Short answer: a cycling coaching platform is how you programme the bike for several riders (road, MTB or gravel), send the session to the device and see what actually happened. The coach chooses the tool. The rider uses the app for free.
If you coach several cyclists, the week does not fit in a spreadsheet. Each rider has a threshold, a calendar and a device. You write the session, they ride it on the road or in the hills, and you need to see what happened without chasing screenshots through messages.
This guide is for that job: a road coach, an MTB coach, a gravel coach, or a triathlon coach who wants the bike side in order. If you searched for a personal trainer app for cycling, this is the fit: the coach uses it to look after riders, and the rider gets in for free. It is not an app for training on your own with nobody on the other side.
We do not compare brands or prices here. For that wider view, use the guide to the best coaching software.
What does a cycling coach need that a spreadsheet does not cover?
A spreadsheet stores numbers. It does not build zones from each rider’s threshold, it does not send the session to the device, and it does not put what you planned next to what was done. With four or five riders you can still cope. With fifteen, Sunday night disappears into copy and paste.
In practice, a cycling coach asks a platform for this:
- Write the session by power (watts or a percentage of threshold) or by heart rate, and have the zones come from that rider’s thresholds.
- Send the workout to the device they already wear, so they do not retype it.
- Receive the completed activity and compare it with the session you put on the calendar.
- See the week’s load and current form, so you can decide whether to push or ease off.
- Read the session RPE and the comment on the athlete file, not in a loose chat.
The rider does not have to learn another method. They open the app, see what is on today and, when they finish, leave how it felt. The judgement stays yours.
How do you prescribe sessions by power or heart rate?
On the bike, the same sentence (“zone 2 endurance” or “three times ten minutes at threshold”) means different watts for each rider. If the platform uses a generic table, you end up recalculating by hand. You want to write the session once and, when you assign it, have it use each person’s threshold.
A useful prescription lets every step carry:
- Power: watts, a percentage of threshold, or a zone. On the features page the cycling editor takes watts, a percentage of threshold and zones, calculated from the athlete’s thresholds.
- Heart rate: a zone, a percentage of maximum heart rate, or a percentage of threshold. It matters when the rider has no power meter, or when you want a second reading of the same session.
- Duration or distance, repeats and recovery.
- Cadence, terrain and a technical note so they do not message you to ask what you meant.
How those zones are built, and when to trust heart rate more than power, is in the guide to heart-rate and power zones.
Save the session as a template. Drag it onto the week. When the block is clear (base, build, peak or recovery), apply it to another rider: the dates and the thresholds change, the structure does not. You stop rewriting the same set of intervals.
What data has to come back to the file on its own?
Programming without seeing what was completed is coaching blind. The activity has to arrive without the rider exporting a file and sending it to you.
You export the workout to Garmin, Polar, Suunto, Apple Watch and Coros: the rider receives the session and the device syncs. The activity completed on Garmin comes back to the platform. Strava, if they already use it, can sit alongside; it is not a condition for working. The detail is on integrations.
When you open the activity you see the route, the zones, the intervals and the feedback, with the plan beside it. If you coach with a power meter, the power file is the piece worth reading slowly: where the time went and whether the intervals came out as you wrote them. The guide on how to read a power file goes into that. And so you are not stuck on a single ride, compare the week in planned versus completed.
How do you read weekly load and form?
With several riders you do not look only at the latest file. You look at whether the week weighs more than that rider has been tolerating, and whether they arrive fresh or loaded for the goal.
TrainingForever sums that up with three names of its own, the ones on the athlete file:
- Chronic load (CT): what has been built over the medium term. It moves slowly.
- Acute load (AC): the recent work. It rises quickly when you tighten the week.
- Current form (FA): the balance between the two. It shows whether fatigue is building or the rider is arriving more rested.
They are a reading of the trend, not an instruction. Other platforms label similar ideas with other names. The model, and why it does not decide for you, is explained in the training load guide.
Next to those curves, planned versus completed tells you whether the calendar week and the week on the road are the same week. A large gap (travel, a niggle, a group ride that ran away on intensity) shows up earlier if you are not adding files by hand.
External load (watts, time, elevation) does not say how it felt. That is why session RPE still helps: the perceived effort of the whole session, set against the minutes, is a simple internal-load method (Foster et al., 2001). The consensus on monitoring says not to trust a single indicator, and to put what the rider did next to how it affected them (Bourdon et al., 2017).
What changes between road, MTB and gravel?
The editor is the cycling editor in all three cases. What changes is what you write inside the session, not the tool.
On the road you usually prescribe by time and by power or heart rate: steady rides, intervals and, when there is a time trial, a pacing plan. For that race against the clock there is a guide to time-trial pacing. On climbs, average ascent speed helps you compare hills; it is explained in VAM in cycling.
In MTB the terrain leads. Short climbs, changes of rhythm and perceived effort matter more than an average speed. If you programme high intensity on a mountain bike, see HIIT for MTB: it is a training guide, not a software guide, and it fits as an example of a session you then put on the calendar.
