MyWhoosh is one of the main platforms I use for my indoor rides, along with Zwift. MyWhoosh has the advantage of being free, while Zwift has a monthly fee, though my Zwift referral can give you 30 days free. I’ll also refer to both MyWhoosh and Zwift as games below, though they are more virtual sports applications that are gamified to various degrees.

Accusations of Sportswashing

The big issue out of the way first. Many people take issue with MyWhoosh in that they see it as sportswashing. And I certainly don’t want to minimize such complaints, as they are perfectly valid. My own personal opinion of the UAE, and other Arabian area countries doesn’t change based on this or anything else related to it. If one has issues with such things, then they are best served sticking to Zwift and the others. It’s a complex issue, and there are no judgements for use or refusal to use based on that issue. None of what follows is about that though.

Graphics

First off the game looks great. Zwift is fun looking, and more than good enough for virtual riding, though if one wants super good looking, then go with Rouvy, which uses videos of the actual courses. But MyWhoosh really looks good. These looks come at the cost of performance on lower end computers, but it works fine on my near 4 year old PC, and my Apple TV 4K (3rd gen). I was having problems on the near 8 to 10 year old PC, but that would have been expected. It looks amazing, and there are features I love about the UI, like how the power number turns green while in the draft, something Zwift lacks, and one of the things people complain about the most.

Workouts

The workouts seem to be nice, and they add to a proper calendar, unlike Zwift, which somehow still doesn’t have a calendar. Like a workout might say, “complete by Sunday”, but MyWhoosh has an actual calendar that you can look at, and see what it has scheduled that day. Very nice, and very helpful.

However, there seems to be no real way to import workouts from TrainerRoad into MyWhoosh, as they aren’t on the connections page, more on that later.

This brings us to our first real bug. Let’s say a workout is schedule on Monday, and I want to move it to Tuesday. I click the workout, move, then I click Tuesday, nothing happens. I click Wednesday, it moves it to Tuesday. This has been there for a couple versions now. Seems very odd. Like, I should be able to click and drag, or if using the Apple TV remote, click the day I want it to go to, not the day after… very odd. Even if it was odd on Apple TV, it should be easy to do on some page on the PC, without the App.

Link App

This also brings us to an irritation. The companion app called Link here, doesn’t show the workouts on the companion. Zwift has this nailed perfectly in their companion app. You see where you are, a range for your power to be in that is acceptable to the goal, and what intervals were done, and which are to come, and the whole workout is across the top notch.

When I start to pair things up, I select Ride, then start paring, and then it seems to think they are all Running, I see the Elite Suito as a running sensor. When I add the heart rate monitor (Garmin HRM-Pro), it suddenly becomes the cadence, and it doesn’t let me switch back to the Elite Suito, or the Garmin Cadence Sensors (which to be fair, even Zwift has issues with that sensor, even my watch does, I suspect it’s the sensors there, not the programs), but that doesn’t excuse the fact that the Link app seems to loose the Suito as a cadence, and it sees the HRM as a running sensor. Now, to be fair, the Garming HRM-Pro does have built in running dynamics, and when linked to a compatible device, it can do running dynamics, but as I’ve picked Ride, it should only see it as a heart rate monitor. And this is noticeable in game, as the cadence seems way too low. Nearly half of what I’d expect. And, this is made further worse by the fact that 95% of the time, the cadence doesn’t show on the main screen, I can only see it in the Link app. So beyond frustrating.

Oh, and one of the biggest problems with the Link app, is that even though the phone and device playing MyWhoosh are on the same network, I couldn’t pair until I went into the WiFi settings, and turn Private WiFi off. Zwift’s companion works with that on, they just need to be on the same network. It just seems that the Link app is a second thought, and a bad thought at that. I can’t see returning to using it until they address lots of issues with it. And turning it off midway through… you can’t seem to repair everything back to using the app natively, you have to shut everything down, restart everything. So if one gets MyWhoosh, maybe hold off on the Link app, it’s… not good…

Sounds

The sounds. There’s music in the menu, and that’s it for sounds. Seems they turned them off a couple years ago, and were going to revise things, but here we are a couple years later, and nothing. I get it, most people ride listening to music, but there’s nothing, even in workouts, where it’d be really helpful to have sounds to let you know you are about to change what interval you are in.

