Indoor cycling is boring, discuss – A for-and-against debate on the sport's most polarising training tool

It’s Indoor Cycling Week here at Cyclingnews, a week in which we centre our tech content on the fast-growing world of virtual cycling.

While that’s generally structured with a positive spin that aims to support our readers in preparing for their upcoming winter of pedalling nowhere, guiding with setup tips and suggesting accessories that can improve their experience, we’d be wrong to pretend that cycling indoors is everyone’s cup of tea.

We’re all different, so this article is going to explore the other side of the virtual coin.

Even here within the Cyclingnews editorial team, there’s a broad range of opinion. I personally rather enjoy cycling indoors. It’s convenient, structured, safe, and I can know what time I’ll be finished with to-the-minute precision, making planning it into my day perfectly easy.

But others here hate it. On one recent call, one of my colleagues’ immediate replies was: “I’d rather pull my nails out.”

That, and other things mentioned below, are a few of the opinions that have been flying around amongst the CN Team this week, so we thought we would package them up for you to enjoy. They might ruffle some feathers, but balance and honesty are important in journalism, so hopefully we don’t upset too many people.

Indoor training doesn't make a peloton-ready cyclist

When I was racing, I had a love-hate relationship with my indoor trainers. This was before Zwift and the gamification of cycling, when riders only spent time on the trainer if they had broken an arm, had to work during the short daylight hours, or it was snowing. When I had to ride indoors, it was usually one focussed hour of intervals.

Maybe it's because I was a competitive swimmer as a kid and was used to counting minutes of effort and seconds of rest without outside entertainment - but some loud music or an old Paris-Roubaix replay on the TV for inspiration was more than enough.

I've done my time on Zwift, and the gamification aspect can inspire riders to make impressive aerobic fitness and strength gains. However, for me, it de-emphasises what is the best part of being a cyclist is: being immersed in the flow of the peloton, learning etiquette from the more experienced riders, getting fit together and then pushing faster and further than you could ever do on your own.

I remember doing a 'century' (100 miles/161km) in the flatter part of eastern North Carolina with a well-disciplined group of about 20 riders, just pace-lining, no attacks or other hijinks, and finishing in four hours. No stops, no rest, just beautifully efficient at 40kph.

But then came the apps, and dudes started showing up at group rides with impressive fitness from a winter of Zwift, with all the confidence of a member of the masochist club, absolutely no idea how to ride in a group, and zero interest in learning. They were an absolute menace in the bunch: hostile to any advice, frustratingly resistant to being flicked out the back, disrupting the flow completely with attacks, and totally ruining the vibe.

Yes, I'm a curmudgeon, but I really miss the days when indoor training was a much-loathed necessity and road cycling was an in-person collective effort, not just a chance to show off your watts/kg on the no-drop group ride. I think the beauty of a peloton moving like a murmuration at speed is an essential part of cycling culture - and one that an app just cannot teach.

'I don’t hate it as much as I used to'

Let’s get this straight: indoor cycling is not my happy place, but on the other hand, I don’t hate as much as I used to. For me, cycling is about being outside; it might be a cliché, but I enjoy the wind in my face, experiencing the day whether it’s warm or cold, feeling the tyres rolling; it’s all so much better than staring at a closed garage door. It’s a bit sad that someone my age sees every ride as an adventure, but I do; when I ride, I’ve been somewhere and done something.

It’s also about joy. But joy is not clattering into potholes in the dark, and riding in the rain is one of the least joyful things I’ve ever done voluntarily. I won’t ride in the rain; I own a rain jacket, but I’ve only worn it three times in six years. This is where the turbo trainer comes in.

I’m not going to race again, and I can’t remember the last time I did an organised event, so I’m not ‘training’, but I want to continue enjoying outdoor rides and maintain my overall fitness; a bit of exertion stops me getting grumpy, too. So when the days are short, or the weather is bad, you will find me on the turbo.

