Previously free Zwift competitor IndieVelo is now part of TrainingPeaks

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Today TrainingPeaks adds indoor cycling platform IndieVelo to the brands portfolio. Along with the acquisition comes a name change that jettisons IndieVelo in favor of branding friendly TrainingPeaks Virtual. If you’ve never heard of IndieVelo before now, not many have. It’s only been around for a year and the entire team is one man.

What is IndieVelo / TrainingPeaks Virtual?

Founder Dr George Gilbert graduated from Cambridge in 2001 with a doctorate in Astrophysics but his life seems to be a mix of cycling and software development. Right out of school he worked for Metaswitch Networks moving from Software Engineer up to a managerial role. There’s also an entry for “designed, developed and published many moderately successful computer games” on Dr Gilbert’s Linkedin that covers 1989 up to 2021.

At the same time, there’s also a number of cycling extra curricular activities that run concurrently with the software day jobs. Much of that is with British cycling where Dr Gilbert worked through the board of directors, as well as the National Olympic Committee, from 2005 to 2019. Then in 2020, cycling and software came together through Zwift.

Starting in February of 2020 Dr Gilbert became a consultant with Zwift. Mostly what that seems to have meant is helping Zwift run clean and cheat free esports World Championships. Eventually it seems there was a split that happened. There’s no indication the split was anything less than amicable but Dr Gilbert left Zwift in May 2023 to start IndieVelo.

IndieVelo specifically focused on taking the work Dr Gilbert did for Zwift and applying it across the entire platform. Zwift has always been slow to move towards anti-cheat systems at the lower levels but IndieVelo applied anti-cheat systems universally from the very beginning. Otherwise though, IndieVelo feels like a bit of a Zwift clone. In day to day use, what’s perhaps most striking is how much one man accomplished.

What is TrainingPeaks?

TrainingPeaks is the first software platform to really utilize power based training and make it accessible. The widely used TSS based training system comes from TrainingPeaks and every other platform either licenses those terms or makes up a new system that still tends to follow TSS concepts. TrainingPeaks is also a platform that has eschewed self coaching and stayed largely a coach and athlete focused system. Previously the defining characteristic was “the world’s largest endurance training marketplace” allowing athletes to “find personalized training plans, accredited coaches and easy-to-use apps and integrations to track their progress and reach their goals.”

Until now, that meant a reliance on other platforms for indoor training prescribed by a coach. Today’s announcement brings the two systems together and eliminates that outside reliance. According to TrainingPeaks, “The newly acquired assets of IndieVelo now enable TrainingPeaks coaches to strengthen their communities with increased athlete engagement through virtually hosted group rides, events and races. With robust customization features, TrainingPeaks Virtual can look however the coach wants — with custom avatars, bikes, team kits and branded events.”

It’s still free, for now

Throughout the IndieVelo run the platform has seen favor as a free alternative to Zwift. Whatever drawbacks might have existed disappeared when paired with a lack of monthly fee. For now, TrainingPeaks is going to continue that.

Starting today, “the beta version of TrainingPeaks Virtual is now available for free through a single-sign-on experience with a new or existing TrainingPeaks athlete account. After March 2025, TrainingPeaks Virtual will be part of TrainingPeaks Premium.” Also starting today, “athlete schedules and structured workouts from coaches and training plans seamlessly sync to the virtual cycling platform, and ride data automatically uploads back into TrainingPeaks.” The seamless syncing of TrainingPeaks zones, FTP, workout compliance and other integrated experiences will be developed in the future.”

For more information visit the TrainingPeaks Virtual website.