I’d say, leave the sounds off by default. Then sounds to add to the options menu. Each of these would have a check mark to make turn it on or back off, and ideally also a volume slider on each. These are semi in order.

• Gate sounds for doing workouts when passing through a gate, so that if you aren’t looking right at the screen at the time, possible, to likely during a hard effort, you know you passed. REQUIRED.
• Countdown to gates. A different sound to the gate sound. Perhaps one a second for the 5 seconds before, then in like the 2 seconds before, it changes tone, and goes every half second to get you ready. REQUIRED.
• Workout text message. Use something like a text on phone tone, to let the person know there’s text on the screen from the workout. REQUIRED.
• My Bike Sound. Basic bike sound. Ideally this has an option within it, to turn on only on rides, only on workouts (not sure who’d only want it on during a workout though), or both. Default would be rides only. Not a priority.
• Bikes near me. A separate option for other bikes, and volume slider to minimize that distraction. Same options inside itself as the My Bike Sound.
• Crowd sounds. We have spectators on the side, but they are silent. Another very low priority.
• Emoticons. Sort of like the workout text message, just in case somebody is giving something on screen. Very low priority.
• Nature sounds. Another low priority, but sounds of the ocean, rivers, wind, etc. All directional of course, and closer you are, the more obvious, etc…

Lack of People

While I’m not looking for lots of people to ride with, if I join a group, it’d be nice if there was… you know… a group. Lots of groups on the US time, aren’t really filled. It’s sort of the biggest bummer outside of the lack of sounds. It’s not really big in the US yet though, so that’s probably why.

Made a bit worse by the fact on the Events page, as you scroll through the list, it doesn’t show how many people are signed up until you click on the event to look at the details. There’s plenty of room to show the signed up count on the main list, so show it there. Though from what I understand, even if it says 0 on the details page, there are often people there. I’m not sure if that’s a bug, or just people show up at the last minute, or both. Still, having the signup count on the front list would go a long ways to helping players out.

Needs Far More Integrations

They need to link to Garmin and some of the other platforms, like the aforementioned TrainerRoad. They have a very curiously limited list of integrations. To get MyWhoosh rides/workouts, etc. to Garmin Connect, you have to manually download the .FIT file from one’s MyWhoosh activity page, then upload it to the Garmin Connect site. Garmin is too big a player not to be automatic. Like, on Zwift, my workout not only goes to Garmin, they get my weight from Garmin (Garmin gets it from my cheap smart scale, which then the Fitbit account somehow gets I think from Apple Health, then sends it to Garmin… It’s all behind the scenes anyhow).

Routes

On the positive side, I enjoy the routes and route variety. They all seem entertaining. They have a very nice selection of worlds in constant rotation, with a good amount of routes per world. So the chances of getting bored is low. I won’t remember if you can just free ride a route, then deviate from it by selecting a direction change the same as Zwift has when you come to an intersection. But the default list of routes is still good. Like I’m sure after years, you might get bored, like some people get bored of the Zwift routes, though they too have a large selection. The trick is that if you have tons of routes, then you almost never see other riders, so I don’t mind that MyWhoosh and Zwift limit their routes.

Racing

I have not gone through the process to participate in Sunday Race Club, which requires secondary power source, height, weight, and all that verification, all on one uncut video… And I’m unlikely to even get to the $10 a week point… and yes, one can win real cash money on the platform, but the verification process is fairly strict.

There are more casual races, that don’t require all that verification, but I haven’t tried them yet.