rouvy, hoping that they up the game with Fulgaz and not just ‘brand’ it and forget it.
I purchased a subscription to ROUVY primarily for the IM courses, they had some agreement with IM. But they’re no longer showing up so the agreement must have ended. After using both FulGaz and ROUVY, I’m just going to stick with Zwift. While it was fun riding the various IM courses after once or twice it was sort of boring.
can you guys educate me on this? i’m pretty familiar with rouvy but not fulgaz (except i always dug the name). i always felt that rouvy was the perfect partner for IM, and the example that always comes to my mind is how much better prepared people could have been for the nice 70.3 worlds if they’d “seen” the course in rouvy. not just the power, the hills, etc., but how variable and twisty the course is. blind turns and stuff. so, yeah, there’s the virtual racing and group riding experience, but also race prep, assuming you have all those courses logged.
my question is: is fulgaz as prepared to provide that experience in the way that rouvy was/is?
I felt that Rouvy and FulGaz were far more similar than any difference between them. First off, the coaching, training, etc., that both offer are not up to the standard of Zwift. That said the augmented reality of both were a nice feature but not a significant aspect of the ride. The benefit of having users upload a ride was significant for both, as you could ride the same course in a few ‘different’ versions depending on how many filmed the course. There were times on Rouvy where the changes in trainer response lagged the elevation change for too long a period. I thought FulGaz did a better job than Rouvy converting uploaded courses into a smoother ride. However there were times that I wanted to repeat a course and couldn’t remember if it was on rouvy or FulGaz. So I would say FulGaz is up to par with Rouvy. IM didn’t really do a lot with Rouvy, hoping that they up the game with Fulgaz and not just ‘brand’ it and forget it.
it’ll be interesting to see what IM does with this. i would be shocked and disappointed if we didn’t see IM bike courses on fulgaz in 2022, starting with st. george. run as well, possibly, but bike certainly. if i was rouvy i’d place a call to xtri and possibly lifetime for some gravel events.
Here are some thoughts from dcrainmaker:
I really appreciate the link to DCRainmakers article!!!
So if I’m reading DCRainmaker correctly all IRONMAN courses on ROUVY will cease after New Years?
I use Rouvy now and enjoy it ( and its pricing). I primarily do IRONMAN courses and would think of switching to Fulgaz.
Is that other peoples understanding?
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it’ll be interesting to see what IM does with this. i would be shocked and disappointed if we didn’t see IM bike courses on fulgaz in 2022, starting with st. george. run as well, possibly, but bike certainly. if i was rouvy i’d place a call to xtri and possibly lifetime for some gravel events.
WTC intends to keep everything FulGaz is doing, invigorate that side of the business with funding, while using the bones of FulGaz to launch a new app that will have every IM course on it allowing you to train in that environment for both cycling and running. Based on what Ray stated in his article that launch is likely a year away.
it’ll be interesting to see what IM does with this. i would be shocked and disappointed if we didn’t see IM bike courses on fulgaz in 2022, starting with st. george. run as well, possibly, but bike certainly. if i was rouvy i’d place a call to xtri and possibly lifetime for some gravel events.
As others have noted Rouvy and FulGaz were very similar - real video of real courses for triathlon and cycling.
What will IM do with this?
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Course previews and recons available for people to “train” on IM bike courses (and run courses??) tat they are doing.
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A dedicated platform for virtual racing
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Access to data, which is also important these days
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A possible subscription revenue generator for IM
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Extra signage and branding options and exposures for IM sponsors both top-level ones and sponsors and partners that are specific to that particular IM race.
I hosted a presentation and talk with FulGaz founder last year, Mike Clucas, for a Client’s Virtual conference last year, and I must confess, I had not truly understood the full possibilities of this platform until that interaction with Mike! There are some interesting possibilities!
I think that you are asking the right Q and pointing to possible answers to the ‘why would IM buy FulGaz (or any online cycling platform)?’. If IM plans to limit involvement to course preview/training - they had that (to some degree) in Rouvy. There is no reason to buy a platform for this and many reasons not to - it’'s not IM’s core business function. Now, if the plans are to include virtual IM racing, then owning the platform makes more sense. But does virtual IM racing make sense? IM races seem, to me, to be destination activities that are way less attractive to train for if you are doing them in your basement/garage/bonus room. In the post-covid world, I don’t think that virtual IM will be a thing. This purchase strikes me as something identified as urgent 12 months ago, when few IM races were happening and an alternative seemed attractive (to IM and racers). A year from now, when IM says that the FulGaz IM courses will be ready, will anyone care from the POV of virtual racing? Sure, some attractiveness from a prep/train/practice perspective - but racing? Hard to think that this will be preferable to racing in the real world at a destination. Then, the pricing. If racing a real world IM is $xxx, what is the price of a Rouvy IM race? Now, one could argue that it might be way less expensive - maybe $xxx/5. But does that eat into the participation/revenue of the real world event at $xxx? Or would folks pay $xxx for a virtual race to avoid the costs of a real-world race (travel, lodging, bike transport, dining, etc.)? That might be a good ST poll: if registration for an IM event you plan for costs $700, how much would you pay to race the same course virtually? Seems unlikely, but maybe this is the paradigm changer? This seems to be a poorly considered decision inspired by urgency that is fading (unless there is another pandemic on the horizon…).
I really enjoyed the Ironman courses in Rouvy as well. Mine are still showing up though so I assumed they would remain. If they end up being taken out of Rouvy I’ll have to cancel.
I wonder what the actual legal implications of Rouvy keeping the IM courses on there. It’s all on public roads so what would the legal argument be?
I really enjoyed the Ironman courses in Rouvy as well. Mine are still showing up though so I assumed they would remain. If they end up being taken out of Rouvy I’ll have to cancel.
I wonder what the actual legal implications of Rouvy keeping the IM courses on there. It’s all on public roads so what would the legal argument be?
It’s a two-part item.
The first is who actually shot the video. Meaning, in most cases for these courses it’s a company going out and shooting the course (sometimes on race day, sometimes not), at the request of IM. In that case, IM owns the content, since they paid for it. And they just licensed it to Rouvy. Rouvy’s current contract with IM expires at the end of December, and thus, the courses will be transitioning to FulGaz. Therefor my assumption here is that IM owns these specific videos.
The second is for cases where an entity simply goes out on a random Tuesday and shoots the course as-is, and then labels it the 'Ironman XYZ Course". IM has historically pushed back on platforms that have done this, or even created courses virtually and labeled them as the IM XYZ course.
I don’t entirely know how strong Ironman’s actual legal stance is on the second one, it’s out of my realm. My guess is if they removed the Ironman word, then Ironman wouldn’t have a viable case. However, like all the silly rules around what the NFL does with the Superbowl, sometimes legal intimidation is really all it takes. Whether or not there’s any actual grounds for it.
Partnership expires on Dec 31. So they should be available until then.
I hosted a presentation and talk with FulGaz founder last year, Mike Clucas, for a Client’s Virtual conference last year, and I must confess, I had not truly understood the full possibilities of this platform until that interaction with Mike! There are some interesting possibilities!
Would you elaborate?