Released in 2019, MyWhoosh is an indoor training app that differentiates itself from much of the competition by being free to use rather than having any monthly or annual subscription fees.

At present it is the indoor cycling application that the UCI uses to host the Indoor Cycling World Championships as well as sponsoring the WorldTour UAE Team Emirates XRG cycling team.

It uses a virtual training platform similar to the likes of Zwift, with virtual worlds that can be ridden on. Some are fictional landscapes, while others are routes in different countries. Along with a range of training plans and sessions, MyWhoosh also hosts various races, the most famous being the weekly Sunday Race Club with a monthly prize pool of $90,000. 

Users can also customise their virtual avatar in game in both appearance, kit, and equipment. However, it’s not quite as smooth a system, both graphically and in terms of usability as some of the paid-for competition. But given the free to use status, it makes MyWhoosh a compelling option for those who want to experience a more engaging and gamified indoor training system without the sometimes significant subscription outlay.

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MyWhoosh key features

MyWhoosh Link App allows control of workouts from your phone

Link App also controls virtual gears

Customisable day or night mode

Data migration from other indoor apps

Offline mode

Custom workouts creator

Speed sensor option for use instead of power meter

Off-the-shelf workouts and training plans available

Large race calendar available 

Customisable avatars with unlockable bikes, wheels and accessories in-game

MyWhoosh is available on most platforms: iOS/Android/Mac/Windows. System requirements are: 

Windows: 10 or higher

Android: 10+

iOS: 14+ and A12 chip or higher

MacOS: macOS 12 Monterey or later

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MyWhoosh: Setup 

Getting an account created and made up is a very simple process. Sign up with your email, make a password, and create your profile from there. Upon launch you are offered the choice between running and riding to determine what devices you synchronise to. After that you’re taken to the home screen. Here you have details about your profile, settings, virtual currency, and then the ride options. 

These ride options are split into:

Events with challenges and races

Free ride where you select an available world and route and just ride

MyBunch where you ride at a set power to weight

Workout and Video where set sessions or custom made session are available

Training Plans where 13 different plan options are available

Calendar and Planning so you can input future sessions

Garage and Loadout for avatar and equipment customisation

Live Coach virtual in person ride

Once you select any of these options, away you go and start riding. 

MyWhoosh routes 

An important part of an indoor cycling app for many people is that it keeps them engaged. A big element of this often comes down to the number of different routes available in-game, as Zwift has ever expanded its route offerings to keep people interested and engaged with the app.

At present, MyWhoosh features 13 different ride location regions, with a total of 87 different ridable routes. You enter a selected ‘World’ to ride in, then you can see how many other people are riding each route, the distance, and the elevation gain while the map shows on the right hand side of the screen. It is also usefully broken down into segments with specific sprint or climb segments displayed and details given.

The slight issue is that not all of these ‘Worlds’ are accessible at all times. Previously Zwift had the same issue, but now you can ride any route at any time, especially when selecting workouts and which route to complete those on. In MyWhoosh, generally three worlds at a time are accessible, with others available on selected days. It still gives a broad variety, but there is no option to do any particular favourite route at any time or any day that you fancy.  

MyWhoosh visuals 

When it comes to how MyWhoosh actually looks when you’re riding, it puts me somewhere in between Zwift and the now defunct RGT. Whereas Zwift has a softer, more animated look to it, and RGT tried to feel very much like a real-world virtual experience, MyWhoosh has elements of both approaches.

The graphics are a bit sharper than Zwift, with more definition of the rider leg muscles and an angular approach to the bike and landscape, things are not as soft looking. Elements such as riding out of the saddle on climbs looks a bit more erratic but realistic than Zwift, although this happens at any cadence on gradients whereas Zwift only starts out of the saddle climbing at 70 RPM or lower. 

I do think the softer approach by Zwift is personally a bit more pleasing to the eye, and it’s certainly smoother, such as the surroundings. However truth be told I am almost always watching something on a smaller screen when doing indoor riding, outside of races. For those who want a more real-world experience with real-world videos of locations, then IcTrainer still offers possibly the best experience in my opinion.

There is more to the visuals than how the virtual worlds look though. The onscreen display is also an area where MyWhoosh has similarities to Zwift but a few key differences. On the right hand side there is the list of riders on the road, how far away they are, what distance their ride is, and current W/Kg. You can also search for a specific name if you know someone and want to message them directly, something that Zwift allows only with the My Companion app. There’s also a map showing the route, gradient, and current power zone. 

At the head of the display you find the main ride metrics. These are: ride time, current heart rate, power and cadence, speed, and distance covered. At the bottom of the screen is average speed, kcal, and elevation gain. There is also the menu for chats, reactions, and live talk if so desired. In total there is a little less on the screen than with Zwift, which some may prefer while others may want a more detailed screen display of their ride. 

