Best cycling apps on iOS and Android

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At least 30 minutes of cycling every day can drastically improve your cardiovascular fitness, muscle strength and flexibility, and help decrease body fat. Cycling is one of the most undertaken and effective fitness regimens.

The availability of cycling apps has helped biking enthusiasts a great deal -with health meter, analytical tool, and navigational resources in hand, the cyclists can easily navigate through the city or assess their health on the go.

If you own a smartphone and a road bike, you should seriously consider downloading a great cycling application. You won’t only keep track of your daily progress but also assess your health in real-time with the help of a smartphone app.

The 10 Best Cycling Apps in 2020

Here is the list of ten best cycling apps in 2020.

1. Strava

Strava is one of the most downloaded and regularly used smartphone applications designed to track human exercises. One of the best features about this app is that it allows you to incorporate social network to check on your and your friends’ activities online.

According to their official website, More than 50 million athletes have joined Strava, where about one million new athletes join the app each month.

It has crossed over 4 billion activities by its social fitness community since its founding in 2009. You can use this app on both smartphones and PC. Most riders use a separate GPS computer to record and upload their rides and later use the app to see what their community friends are up to. The A.I. of the app delivers automatic rankings of your times over popular stretches of road and trail – known as ‘segments’ once you upload your rides. It also offers the trail you have covered so far using the phone’s GPS system.

The slick social component of Strava makes it apart from its competitors and remains one of the most downloaded apps.

2. The Road Bike Manual

The Road Bike Manual is a bike repair app co-authored by Haynes and BikeRadar. It offers in-depth DIY knowledge about cycling, cycling repair, navigation, guides, and tips related to emergency services.

As claimed by the App makers, it‘s a comprehensive bike repair and maintenance manual for riders who are passionate about their bike’s well-being. They keep updating the bike repair app with more content each month including everything related to:

  • Pre-ride checks
  • Drivetrain
  • Wheels
  • Frame
  • Brakes
  • Cockpit
  • Emergency Services

The users can enjoy dozens of bike repair videos, hundreds of images, and more than 40,000 words on bike repair.

3. Zwift

Unlike other cycling apps, Zwift is an indoor training app designed to get people to indulge in regular exercise in the comfort of their homes. It’s a large multiplayer online cycling and running physical training program that allows different users to interact, train, and compete in a virtual world.

To start with the Zwift app, you’d need

  • A working internet connection.
  • A bike.
  • A trainer or a set of rollers.
  • An ANT+ or Bluetooth measurement tool: a power meter, smart trainer, or speed sensor.
  • A computer, smartphone, or tablet with Bluetooth or ANT+ (or an ANT+ USB dongle)

Along with connecting you to the virtual cycling world, it also offers built-in workouts and training plans. This app became one of the most downloaded apps during the COVID-19 lockdown.

4. Rouvy

Like Zwift, Rouvy is an indoor cycling app that takes you into the virtual world of cycling. This app makes augmented reality and indoor cycling possible. Unlike the Zwift app’s graphical road and trail, Rouvy offers video recordings of real roads and combines them with elevation data to provide an interactive riding experience.

You can enjoy approximately 2,036,020km of cycling route films to ‘ride’ on along with both real and graphically generated riders.

5. TrainingPeaks

TrainingPeaks is one of the most popular platforms used for live tracking athletic performances such as cycling and running. The app offers an opportunity to work with real coaches who can offer you inputs on the workout. A user can buy detailed training plans or find a coach through the app.

On iStore’s official store, the app has a 4.8 out of 5 approval rating. It has more than 500,000 downloads on Playstore.  This app shouldn’t be confused with social networking, navigation, or route-planning, as it only focuses on tracking personalized workouts and schedules.

6. Cyclemeter

Cyclemeter is a health and fitness app designed for cyclists and runners. It is integrated with Google Maps which helps to offer information about terrain and traffic. It also records and monitors pulse, bike speed, bike cadence, and bike power.

It’s a lot similar to Wahoo Fitness when it comes to customizable options during the ride. It also protects your privacy by keeping your data on your phone.

One can set-up a training schedule through the app and monitor the progress on a go. It has more than 100,000 downloads on Playstore.

7. Google Maps

Google Maps is probably the freest app there for any cycling enthusiasts. Although it isn’t as robust as many cycling apps, it still offers basic features at zero cost. You can add or mark your cycling destination on the map and enable the audio feature which directs you turn-by-turn. It’s a really handy app with all the required resources in a single place.

Unlike the fitness app, you can’t monitor your progress directly through the app but download the information on your computer and then calculate the progress. Google Maps is free of cost and available on both iStore and Playstore.

8. Komoot

Komoot is fitness that can be used on both desktop and smartphone. It allows cyclists to log rides for future reference. Unlike other apps, it relies on the OpenStreetMap database, an open-source map. This will help you plan road, mountain bike, and gravel rides. It also offers information about routes that are suitable for either road or mountain bikes along with the elevation, speed, and level of fitness required to complete them.

You can also connect with local riders and Komoot ambassadors through the app to explore new cycling opportunities. The app already has over 10 million downloads worldwide.

 

9. MapMyRide

MapMyRide was the only ride-logging service until Strava showed up. However, MapMyRide is still a robust app that offers a lot of features and assistance. It is a lot similar to CycleMeter. It not only tracks your progress but also your nutrition, weight, and more.

You can subscribe to customizable training plans and exercise through in-person assistance. Once you subscribe to the premium version, you also get rid of the advertisements. The app has an inspiring community of over 60 million athletes all around the world.

Along with tracking progress, it also monitors the distance, speed, and elevation crossed. Get your hands to

  • Largest selection of activities (over 600!): running, cycling, walking, gym workouts, cross-training, yoga, etc.
  • Real-time audio coaching for common stats like pace, distance, and duration on your runs.
  • Routes – find nearby places to run, save your favorite paths, add new ones, and share with others.
  • Price: Free (premium version also available)
  • Download: MapMyRide for iOS or MapMyRide for Android

10. Viewranger

Viewranger is a free fitness app that relies on the free OpenCycle base map of the entire world. A user can buy detailed large-scale topographical mapping for more than 20 countries making it a universal application. One can use it without the internet as the downloaded maps are stored on their phone.

A user has an option to create and share their own routes in the app with other users or just download other people’s tracks. A live tracking ‘Buddy Beacon’ functions allow the user to share the ride with others. The app is also useful for walking and hiking enthusiasts.

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