Spin Class Just Got Serious

CW investigates the growing popularity of indoor group training sessions.

- Simon Schofield

Very occasionally cycling in splendid isolation is exactly what you need, but most of the time we are better together. Riding in a group is not only more fun, it gets you fitter too. The motivation to beat a mate cresting a little roller or holding your place in a slightly too-quick chain gang pushes you on. Ride regularly in a group and it’ll pay dividends in fitness gains — not to mention the craic and banter of social riding. Traditionally, we have thought of group riding as an outdoor-only pursuit, but that is steadily changing as clubs and training groups cotton on to the potency of training together indoors too. I have visited several such sessions to witness first-hand the sweaty spectacle and assess the fitness merits; I am, for the purposes of this feature, the cycling spy who came in from the cold.

Until recently, putting the best bike away for winter heralded a return to solitary confinement. Turbo training used to be solo and lonely. Not anymore. The club-organised group turbo session in a church hall or the like is a well established, though often underrated, phenomenon. Indoor group riding is moving on, too, using the latest in smart-trainers and technology to optimise training; some groups are even booking altitude chamber sessions.

Eyewitness account

The air is, to put it politely, scented; the condensation is running down the windows; and the music is pumping out. The turbos are spinning and whistling. It’s the weekly group session at Otley Rugby Club, run by local training company In-Gear Coaching.

Ex-second-cat racer Jonathan Farnaby is now in his second winter season running these sessions and is in no doubt about their value. “It’s the best training hour I do all year,” he says. “I come out of winter at my fittest, ready for the racing season.”