Wahoo Shuts Down RGT Virtual Cycling: Explained

Wahoo Fitness has announced to members that in less than 30 days – on October 31, 2023, the company will shut down the virtually cycling app RGT in an effort to focus “exclusively [on their] structured training content”.

Wahoo had acquired RGT (previously called Road Grand Tours) just over a year ago in April 2022 – ostensibly saving the platform at the time, when it was looking for buyers. Albeit, while the announcement was officially made in April 2022, the company said a the time that things had been in the works for a while – as proven by announcement-day integration of certain features. One does have to keep in mind that the size of the RGT team at the time was essentially numbered in the single digits, compared to larger platforms with many hundreds of employees.

Shortly after the acquisition, Wahoo did make a number of enhancements to the platform, such as voice chat last fall (which Zwift lacks), and then even bringing out dedicated steering for it with a new piece of hardware that you use your phone to steer with – the Wahoo KICKR STEER. The RGT platform did become favored by a smaller group of race-focused riders, mainly for some of the race tactics aspect of the platform.

However, when it came to volume of riders on the platform – that always lagged considerably behind Zwift. While certain scheduled race series did attract a good crowd, that didn’t really make-up for the sheer quantity of races/events/group rides offered by Zwift at literally all hours of the day. And that sets aside the number of actual users. For comparison, while pulling up the list of routes at this very moment, RGT totals a mere 35 riders in total. Whereas Zwift currently shows 3,902 riders. Certainly, it’s a Monday morning at 11AM CET – but that’s besides the point. People ride whenever they have time, and these numbers scaled about the same at different times of day, with RGT really only spiking during pre-scheduled races.

In other words, the writing has been on the wall for quite some time – as none of these user counts are that different to any other time period/day over the last 6-8 months.

[jimpeyton]

One aspect of RGT that I wish Zwift would consider in Magic Roads, where one could create virtual routes from real life rides. BKOOL also had that capability. Upload your data file and your favorite local ride would exist on the platform.

I liked RGT, but even heavily promoted events would ge 100 or so participants.

Thanks as always Ray.

[kjl]

Zwift's Climb Portals that were introduced with the TdF and Vuelta seemed similar to the user created Magic Roads, but like with everything in Zwift, it was only from data that Zwift provided and only had these climbs available when they dictated. Not having any user created aspects in one of the biggest downsides of Zwift. Sadly, with another competitor going away, Zwift will be even less likely to change their very closed, Apple-esque business model.

[kevinmach]

I'm on zwift 7-days a week, but I would still like to see competition remain in this space. Zwift is diverse enough in features that I can certainly see why it would be hard to pull some users away from it, but for me- I'm just sorta bored with it after 5 years (and that probably started after 3 years). Please stop making more "Worlds" and focus on other elements to make it more entertaining.

[MattSwain]

It’s a bit of a shock and not, both at the same time! I tried SYSTM for a year and one of its big failings was the lack of integration of all of the parts (ironic for something called SYSTM). Whereas with Garmin, all of your training counts (maybe it’s accurate, maybe it’s not) but with SYSTM that wasn’t the case and RGT was just one disconnected part of the whole jigsaw. RGT needed a lot of work if it was to ever come close to Zwift. Sure there was some things it did well but it was sterile and sparse. Ray says it’s sad to lose a player in the indoor virtual cycling world which is true, but it would be a lot worse if Wahoo folded for the indoor bike trainer market!

[jeffreyanthony]

Magic roads was a great thing for me because, it prepared me for the rides ahead. Plus I like the different things instead of sticking to one thing.

[SarahDoesSass]

Nothing kills a perfectly good hobby quite like private equity 😝 The demise of RGT is long overdue, but it still sucks to see soneone's creative endeavors to service a niche market die on the vine.

[hydemuc]

I'm in Germany and there was no reference to free Zwift membership in my notification email. Just a paltry "we’d like to offer you 30 days free of full access to SYSTM to explore the immersive content", which is pretty pathetic in my opinion. Not being able to download workouts from Training Peaks is going to be a real killer for me

[davidvonslingshot]

Ray’s watch tanline is a badge of honour. 😊

[jlowhighlow]

I've used Zwift a little for a few years and only just now learned about the RGT magic roads feature. Was fully ready to cancel my Zwift membership and use RGT straight away until I saw this video. I absolutely love climbing but live in a fairly dull area for cycling in that regard so the possibility of simulating any legendary climb I want had me over the moon. I'm now heartbroken and hope this feature somehow moves over to Zwift.

[evancycles]

As a long time Zwift user, I am digging Rouvy. I love discovering and exploring real rides, and the intergrated avitars has gotten so much better. I'll likly use both Zwift and Rouvy this winter season.

[aboumawiyah]

Got zwift 12 months free, no complaints

[shanedorrian]

Never really used RGT tbh don’t use Zwift either though as long as Wahoo keeps churning out SYSTM workouts or Sufferfest for those Sufferlandrians still here lol. On another note, a couple of years ago you tried riding the Kickr Bike on the Saris MP1 would the Kickr Shift also work on it do you think ? Great videos as always, look forward to the full Kickr Bike Shift review.

[louis_sharp]

Wahoo had a pop up at the Glasgow World Champs. The trainer was connected to Zwift. I found that funny.

[FuchsHorst]

Maybe Wahoo and Zwift used the zwift hub-settlement to pair up against the middle eastern player who was able to buy the UCI e-sports worlds...

[devonglide]

I won't pay for Zwift, the monthly fee is too high (180 dollars a year!). Maybe you guys think I'm cheap, but to me, the app looks like the graphics are on par with something from the late 90's, the in game physics feel terrible (like riding a bike made of rubber bands through a world of soup), the new worlds don't feel like they offer anything interesting or new over Watopia, the race schedules are very poor (in my opinion), the amount of 'cheaters' in the races is silly, and the experience is basically quite boring.

If Zwift were like 5 bucks a month or less, I'd probably subscribe. Or, if they made regular improvements to the graphics and physics engine, I might consider the current price. As is though, it's just another over priced service trying to get in on the stack of other services vying to get in on monthly renewal fee models.

[joemoya]

Wahoo's Boulder Sports Science Center died the day they prohibited general public access or use. In other words, it was doomed to a slow death the day it started.

[BiffBruise]

FWIW, the user count mentioned would not account for those riding a Magic Road at that time. Now admittedly, this would more than likely only add 10s of users to the count at any point in time (at most), so in no way would the full count on RGT approach that of Zwift, but just mentioning for completeness sake.

[ShayMillerCayman]

Sounds like the slow death of Wahoo in the indoor training platform space all together. I hope Sufferfest survives or Wahoo acquires something like Xert to bolt on to their existing thing.

[damu]

They fired Neal Henderson? He was the face of their training platform

[chrisstrider]

It’s a shame but there’s a limited number of people who want online cycling