2023 was another year of dynamic change and growth for ROUVY. Here we look at some of the highlights and some choice quotes from the prime movers and shakers involved.
At the heart of the machine
If 2022 was the year of exploring new features, 2023 was the year of focusing on the basics and making sure they worked better.
I really enjoyed seeing the effects of the change of thinking that was with a more customer-led mindset and focusing on doing fewer but better things that really have an impact. I think that transformation has occurred both with me and as well throughout the ROUVY team and customers are starting to see that. I believe 2024 will be a breakthrough year for ROUVY, our team, and our users. We're on the right track, we're planning some cool new things that our users are repeatedly calling for, and we'll be even more visible. So KEEP GOING!
Petr Samek, ROUVY CEO
For me personally the highlight was in March when we set out on a mission to make ROUVY work without issues for the majority of our users. We achieved a lot and I think we all can be proud of what we have done in the last 9 months.
I believe that for the Product development team, 2023 was really about refocusing and making ROUVY work flawlessly with the core riding experience and improving the video player.
2024 will be mostly about taking the features we have to the next level, and really making sure Workouts and Challenges will be exceptional. We are just getting started.
Marek-Martin Matyska, Product Manager
Rouvy for Women
ROUVY for Women, a campaign to encourage women to cycle indoors, ran through February and March and culminated in a special ride on International Women's Day.
I was really happy that 42% of the Group Ride on International Women's Day in March were women. That's a significant increase in women's engagement compared to usual rides. We've still got a long way to go to bring more women into the community but it was a very good start.
Lucie Kubinova, Campaign Manager
La Vuelta Virtual
ROUVY's role as the virtual partner of La Vuelta continued this year with La Vuelta Virtual. LVV was a cycling fiesta of rides, races and fun with a determined effort to blur the line between indoor and outdoor cycling and racing.
The road to Madrid began in the spring. Online time trials were held to find the fastest 50 cyclists who then participated in the online race. Along with the ROUVY crew, the 5 finalists were invited to Madrid by ROUVY for a VIP experience at the final stage of la Vuelta and to ride in the LVV Grande Finale which ended in a thrilling victory for Zach Nehr.
La Vuelta Virtual '23 was pure cycling joy! We launched 15 new routes and in three weeks over 1,705,495 km were ridden and 50,527,005 km ascended! Well done everyone!
The Final in Madrid was the cherry on the top. The heart-pounding Madrid Finale saw 5 finalists racing on ROUVY. The whole 2 days experience managed to bridge indoor and outdoor cycling dreams! And we love making our users’ dreams come true!
Eli Kropacova, Campaign manager
One of the best experiences of my life. My ears were ringing the entire race because of all the cheering. It was awesome.
Zach Nehr, winner of the LVV Grande Finale in Madrid.
The rebrand and ROUVY 3.0
During the summer, while you were quite rightly enjoying the outdoor cycling season, we were busy preparing for the coming indoor season. Collaborating with top local marketing agency WMC Gray a complete overhaul of the ROUVY brand took place with a new visual and tonal identity. How do you like the change?
Indoor cycling is evolving fast, so we are. We refreshed the look and feel of the brand to better reflect the kind of positive experience we want to provide to our users. With a modernized logo, bold patterns, vibrant colours and a new mantra 'Keep Going', we managed to create a brand look that is unique within the indoor cycling industry and that encourages riders to ride further and maintain their motivation to reach their goals.
Petra Hajkova, Brand manager
This year I'm particularly proud of launching our cost-effective subscription plans, designed for everyone from individual riders to families or groups of friends. Our goal was to provide greater value and choice while laying the initial foundations for fostering communities and enhancing ROUVY's social features in the future. Alongside that, we significantly improved the onboarding experience. Looking ahead, stay tuned for the referral programme early next year - and there’s more to come during the first few months of 2024!
Eric Hegely, Growth Director
Ride the World
We added lots of new routes throughout the year, expanding the already considerable choice available to riders. A new feature was Spotlights - a (mostly) weekly focus on one part of the world with events, challenges and support content which creates an easy one-stop place for riders to find some of the best rides available. The popular Ride the World event kicked off the new indoor season with routes across 6 continents in 6 weeks which showcased some of the very best of global touring.
Summer saw the usual quiet period as riders spend more time outdoors but we did see a growing trend for people to continue riding indoors as well. Maybe it's the crazy summer weather… or maybe it's just that people enjoy mixing it up a little. Despite the late summer there was a surge of new riders in the Autumn. This means the ROUVY community continues to grow and flourish. Thank you all for coming on this journey with us.
The ROUVY community has grown into a thriving and active group of enthusiastic and motivated riders coming together, including hobbyists, avid triathletes, explorers of the world, career chasers, and competitive race snakes, all managing their unique goals. I love and enjoy seeing the community come together to help one another and help guide the development and evolution of all aspects of the app with their constructive engagement. It’s great to see this!
Lauren Wolff - ROUVY ambassador and community wrangler
We'd also like to send a big shout out to all our ambassadors for helping to spread the word and being so inspiring and fun to work with.
Even more in '24
Get ready for a big partnership announcement early in the new year which we are very excited about. There'll be the Down Under Spotlight as the UCI world tour kicks off and a tour of Britain coming soon. We'll also be bringing you rides and events associated with the Spring Classics and Grand Tours throughout the year so you can really get a feel for real life events. And of course there will be La Vuelta.
Be sure to check our socials and subscribe to our newsletter for all the latest news and updates
And finally, some hot numbers for 2023
● 113 393 675 kilometres were ridden on ROUVY in 2023
● Lavender fields in Provence | France was the most popular route in 2023, followed by Lago di Garda in Italy.
● 1465 routes were added this year.
● Our most popular social media post of the year gets a stylish hat tip.
Happy new year everyone! Keep going and good luck with hitting those goals!
