Start here: what this blog is, and who's writing it

Hey

I’m Eric, the creator of Vive Velo. I’ve been riding and racing triathlon for a long time, and I write software for a living. Turns out that’s a handy combination when the thing you want to build is also the thing you want to ride.

I took a few years off the bike, and I’m working my way back now. Vive Velo is part of how I’m doing that, along with a few other tools. Which is really the point of it: I’m a cyclist building for cyclists. Whether you’re chasing a comeback like me, fitting rides around a schedule that doesn’t leave much room for them, or putting in structured work toward something specific, it’s the same app — and I’m in there using it alongside you.

The goal at the end of it: some big gravel days. That’s what the winter’s for.

What Vive Velo is

Short version: it builds a world you can ride out of real roads. Real elevation, real pavement, real corners. The ground under your wheel is the ground that’s actually out there. Nobody invented it to be interesting.

You can go two ways with that. Pick a famous climb from the catalogue and ride a road you’ve only read about. Or import a route file of the roads near you and ride those instead — same climb, same corner you know is coming before you can see it, on a night when going outside isn’t happening.

There’s a whole workout side to it too. Build one from scratch — stack your intervals, set each block by watts or a percentage of your FTP — or import a .zwo or .erg you already ride and it opens in the same builder, ready to go. Then you ride it on an actual road instead of a blank screen, with the HUD pacing you through every interval. Real roads are the headline, but plenty of days you just need the work done, and that’s covered.

That’s not a sales pitch, it’s just what I do with it. The winter miles that are supposed to add up to those gravel days are going in here.

What to expect

Three sorts of post, give or take:

Product — what shipped, what broke, what’s next. Written for riders, not engineers: what changed on the bike, not what changed in the code.

Training & Racing — the useful stuff. What ERG mode actually does and when to switch it off, how to get a route file out of the tools you already use, how to build a structured workout, how to ride an event course before event day.

Cycling Life — roads worth knowing about, gear that earned its spot, and the general business of having bikes in your life.

I’d rather post something good every so often than something forgettable every day, so don’t expect a firehose.

Following along

There’s an RSS feed if that’s how you keep up. I’m on X too, and there’s a Discord — that’s the fastest way to reach me, whether it’s a bug, a question, or just bike talk. If you’d rather just see what the app does, here’s the short version, and here’s where to get it.

And if there’s a road you think belongs in here — one you ride, or one you’ve always wanted to — tell me. Those are my favorite messages to get.