Our story

Living in Denmark, a country with a lot of rain and long dark winters, indoor cycling was the natural choice for us. Before we started Bike the World and developed ‘Open Road’ indoor training software was expensive, buggy, complex, and time-consuming to use. And the video quality of the cycling videos was very low. We wanted something that was easy to use and could motivate us for indoor training.

On an evening ride to ‘Col de Bavella’ in Corsica (France), we were struck by the stunning beauty that this ride offered. We wished we could do rides like this again and again. It would be a great motivation for our training and even greater if we could share it with fellow cyclists. We couldn’t leave the idea. With a background in photography, we were confident that it was possible to create something that was better than what already existed and that could motivate us when training indoors.

We started our organization ‘Bike the World’ and filmed epic and classic rides from all over the world. We shared our cycling videos on our YouTube channel. Despite the popularity of our YouTube channel and all the positive feedback we received from our indoor cycling community, it did not satisfy us. So we improved our filming techniques again and again so our cycling videos would become second to none. Still, we were not happy. We found our YouTube channel was too restrictive and could not offer the immersive indoor cycling experience that we would like to share.

When the ANT+ protocol was created, indoor trainers changed from being locked to closed proprietary software systems to being ‘open’ and working with all software in compliance with the ANT+ protocol. This was a game-changer, and we realized how the combination of software using ANT+ and our cycling videos could provide a truly immersive indoor cycling experience. 

To get this immersive indoor cycling experience, we started developing our own training app. We named it ‘Open Road’ because we wanted to make the road open for everybody. We were not far into the development phase before we realized we were on the right track. Therefore, we invited fellow cyclists to try our pre-release and give us feedback. With the feedback, we could fine-tune the app and include features we did not think of ourselves. Today, with the creation of ‘Open Road’, we can finally get the immersive indoor cycling experience we have been searching for for so long.