Rouvy Review 2025: Real Life Time Gravel Routes for Unbound & Sea Otter Indoors.

James Ion
2 days ago
4 min read

Words by James Ion - Photography provided by Rouvy

Pros and cons

Pros

Real‑world video routes with good AR implementation and solid GPS‑based gradients.
Climbing feel is excellent: resistance changes are believable and useful for pacing work.
Strong selection of iconic gravel and road routes, including big‑name event segments.
Clear, session‑based structure that makes it easy to log focused rides without distraction.
Works with a wide range of common smart trainers and devices.
7‑day free trial, so you can test routes and feel before committing.

Cons

Interface is serviceable but not as slick or intuitive as some competitors.
Social features, group rides and racing are weaker than on Zwift‑style platforms.
Less gamification: fewer rewards, power‑ups and in‑depth progression systems.
No open world to roam if you enjoy free exploration or spontaneous route changes.

Indoor training platforms have been around long enough that clear tribes have formed. On one side are the gamified worlds: Zwift, with its races, power-ups and badges, and the increasingly popular MyWhoosh following the same playbook. On the other side sit TrainerRoad and Wahoo SYSTM, with laser‑focused structure, season plans and workouts you can even take outside. If you are looking for something in between—structured, purposeful training that still feels grounded in the “real” outdoors—Rouvy is very much in that middle lane. Over the last few weeks, on wet days or when cleaning grit off the bike felt like a job too far, this is what stood out.

Where Rouvy fits

Rouvy is built around riding real roads and trails through high‑quality video with an augmented‑reality avatar on top. Instead of dropping you into a single open world, it presents a giant route library: you pick one, ride it, and when it ends, you can simply load the next. It really does feel like “Netflix for routes” rather than a game world, which suits riders who prefer clear sessions over aimless virtual exploring.

The app sits neatly between racing‑heavy platforms and rigid workout engines. You still get structured efforts, realistic gradients and the sense of moving through real terrain, but without layers of power-ups and cartoon worlds. For many gravel and endurance riders, that balance is exactly what indoor time needs to be.

Rouvy Life Time gravel routes and realism

One of the strongest hooks for gravel riders is Rouvy’s partnership with Life Time, which brings indoor versions of big US gravel events such as Unbound Gravel, Sea Otter Classic, Big Sugar and others into the app. You are not riding the full ultra‑distances, but key segments that capture the character of those courses—wind‑exposed rolling dirt, punchy ranch climbs, wooded sections, coastal hills.

On the gravel side in general, Rouvy’s library extends beyond Life Time to other dirt and back‑road routes in North America, Europe, and further afield, allowing you to train on realistic AR versions of remote gravel roads with gradient changes and terrain difficulty closely tied to GPS data.

Because the video is shot on the actual routes and linked to proper GPS data, gradients and distances feel very close to the real thing. Climbing is a particular highlight: the way resistance ramps on steep sections, eases on crests and grinds on long false flats feels natural and consistent. If you want to practice pacing on “real” gravel terrain from the trainer, this is a big plus.

Interface, hardware and “Netflix” flow

The interface is functional rather than flashy. Route discovery, profile and workout views all work, but they lack some of the visual polish and immediate clarity of the biggest competitors. You browse, filter by distance/elevation/surface, mark favourites, and launch a session; once the video is running, you see metrics, a profile, position and nearby riders. It feels closer to a training video with overlays than a game, which will appeal to some and underwhelm others.

Hardware requirements are straightforward:

A controllable smart trainer (wheel‑on or direct drive) or a classic trainer plus a power meter.
A device to run the app (phone, tablet, computer or TV) with Bluetooth or ANT+.
An optional heart‑rate strap if you want full training data.

Interestingly, the Rouvy platform works with virtual shifting provided by the Zwift Cog and Click hardware, so if you have your trainer set up for this (like I did), you can still use it without having to either fork out for a new cassette or remove your cassette from your wheel.

The session flow is simple: choose a route, ride it to the end, then either stop or load another. Stacking two or three routes together works well for longer endurance rides and makes it easy to build route “playlists” for a week of training.

There are also training plans like the Base Builder Plan with Team Visma Lease a Bike, which gets you training for 12 weeks with virtual members of the team. Challenges are also available, whereby you complete a specific route and get rewarded with a bike upgrade or jersey, and sometimes the chance to win real prizes.

If racing is your thing, then you can take part in numerous one-off races or even a race series. So in theory, you could race over the Leadville course in your shed.

Cost and value

In terms of cost, Rouvy sits in the familiar subscription bracket for premium training apps. You can pay 19,99€ per month, or opt for an annual subscription at 180€ per year (equivalent to 15€ per month), with a 7‑day free trial so you can evaluate whether the route library and feel justifies adding it to your setup.

Overall take

Rouvy makes a strong case as the most realistic indoor platform: more real-world feel and route‑driven than the pure games, but more immersive than spreadsheet‑style workout engines. If you care about riding real climbs, pre‑riding event sectors, or just want your winter training to feel closer to time on actual roads and gravel, it is well worth a trial.

Riders who live for dense virtual bunch rides and heavy gamification might still prefer Zwift or MyWhoosh as their main home, but Rouvy is an excellent companion—or even a primary choice—if realism and structured route sessions are what keep you coming back.

I will keep using Rouvy over the winter and let you all know how it is after a full indoor season!

Visit https://rouvy.com/ for more information and to get your free 7-day Trial.

This is an independent review. Free access was granted to the system to test, but no payment has been made to make this review. Just in case you were wondering.