Back when ‘dumb’ trainers were the only option, I hated it and set a limit of 30 minutes, but a smart turbo and indoor apps make it doable, and much better. Picking one of the workouts on Zwift helps me add some structure, and more importantly, some interest to my indoor riding. It’s also time-efficient; I get a decent workout from an indoor ride, and sometimes it’s even fun as well as productive.

But for me it’s a solo affair. Maybe it’d be better with all the groups, chats and messages, but I’m not interested, partly because I’m a little antisocial and partly because I don’t wear my glasses as they steam up. I won’t notice if you’ve given me one of those thumbs-up Ride On things because unless it’s a very easy session, I just can’t see.

Indoor cycling isn’t going to make me a better bike handler; I won’t have any meaningful social interaction, and it can’t replicate the richness that riding outside creates in my soul. But it does help my fitness and provides a close enough facsimile of the real thing that I get genuine satisfaction out of it. I am now off to ride Zwift for a while; I just won’t see you if you’re there.

It’s not fun, is it?

Give me a training plan, an erg mode workout and make me follow a line on a graph and I can pluck up the motivation, so long as I know there’s an end goal being pursued. Put me in a virtual world and ask me to ‘free ride’, and I’ll be bored in 10 minutes. I know it’s basically the same principle as ‘free riding’ outside, but the flow state I experience with steering, wind and tyre noise, cars passing, route planning and so on, just doesn’t come when it’s a virtual avatar pedalling awkwardly through a pixelated landscape. Even with the advent of in-game steering and the noise of the fan, I get bored.

Invariably I open YouTube or Netflix, or I get off the bike.

That’s not to say indoor cycling is bad. It can definitely serve a purpose, and to have helped more people be more active, I’m all for it. But it’s not fun. Not the type 1 variety anyway.

I hate what indoor cycling has become, but only because I quite like staring at a wall

I love riding bikes outside, but I also used to get a perverse satisfaction from my old school, wheel-on trainer in combination with a stopwatch, a towel, and somewhere to be sick. It got me very fit for racing cyclo-cross, and while it didn't replicate the fun of riding outside it was efficient, and masochistic in a way that pottering about up a pretend volcano can never replicate.

The thing I love about outdoor cycling is the effort in combination with all of the lovely sensations, but in the absence of those lovely sensations of cornering, wind, a snotty nose, the spray of leaf mulch on my shins, and the abominable noise of modern freehubs, I just want the effort.

Modern indoor training isn't rubbish because it doesn't replicate outdoors well enough, it's rubbish because it puts too many barriers between me and getting my heart rate up to something approaching maximum while I listen to Bullet For My Valentine. I don't want to log into an app, realise the WiFi connection is spotty, dig out the extender, pair my trainer and heart rate monitor with the laptop, update nine different firmwares, choose a course, realise that bit of the map is locked, choose a different course, wait for it to buffer.... and finally ride. At each of those steps the risk of me just giving up in frustration becomes higher.

I just want a machine to provide resistance and a brick wall to stare at. I don't want to race a man from Finland. I know it's still possible, but it's becoming much rarer.

The contrasting (positive) opinion: Indoor offers almost everything I need from cycling

For me, cycling is not about the wind in my hair, an in-the-moment adventure or finding the path less travelled. It’s about being competitive, racing, testing myself and sprinting for the finish line with a chance of victory.

Riding outdoors teaches a part of that: bunch etiquette, handling, tyre grip limits and so on. But once you’ve got those skills, they don’t need much refinement. And without a good foundation of fitness, those skills aren’t particularly useful anyway.

And riding outdoors is fine for building that foundation of fitness, but I can do it much more quickly and comprehensively on a smart trainer with a machine forcing me to ride at a set power output. It also means an hour of riding takes about an hour and five minutes. Unlike riding outside in winter, where an hour’s ride takes close to two hours, once you factor in getting changed twice and cleaning the bike.

A few years ago, I spent an entire summer training indoors for the British Gravel National Championships. Knowing the route wasn’t technical, and knowing I had bunch etiquette down from years of racing on the road, I don’t think I did more than four or five rides outside before the race. I finished fourth.

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