Riding with friends virtually during the pandemic

[Paul Nevins]

For those with smart trainers, yes they were sold out for months but are now restocked, I recommend RGT which is free to use. The first few months their magic roads were very sparse on scenic reality and their cooler features were in beta. This past month I've revisited the app and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the experience, I uploaded my RWGPS file of Happy Canyon and Figaroa Mountain, they nailed it! It's really easy to upload a route then schedule a time for the ride to start, sharing the link lets other riders join in with you. The avatars are very well done, you can draft behind other riders, chat while riding etc. One nice feature is that anyone can jump in with the group later by selecting a rider to follow, another option is for the ride organizer to set the group up to stay together which adjusts each rider's difficulty to keep the group from breaking apart. You can use the U turn feature to ride to route in reverse for bonus miles or just do repeats of sections during the ride. This is a pretty cool way to ride together officially as a club while complying with the health rules.