Wahoo Ending RGT This Month

Wahoo announced today they are closing their RGT virtual cycling platform at the end of October. Formerly Road Grand Tours, Wahoo acquired RGT in April 2022 and integrated the platform into the Wahoo X ecosystem. As we detailed in a June article, RGT represented half of the X in Wahoo X’s branding. What remains with RGT ending is SYSTM and ELEMNT as the two primary platforms in Wahoo X.

The news arrived abruptly in the inbox of Wahoo X subscribers, providing a coupon for 3 months free on Zwift for monthly subscribers and 12 months free for annual subscribers. People using the free version of RGT were informed that they will receive a free month of Wahoo X.

According to Wahoo’s official statements, the closing of RGT is a shift in focus to the structured training content within Wahoo SYSTM. Reportedly, this will include more structed workouts for using indoor on SYSTM and outdoors on ELEMNT, including cycling, yoga, strength and mobility, running, swimming, and mental training.

Though RGT had functionality that was better in Zwift in a few ways, the platform never scaled in terms of number of users compared to Zwift. Lower user numbers meant fewer virtual worlds, fewer events, and more reliance on virtual cycling bots (which Zwift used in the early days).

However, what is lost with the departure of RGT is the ability to ride Magic Roads (virtual versions of real routes uploaded to RGT), Custom Events in one of the virtual worlds or on Magic Roads, and Custom Workouts (a feature currently missing from SYSTM).

The downside for Wahoo X subscribers is losing a virtual cycling platform as part of the paid subscription. Wahoo X subscribers will have to decide how important RGT was to their indoor riding experience and if using another virtual riding platform is worth it. The potential upside for Wahoo X subscribers is more SYSTM content, which could use updating and further development.

The downside for the free users of RGT is losing access to indoor racing events like the Echelon Racing League that featured virtual races on real race courses used throughout the road season (e.g., Tour of America’s Dairyland) for cyclists and hand cyclists. The model of promoting and supporting real events with virtual preview races on the actual race courses is promising and hopefully will be picked up by another virtual racing platform.

As an aside, this announcement also signals an increasingly amicable relationship between Wahoo and Zwift moving forward, with Wahoo essentially bowing out of the virtual cycling market and referring Wahoo X subscribers to Zwift.

Let us know in the Forum what you think of this move by Wahoo and how it will or will not change your indoor riding plans going forward.

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