Train Harder, Race Faster – For Free
My Whoosh is your FREE, all-access pass to a stunning virtual world of routes, smart training programs, and racing events. Finally, you can ride anywhere.
I have written about My Whoosh previously, however, the laptop I was using at the time, was no-where near powerful enough to run the game.
After a substantial investment in a new ‘Gaming Computer’ (See end) I was able to download the game and see what interest there was in the game.
MyWhoosh is based in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. It is funded, primarily, by the government of the UAE; who also fund the Pro Cycling Team UAE Emirates.
The CEO is Akhtar Saeed Hashmi, also the CEO of numerous UAE companies including the Royal Technology Services (RTS) and Mauqah Technology.
RTS is a subsidiary of The Royal Group, which is ultimately headed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the son of the founder of the UAE.
This holdings group is responsible for some $26 billion worth of assets, as part of the UAE’s International Holdings Group (IHC).
So financially they seem to be well established.
Here at MyWhoosh we offer all the tools you need to take your cycling to the next level. Train, ride, battle, and compete, together. Cycle with the MyWhoosh community and you’ll never ride alone.
In the interest of achieving that goal, the platform is entirely free for now. It isn’t clear what, if any, monetisation goals the company has.
However, the company even has some large prize purses for races – upwards of $75K/month in prize money. This is under the umbrella of the Sunday Race Club.
To date, the company has primarily targeted cyclists in the Middle East, focusing specifically on the UAE (the biggest cities of which are Dubai and Abu Dhabi), Bahrain, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.
Let’s look, for a moment, at some of the mechanics of the Game. There are (currently) 4 Worlds to ride around.
Ø Alula (12 Routes)
Ø Arabia (12 Routes)
Ø Colombia (7 Routes)
Ø Australia (7 Routes)
So, a total of 38 routes, totaling 1,060 kms of roads and 14,100 mts of climbing.
More Routes / Worlds are planned and promised.
There is plentiful mix of Free Rides, Races, Daily Group Rides (Events) Training Plans and Workouts.
I joined the MyWhoosh community in early January 2023. The Version was 3.0.1, which virtually immediately updated to version 3.2.0
The Download and Installation is very messy. Not particularly easy or clean. For a Windows PC – you have to go to the Microsoft Store and download the MyWhoosh App.
Once installed you have to download the Routes and Maps – this is over 9.7gb of information.
The pipe is restricted, so download time is over 2hrs.
Installation was not seamless, I needed some ‘old’ Direct X files. Easy enough to install, and everything ran smoothly once the programme was ‘up and running’.
To put it bluntly, the Windows installation is a mess. It’s like the developers are just getting to learn how to programme.
Easy installation on my iPad… however, that is a bit older than the recommended specs, and while it will show the game, it doesn’t want to run it properly.
I’m going to have a few rides, try a workout – and I’ll come back with a further review.
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New ‘Gaming Computer’:
- AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 8 Core 3.40ghz
- RAM: 32gb
- WIN 11 Pro
- 1tb SSD Hard Drive
- Nividia GeForce RTX 3060T 8gb RAM