Gamification 

As with Zwift, MyWhoosh has a certain level of gamification about it with the incentives to level up and unlock new equipment. It’s a good incentive for those with a completionist personality while new challenges, missions, and unlocks keep things fresh over time. I’m personally a big fan of this as it keeps indoor training more engaging for me. The only slight issue might be for those following a structured training plan, the incentive to complete challenges and do efforts might not complement a training plan as well.

I do however have one concern, which is the dual currency of gems and coins. Coins are earned via challenges being completed as well as completing rides and training sessions. This is a similar principle to Zwift’s Drops system. These coins can then be used to purchase bikes or wheels in-game which have specific performance characteristics. A set of Cadex TT wheels in-game cost 30,100 coins for example and is more aero and so is faster on flat courses. Meanwhile a Giant Trinity TT bike is 36,170 coins and again is faster for TT events than a road frame. 

Gems however are quite different. These can be unlocked by completing specific quests, events, or challenges, but they can also be purchased with real-world currency. The concern here is that some garage and performance items are only purchasable via gems rather than coins, while more coins can be purchased using gems. This can lead to an element of pay to win, but the performance differences between equipment that is purchased via gems versus coins is negligible.

However it’s worth arguing that in the real-world people can spend more money on bikes for a performance gain, so there really isn’t much of a difference. Training and personal performance will make the biggest difference. The key thing is that to complete rides, events, and any functional aspects of MyWhoosh, there are no additional purchases required and it remains a free-to-play app. 

MyWhoosh’s Cycling Workouts 

When it comes to the workouts, MyWhoosh has quite a wide selection of available sessions designed to cater for a range of abilities and targets. In total there are: 70 VO2max focussed sessions, 99 Tempo, 68 Anaerobic, 88 Endurance, 47 Sprint, 55 Sweetspot, 10 Taper, 47 Beginner, 80 Under 35 Minutes, 50 Fast Fitness, 14 Testing, 88 Threshold, and 13 Pro Team workouts. There are some that overlap categories, but it’s a large selection all the same. There are an additional 30 sessions with the Fitness Video Coach which gives you a live trainer for your workouts more akin to the workouts on Wahoo SYSTM. 

There is also a pretty decent workout builder system. Blocks can be input at specific training zones and then tailored for duration and exact power targets. Adjustments to the time are done in seconds so you need to work longer blocks out that way, 10 minutes being 600 seconds and so on.

There is also the option to add ramp ups or down, and repeats and free ride sections. Additional features you can add are specific cadence targets, as well as little speak pop-ups to give yourself that little extra motivation or remind yourself that there are only two more repeats in a block left. After naming and saving the workout, it appears in the My Workout tab for use at any time. There is also a little check mark for how many times you have completed a session. 

As mentioned there are also 13 set Training Plans often around 6-8 weeks long as blocks, with ones such as the Gran Fondo plan featuring four 7 week training blocks with one final 6 week pre-event block. This gives a good degree of flexibility for tailoring plans to your specific time demands before an event, as you can pick up some elements of these longer term plans while skipping others if preparation time is shorter. 

You can also put these workouts into your calendar in the application. MyWhoosh can synchronise with apps like TrainingPeaks as well as custom workouts or performing coach set sessions. When input on TrainingPeaks, these workouts will then appear on the same day in MyWhoosh so you can select the workouts and the route you’d like to complete it on.

The in-workout screen is also nicely intuitive, offering a full rundown of the workout blocks, timings, and power targets. After each block a little summary of time, heart rate, power, and RPM shows up as well. Along with that, there is a block progress bar at the top, and a full workout profile display at the bottom showing where in the workout you are. I actually prefer this to the Zwift option of showing the most recent 10 minutes of effort in a colour chart at the bottom of the screen.

You can also adjust the intensity by 25% either way if you’re feeling particularly good or have realised you’ve been overly ambitious with your power targets on the day. After completion of the session, a report is shown with graphs and metrics similar to Zwift and other TrainingPeaks with HR and W distribution and total session facts. 

Finally, there is the Live Coach feature. This is a live workout session that you complete within the game, but with other people and special guests. These are completed at set times, so be sure to register and also put an alert in your calendar. However, you need to get your profile verified to be able to participate in these events which requires you to email customer support to do this. It was in fairness a very quick and easy process. These workouts bring something a little different to the usual sorts with more of a community element to them as well as allowing riders to get some insight from real-world coaches during the sessions.

MyWhoosh Link app

Much in the same way that Zwift has the Companion App, MyWhoosh has the Link App. This works in many of the same ways and is designed to complement the experience while riding as well as provide a broader use of the app outside of use as well.

In-game, the MyWhoosh Link app can be used to adjust settings within game, especially useful if you use a tablet or Apple TV out of arm’s reach and want to adjust elements of your ride such as direction, power levels during workouts, or pausing workouts. 

Outside of using it within the game itself, you can also use the app to adjust settings without being in the MyWhoosh app. Its main function though is to work alongside your training and racing to make things easier and more streamlined. Within the app you can see previous workouts as well as go into some more analysis of the data, and select workouts to add to your calendar in the future.

