Le Tour

Well 'Le Tour de France' has rolled out for again for a the two thousand and twelve edition of it's 109 year history.

I have watched bits and pieces of this historic race over the years, but this year (as I am back in the saddle), I have decide to try and follow the 3 week, 2,173 mile test of man and machine.

From the first few days, I have been amazed at the speed and endurance these riders have - with the current average speed at just over 30mph, makes my rides seem very slow and very short!

Below is a video showing this years route.

There's an app for that

While perusing a copy of a cycling magazine the other day I noticed a review of a gps cycling system and it got me thinking.

I am a bit of an Apple purist (have been for a long time - even pre ipod) - so I headed over to the app store to take a look at what is available for the tech savvy cyclist.

There are loads of cycling apps - some great - some odd and some definite time wasters!

I found lots of different apps - I have downloaded some and hope to take about them later, but first I thought it would be cool to start tracking the use I am getting out of the bike after spending all this cash getting it going again - so was looking for something that would do this as the main feature.  

After looking through several options that all looked fairly good - I opted for the cheap skate option and went for the free version of 'Map My Ride'.

The app is great - really easy to set up - and once you have plumed in the details of the kind of riding you are doing and a few facts about yourself (to allow it to calculate the energy that you are burning) it is simply a case of hitting the record button - shoving it in a pocket, and let it record the trip you are making.

 

Once you are done it will show you a map of the ride (which is very accurate), how long you have been riding for, your average and max speed and the approximate calories that you have burned in the saddle. 

The last ten rides are recorded on the app itself - and older rides can be accessed on the main website. 

Another nice feature for me (getting back into riding) is the ability to search other users routes in the local area. It will show you the route as well as the key details for it. You can then follow the same route that someone else has done, so its a great way to find places to ride - and being able to choose how long you want to be out for.

There are lots of other features that I have not used yet, including a nutrition calculation system and sharing options to upload routes and times to various places on the web (I may do this when my times/distances get a little less embarrassing!). It also looks like you can add times to a leader board if you are the competitive type!(same as above).

As I use the app I will try to get into these additional features - but for now I am finding it fascinating just to be able to track where I have been over the course of a week, and I have been very suprised to find that in the few days I have been using it I have clocked up over 50 miles without really even trying. 

If you want to find out more take a look at http://www.mapmyride.com