ProForm Introduces the Official Tour de France® Training Bike

LOGAN, Utah--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ProForm, the most popular fitness equipment brand, has teamed with Le Tour de France, the world’s leading cycling event, to create the ProForm® Tour de France® indoor cycle, the official training bike of the prestigious event.

“It’s not about imagining a hill, then turning a knob or changing speed. We give you 24 gears.”

On July 20-24, both media and the public, with access to the VIP Village, can demo the ProForm Tour de France exercise bike, and experience the thigh-burning inclines of the high mountain stages just like the Tour riders.

Three equally important features allow the rider to experience indoor cycling as never before: iFit Live™ Technology Powered by Google Maps™, motorized incline to 20% and decline to 20%, and Real Road™ resistance technology with power meter.

Riders of the new cycle register and logon to ProForm’s iFit.com website to draw a cycling route anywhere in the world using the Google Maps™ tool. This ProForm training bike has a built-in wireless Internet connection so the map is downloaded from iFit.com to the product. The Google Map™ appears on the product’s high-res console screen in Satellite View with a red line marking the cycling route and a marker that moves along the route to show the rider’s progress.

The product also includes 10 rides, stored on the bike’s console memory, that retrace 10 different stages of the 2011 Tour de France, including 30 km of Stage 8: Aigurande to Super-Besse Sancy, the last approximately 20 – 30 km; Stage 13, Pau to Lourdes, including the Col d’Aubisque; Stage 19: Modane to Alpe-d’Huez, including the Col-du-Galibier and Alpe-d’huez sections.

ProForm cyclists can watch Google Street View of their course by logging on to their iFit® account via their smartphone and placing it in the cradle on the console. To see Google Street View of the course with a tablet, a tablet shelf that connects to the bike is sold separately. Additional rides are also available at iFit.com.

Geo-data imbedded in Google Maps™ automatically adjusts the cycle’s position and resistance to simulate the mapped terrain. Riders can climb up to a 20% incline or race down a 20% decline.

The quest to create an indoor cycle with a smooth, flowing sensation was perfected by ProForm’s engineering team, many of whom are cycling enthusiasts. The foremost goal was to simulate the combined resistance from four major factors that affect road cyclists: body size, wind resistance, road grade and tire contact with the road, known as rolling resistance.

ProForm’s team met their goals with Real Road™ Resistance technology, and when combined with iFit Live™ Technology and 20% incline to decline, distinguishes this cycle from all bike trainers, indoor cycles or stationary bikes.

First, the rider enters his weight upon registration at iFit.com and then ProForm algorithms use that data to customize the ride and make it as much like a road biking experience as possible.

“We give you all the tools to interact with this bike, just like you’d interact with your road bike,” said Greg Law, Director of Engineering for ProForm, an avid cyclist and three-time rider in Lotoja, the grueling single-day, 189-mile road race through northern Utah to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. “With this bike, every ride is dynamic. You have to accommodate the changing ‘terrain’ as it happens, downshifting when you encounter an incline, for example, or adjusting your posture to maintain power when the bike tilts uphill.

“With this bike, the concept of shifting gears becomes super relevant,” Law said. “It’s not about imagining a hill, then turning a knob or changing speed. We give you 24 gears.”

Resistance adjustments on the ProForm Le Tour de France cycle feel more like the mechanical advantage of shifting gears on a road bike. In fact, the resistance adjustments on the ProForm Tour de France training bike are akin to shifting gears. As the rider changes gears, perceived resistance is changed, along with the speed and distance traveled. Progress along a Google Map™ cycling route drawn with iFit Live™ Technology will be affected—the rider’s marker will move more slowly upon shifting down during uphill climbs, for example, reflecting the tremendous effort required.

ProForm’s smooth ride continues with touchless magnetic resistance on the flywheel, instead of the more commonly found friction resistance. ProForm provides 24 gears, instead of the basic resistance knob found on most stationary bikes. ProForm’s electronically controlled touchless magnetic brake assures the resistance does not change with wear, and provides “repeatable resistance” from ride to ride.

The sophistication of Real Road™ technology versus simply changing resistance on a standard stationary bike was a key factor in this bike’s designation as the official training bike of Le Tour de France.

Tour officials were also impressed by the onboard watts meter that is integrated into the console readout of the ProForm TDF bike. Cyclists frequently focus their training efforts with a watts meter because it is a better measure of a cyclist’s power output, regardless of speed, distance, body mass or terrain. Hardcore cyclists buy a watts meter as an aftermarket accessory, often spending more than $2,000.

Additional features of the ProForm Tour de France bike include:

Power meter in watts
RPM meter
24 gears, with digital control
Console displays watts, speed, time, gear, rpm, heart rate, percent incline/decline, distance and calories
iFit.com membership for one year, providing the ability to “draw your own” cycling route anywhere in the world there’s a Google Map™
10 pre-drawn Google Maps™ courses of the 2011 Tour de France: Stage 1: Passage du Gois; Stage 2: Les Essarts time trial; Stage 3: Redon; Stage 8: Super-Besse Sancy; Stage 10: Carmaux – from km 90 to km 118; Stage 12: Cugnaux, the Col du Tormalet; Stage 13: Pau to Lourdes – including the Col d’Aubisque; Stage 14: Plateau de Beille – km 143 to the summit finish; Stage 19: Alpe-d’Huez – the Col-du-Galibier and Alpe-d’huez sections; and Stage 21: Paris Champs-Élysées – the last 25 to 30 km into Paris.
9 exercise bike workout apps and 5 indoor cycle class workouts
Polar® wireless chest pulse compatible (receiver and chest strap sold separately)
Freewheel to more accurately simulate road bike experience
Built-in wireless makes the ProForm Le Tour de France bike an Internet appliance and “smart fitness” equipment
Compatible Music Port for iPod® and built-in speaker
Multiple position adjustable handlebars
Included seat has three-way seat adjustment: up and down, front to back and tilt
Standard seat mount to use owner’s seat if preferred
Standard pedal mounting allows users to install preferred pedal system or use included pedals with toe cages.
Water bottle holder in a convenient location on the frame
Compact footprint of 58 inches long by 25 inches wide by 59 inches tall
Wheels on front of frame for easy movement within the home

The ProForm Tour de France cycle is available for $1299 for pre-order at www.ProForm.com.

About ProForm

ProForm is the leading fitness brand in the world, with innovative cycles, treadmills, ellipticals and a complete range of fitness equipment. The ProForm brand is owned by ICON Health & Fitness, based in Logan, Utah.

For information and photos, go to the ProForm website, http://www.proform.com/tdfpresskit/ or contact Colleen Logan, VP Marketing at clogan@iconfitness.com or 435.757.4601.

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