Cyclist
Turbo training accessories: Everything you need for training indoors
From avoiding the weather to making the most of your time or working through structured workouts, there are lots of reasons for riding indoors.
Indoor cycling has boomed in the past few years. If you’ve never tried it, or have previously found it less than enjoyable, now is the perfect time to give it a go. We promise you, developments in smart turbo trainers and indoor training apps mean it’s no longer a chore and actually quite enjoyable.
That’s so long as you have the right equipment, of course, and with a few well-chosen accessories, you can make the experience almost as good as riding outside. Almost.
With that in mind, here are our favourite turbo training accessories to get your pain cave looking snazzy.
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All the gear for indoor cycling – quick links
- Wahoo Kickr Headwind Fan – Buy now from Condor Cycles (£529.99)
- Igenix Floor Fan – Buy now from B&Q (£69.99)
- Wahoo Kickr Climb – Buy now from Condor Cycles (£229.99)
- Elite Zugman training towel – Buy now from Freewheel (£14.99)
- Domyos Cotton Fitness Towel – Buy now from Decathlon (£5.99)
- Tacx Foldable Trainer Mat – Buy now from Tredz (£59.99)
- Van Rysel Turbo Training Mat Flanders – Buy now from Decathlon (£34.99)
- Tacx Sweat Cover For Smartphones – Buy now from Wiggle (£21.99)
- Van Rysel Turbo Trainer Sweat Catcher – Buy now from Decathlon (£9.99)
- CamelBak Podium Bottle 710ml – Buy now from Halfords (£7.74)
- Elite Custom Race Plus Bottle Cage – Buy now from Merlin Cycles (£7.50)
- SiS Go Energy Powder – Buy now from Wiggle (£24.75)
- SiS Hydro Electrolyte Tablets – Buy now from Merlin Cycles (£7.50)
- High5 Recovery Drink – Buy now from Wiggle (£29.99)
- Tacx Floor Stand For Tablets – Buy now from Wiggle (£33.99)
- LifeLine Trainer Table – Buy now from Wiggle (£49.99)
- Topeak Ridecase – Buy now from Tredz (£49.99)
- Zwift subscription – Buy now from Zwift (£12.99 per month)
- TrainerRoad subscription – Buy now from TrainerRoad ($20 per month)
- Assos chamois cream – Buy now from Cyclestore (£18.99)
- Madison Turbo clothing – Buy now from Freewheel (£49.99-£59.99)
- Triban 500 Women’s Tank Top – Buy now from Decathlon (£14.99)
- Rapha Sweat Cap – Buy now from Rapha (£38)
- Shimano IC5 Indoor Cycling SPD Shoes – Buy now from Freewheel (£95.99)
- Shimano IC1 Indoor Cycling SPD Shoes – Buy now from Freewheel (£55.99)
The best fans for indoor cycling and turbo training
Without the wind to chill you, when riding on the turbo you’ll get uncomfortably warm very quickly. While this means you’ll burn more calories and stay more supple and heat adaptation can over time increase your VO2max, you’ll still want some way of cooling yourself down.
Fans range from the sort of thing you’d pop on your desk at the office up to larger models that’ll provide some serious wind speed.
Smart fan for turbo training: Wahoo Kickr Headwind Fan
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£529.99 | View offer
If you fancy splashing out on something cycling-specific, the Wahoo Kickr Headwind fan can be paired with either a Wahoo turbo, a compatible training programme, or a heart rate or speed sensor to adjust its output.
With up to 48kmh wind speed and a breeze that exactly matches your efforts, it’s very clever, as you’d expect for over £200.
- Read our verdict on the Wahoo Kickr Headwind
Large fan for turbo training: Igenix Floor Fan
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£69.99 | View offer
An 18-inch tiltable floor-standing fan. Capable of generating an airflow of 121.7m³/min, it’s ideal for generating a serious headwind while training. Plus, it’ll also do for keeping the whole house cool during the summer months. Finished in shiny chrome, it’s also very nice looking.
- Buy now from B&Q (£69.99)
Best turbo trainer accessory for recreating hills: Wahoo Kickr Climb Indoor Grade Simulator
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£229.99 | View offer
Hungry for the hills? Desperate for the descents? The Wahoo Kickr Climb takes hold of your fork to provide a rollercoaster-style experience. Ascend up to a vertiginous 20%, race down slopes of up to 10%.
Replicating the gradients on screen, it’s a silly but also very fun aid to your training.
- Read our verdict on the Wahoo Kickr Climb
The best gym towels for staying fresh on your static bike
Fan or no fan, on the turbo you will sweat. So keeping a towel within easy reach is a good idea. Like any gym equipment, this is going to need to go in a hot wash pretty regularly.
Help yourself, and anyone else you share a home with, by getting one specifically for exercise rather than nicking one from the bathroom. Go cheap and cheerful with our pick from Decathlon, or fully pro with this burgundy Elite number.
Gym towel for those eager to match everything to their trainer: Elite Zugman training towel
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£14.99 | View offer
The best budget gym towel for turbo training: Domyos Cotton Fitness Towel
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£5.99 | View offer
The best under-bike sweat mats for turbo training
Not only will you sweat on yourself, but you’ll also sweat all over your bike and floor. As sweat contains a lot of salt, this can damage both over time.
The solution is to stick a mat over your training area. With noisier turbos, this will also help dampen any vibration, something particularly important when used on a hard floor.
Money-no-object turbo training mat: Tacx Foldable Trainer Mat
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£59.99 | View offer
A bit like a yoga mat, the Foldable Tacx Trainer Mat protects your floor and reduces noise. Lightweight and easy to pack away, it’s tough enough for laying heavy equipment on, and will also do as a regular workout mat at a push.