On gravel you mix tarmac and track. Power still works on the rolling sections; when the surface breaks up, heart rate or RPE describes the effort better than a watt target that cannot be held. Mark the terrain on the step so the rider knows which stretch is which.
If you also swim and run because you coach triathlon, the bike is only one leg. How to choose a platform when there are three sports is in the triathlon training platform guide.
How does the rider’s feedback get back to the file?
The file says what they did. It does not say whether they slept badly, whether the knee grumbled, or whether Tuesday’s interval felt long. That comes back in the session RPE and the comment, and it has to land on the file, next to the activity, not in a thread you cannot find a month later.
In practice you ask for three things, and no more, so they actually fill them in:
- Session RPE at the end.
- A short comment: how it felt, any niggle, whether they could do what was prescribed.
- A form when it is due: weekly wellbeing, sleep, stress, or the report after a sportive or a race. If an answer falls outside the range, the platform can flag it.
The message, when you need one, is tied to that session: you open the conversation and see what they trained and how it went. You do not rebuild the context from scratch.
How does TrainingForever handle it?
TrainingForever is the coach’s platform. The rider uses the app to see the session, log it and write to you; for them it is free. The coach’s plan, and what it includes, is on pricing.
What you can do with the bike today, as it stands on the home page and on features:
- Cycling editor. Each sport has its own: watts on the bike, metres in the pool. You write the session the way you would say it to the rider and it becomes steps with zones. The zones are calculated from their thresholds. Running, cycling, swimming and strength sit in the same plan.
- Week and block. You drag sessions, see the split and turn the week into a base, build, peak or recovery block. Applied to another rider, the dates and thresholds adjust.
- Strength on the same calendar. The exercise library, with video, lives next to the bike, if you pair the riding with gym work.
- Chronic load, acute load and current form, with planned versus completed, on the file.
- Devices. You send the workout to Garmin, Polar, Suunto, Apple Watch and Coros. Garmin activity comes back. Strava is optional.
- AI assistant. It knows the rider’s context: it can propose a session, summarise the week’s load or draft a follow-up. You review and publish. It does not replace your judgement.
- Managing payments. With the Business gem, an optional extra, you manage payments: rates, invoices and reminders. It is not part of the base plan. Gems are switched on and off when you want; the detail is on pricing.
You can walk through the application on the features page without creating an account.
How do you choose a platform for cycling coaches?
Try it for a week with two or three real riders, not against a feature list. This is the check that matters:
| What | Why | How to see it in the trial |
|---|---|---|
| A session in watts and as a percentage of threshold | Each rider has their own threshold | Assign the same interval to two riders with different thresholds |
| A heart-rate session | Not everyone has a power meter | Programme an endurance ride by heart-rate zone |
| Sending to the device | Nobody should retype the session | Send it to Garmin, Polar, Suunto, Apple Watch or Coros |
| The activity coming back | So you can compare it with the plan | Check that the Garmin ride appears on the file |
| Load and form | The group’s week, not a single ride | Look at chronic load, acute load and current form |
| RPE and a comment | The file does not say how it felt | Complete a session as the rider and read the file |
| The rider’s app | If it is awkward, they stop using it | Ask them to open today’s session on the phone |
Drop the tool if the bike depends on everyone using the same social network, if the zones do not come from each rider’s threshold, or if what was completed lives somewhere else. The cost for your number of riders belongs on the product’s pricing page, not in a comparison you heard second-hand.
Frequently asked questions
Is the platform for the rider or for the coach?
It is for the coach who looks after several cyclists. The rider uses the app to see the session, log it and leave an RPE and a comment. It is not an app for training alone, without a coach.
Can I programme by watts and by heart rate?
Yes. The cycling editor works in watts, as a percentage of threshold and by heart-rate zone. The zones come from each rider’s thresholds.
Do I need Strava?
No. You send the workout to Garmin, Polar, Suunto, Apple Watch and Coros, and Garmin activity comes back to the platform. Strava is an optional connection.
Does it work for road, MTB and gravel?
Yes. All three are planned in the cycling editor, with the terrain and each rider’s thresholds. If you coach triathlon and need all three sports, that choice is in the triathlon platform guide.
Does the rider pay for the app?
No. The athlete’s app is free. The coach’s plan, with the detail, is in the pricing section.
Sources
- Foster C, Florhaug JA, Franklin J, et al. A new approach to monitoring exercise training. J Strength Cond Res. 2001;15(1):109-115. doi:10.1519/00124278-200102000-00019
- Bourdon PC, Cardinale M, Murray A, et al. Monitoring athlete training loads: consensus statement. Int J Sports Physiol Perform. 2017;12(Suppl 2):S2-161–S2-170. doi:10.1123/IJSPP.2017-0208
References checked on Crossref on 1 November 2026. This article contains no figures from real athletes.