One of my personal favourite features is that when you go to events and select one that you’d like to enter, the Link app can link to your reminders app and you can set a custom alert for a given time before the event starts. This is particularly useful as the standard 30 minute warning on Zwift Companion often isn’t enough for me before a race. I need to get kitted up, drink ready, 20 minute warm up, and then be ready to race. Generally that takes me a bit longer, so the 45 minute alert option on MyWhoosh is very helpful for me. 

MyWhoosh: Social elements 

One of the big attractions of Zwift, which became very popular during the Covid pandemic, was the use of more social elements. You can train and do your own thing as mentioned, but Zwift brought a more social aspect to indoor cycling. MyWhoosh has mirrored this slightly with the inclusion of MyBunch rides, similar to Zwift’s Pace Partners, giving riders the options to ride with a virtual pacer and group of riders at set average speeds. While riding with these groups, MyWhoosh does also have an in-game chat function with the option to message everyone in your vicinity, or private messaging. Whereas Zwift needs the Zwift Companion app to do the latter, MyWhoosh requires no additional app.  

Other social ride options as part of MyWhoosh include specifically scheduled Social Rides which use Pace Bots to keep a bunch pace, but riders can go their own pace if they fancy. Again these have a set target speed and are on set days, similar to a local club with rides outdoors. They also have Café Rides, which are very similar but invite ‘Cycling Legends’, such as Peter Sagan or Alistair Brownlee, to take part and Q&A with these Legends is encouraged. Finally there are the Community Rides which are created by users themselves. These take 48-72 hours to be ridable while developers create the rides, and require a minimum of 5 riders to take place, similar to Zwift and the Group Workout or Group Ride functions. 

To top this off, MyWhoosh also offers races. Since 2023, MyWhoosh has hosted the UCI Esports World Championships, taking over from Zwift. Along with that there are multiple community race events that can be competed in. Both the MyWhoosh Championships and the Sunday Race Club are the biggest events hosted open to everyone, and include actual cash prizes. The races aren’t quite as plentiful or frequent as Zwift, but a smaller number of them means that numbers are not spread quite as thin and cash prizes make the quality of racing high. I can confirm giving some of the less prestigious events a crack, that they are indeed full-gas race efforts. 

Given the prize money at stake, the premier race do require a Power Passport Test (PPT), which is a range of maximal efforts to determine a realistic power curve, and pre-verification procedures, as well as post-race verifications. This means weigh-in videos, height videos, equipment calibration proof, dual-power recording, and access to historic Strava data. Anything that appears anomalous is investigated. 

Practical considerations

There are a couple of elements about MyWhoosh that are certainly worth considering. When the game updates and if you’re using an iOS system, the app needs not only an update within the App Store, but also within the app itself. This is usually a few GB of data, which depending on your internet speed can take a fair while to download. I was caught out by this a couple of times when starting the app, and found I then needed to wait 10-15 minutes to be able to start. I also then needed to log-in and set up my profile again, but no data or statistics were lost.

Another consideration is the battery drain. Large applications such as Zwift and MyWhoosh do take up a good amount of battery life. On Zwift, I find that when there are more users present on an in-world map and more models in game are needed to be created and refreshed, the battery life can take more of a hit, sometimes 10% for every 10-15 minutes of use. However when riding on smaller maps with fewer people, this increases to about 10% for every 20-25 minutes of use.

On MyWhoosh, even with the smaller user base and maps that don’t appear to require the same level of refresh rates, the battery drain is significant. I found that 10% for 10 minutes of use was the maximum battery life I would get, so for longer rides I did need to plug the iPad I use in to charge. This carried over to my phone in terms of battery use as well.

Whereas with Zwift you can get away with this by using a plugged in system like Apple TV, on MyWhoosh it is only compatible with Apple TV when you use screen mirroring from an external device like an iPad or iPhone, so the battery problem persists. 

MyWhoosh review verdict

MyWhoosh is certainly a compelling alternative to indoor cycling app powerhouse Zwift. It offers a wide array of workouts and training plans, in some regards more expansive than Zwift in my personal opinion. There are also some different features such as the group workout classes, Live Coach sessions, and a very lucrative racing scene that some riders make a genuine living off. 

Add to this a platform that is free to use, and for those on a budget it makes absolute sense to go for MyWhoosh over the likes of Zwift, which costs £17.99 a month or £179.99 a year. However, there are several elements of MyWhoosh that are not quite as engaging. The virtual unlocks are not quite as expansive, and the graphics lack the smoothness of Zwift and are not as visually pleasing. There are also some system elements such as the high battery drain and long update times that are not as practical for many users, especially those who ride for more than 90 minutes. 

It’s a very good platform, and certainly good value for money given the zero initial cost, but it has some catching up to do against Zwift. It’s getting there though, and doing so quickly.Â