Cycling is one of the main hobbies for long-distance exercise, providing a great cardio workout and a generally convenient means of transportation. It is for this reason that the wearable technology market has taken a strong interest in cycling in recent years, developing new features to make your cycling experience a little more advanced. Naturally, Apple is no exception to the rule.
During its keynote presentation at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple unveiled the new version of its smartwatch operating system, watchOS 10. Along with a host of exciting new features, such as new hiking safety apps and mental health, the presentation highlighted new cycling updates to watchOS 10, designed to provide you with up-to-date information on your cycling journey and its health benefits.
While previous versions of watchOS offered cycling features more focused on safety and consistency, these new features will help you optimize your cycling training and take advantage of relevant data and metrics.
Along with its existing cycling-related features like automatic fall detection and workout reminders, watchOS 10 adds several nifty new updates to really maximize your connection with your trusty bike. If your bike has a built-in Bluetooth accessory, like a speedometer or cadence sensor, your Apple Watch will be able to connect to it and sync its data.
Thanks to this new connection, your Apple Watch will be able to measure and record valuable fitness information, such as the power and cadence of the bike. You can track all of this information in the Exercise Views feature of your Apple Watch.
A more suitable view on iPhone
About Exercise Views, watchOS 10 can also be connected to a paired iPhone during a cycling workout to display your Exercise Views on its screen. This allows more information, such as heart rate zones and elevation, as well as features like running routes, to be displayed on a larger, easier-to-view screen.
Along with all the new and updated cycling metrics, watchOS 10 also added a new metric for measuring Functional Threshold Power, or FTP. This is a measure of peak intensity over the course of an hour, showing how long you can stay in the zone while riding. Using this information, your Apple Watch can calculate more accurate power zones, tracking the highlights of your ride and helping you better understand your goals and limits.
watchOS 10 will be available as a free software update next fall.