- Buy now from Tredz (£59.99)
Best budget training mat: Van Rysel Turbo Training Mat Flanders
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£34.99 | View offer
Once again, Decathlon comes to the rescue of those who are penny-pinching with a lower-priced option that, like the Tacx mat, is 6mm thick and will cut down noise and vibrations as well as collect your sweat. Plus, it’s got #paincave embossed on the side and a Lion of Flanders in the middle. What’s not to like?
- Buy now from Decathlon (£34.99)
Best sweat guards to protect your bike
Save on continually wiping down your bike or risking the corrosion of any steel or aluminium components with a sweat guard. Clipping to the handlebars and running back towards the saddle, once you finish you can pop it in the wash with the rest of your kit.
Turbo training sweat guard: Tacx Sweat Cover for smartphones
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£21.99 | View offer
Ensure your bike always stays protected and your phone remains easily to hand. It’s perfect for keeping yourself amused, or keeping in contact, since the phone itself sits downwind of the handlebars.
While it’s a bit of a stretch to watch anything on the screen, it’s still a useful design feature, while the whole item itself remains machine-washable.
Budget turbo training sweat guard: Van Rysel Turbo Trainer Sweat Catcher
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£9.99 | View offer
And yet another chance to save a little cash with a Van Rysel product from Decathlon which does the same job but without the pricetag.
- Buy now from Decathlon (£9.99)
How to stay hydrated while cycling indoors
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You’ll only ever once try and pop a glass of water next to your turbo trainer in the hope of gulping some down during your session. Any degree of effort will leave your arms far too shaky to do anything other than throw it all over yourself.
A regular bottle popped into your cage or on a flat surface next to your bike is the best solution. Just like normal cycling, sessions over an hour might benefit from fuelling with a carbohydrate drink, while electrolyte tabs will help replace any salts and minerals lost through sweating.
Easily squeezable water bottle: CamelBak Podium Bottle 710ml
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£7.74 | View offer
A sizable 710ml serving for longer sessions. Plus, you can now disassemble the cap and clean it properly, so unlike with Camelbak’s original design you shouldn’t end up taking a swig of mould mid-session.
Elite Custom Race Plus Bottle Cage
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£7.50 | View offer
The Elite Custom Race Plus resin bottle cage has the looks of the carbon Vico – unless you go for iridescent yellow. It’s 15g heavier at 40g, but on the turbo, who cares? Even the pros are happy to use Elite’s less pricy offering in races.
Drink to up your energy: SiS Go Energy Powder
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£24.75 | View offer
Don’t deplete your food stocks. Power any extended efforts with Science in Sport’s Go Energy Powder, which is both easy to digest and provides around 50g of carbohydrate per serving.
Replace lost electrolytes: Science in Sport Hydro Electrolyte Tablets
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£7.50 | View offer
Just like riding outside, you’ll sweat out a lot of key salts and minerals. Replenish them with these uncommonly tasty tablets in a range of six flavours.
Recover with additional protein: High5 Recovery Drink
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£29.99 | View offer
All your work risks going to waste if your body can’t capitalise on the adaptations you’re provoking. Adding extra protein, paired with the carbs to replenish your stores, can help build muscle if you don’t get enough from your regular diet.
Laptop and iPad stands for turbo training and indoor cycling
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I once interviewed an ultra-distance racer who trained his mental toughness by doing 10-hour turbo sessions staring at a blank wall. Unless that sounds appealing, you’ll want some way of amusing yourself.
Low-intensity sessions normally leave enough attention available to allow you to watch TV shows, while catching up on the previous season’s racing can provide inspiration.
If you want to run training apps like Zwift or TrainerRoad you’ll also want a screen to display your data and, for many, the ride simulation. A tablet or laptop is ideal, while a phone will do at a push. For larger screens, a dedicated stand can be useful.
Turbo training tablet stand: Tacx Floor Stand For Tablets
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£33.99 | View offer
If you’re happy using a tablet rather than a laptop, this small stand is compact and secure.
Desk-style stand for indoor cycling: LifeLine Trainer Table
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£49.99 | View offer
If you want to create a home-office style setup on a budget, the LifeLine Trainer Table lets you easily gather all your gadgets and has wells for a couple of bottles.
Handlebar phone mount for indoor cycling: Topeak Ridecase
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£49.99 | View offer
A very neat and sturdy way to attach your phone to the area above your stem. There’s a wide range of sizes to suit different phones. Works just as well when used outside, but make sure you buy it with the mount which may be sold separately.
Stay entertained while using your turbo trainer
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Keep yourself motivated, and your mind distracted from the lactic acid in your legs. Spotify is great for finding tunes with a BPM to match any cadence. Netflix is ideal for box sets. Eurosport is of course the place to go to watch the racing while you spin (and maybe pretend you’re in the peloton).
If all else fails, BBC iPlayer will keep you both informed and amused for no more than the cost of your licence fee.
App for virtual racing when indoor training: Zwift
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There are now a wide range of indoor training apps that can be paired with a smart trainer to simulate riding and racing, currently free to try and worth considering is MyWhoosh, but by far the most popular is Zwift, letting you match up with people around the world on a range of virtual courses.
Auto-adjusting your trainer’s resistance to simulate hills, headwinds and drafting, it’s as close to riding outdoors as you can get without leaving the house.
- Buy Zwift subscription, currently £12.99 per month
Get with the programme with structured turbo training: TrainerRoad
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If you can’t stick to an indoor training plan now, you might as well admit it’s never going to happen. Milk the last of the gains from your time indoors by ensuring you get a structured workout.
TrainerRoad’s big selling point is the in-depth detail it provides, along with the huge range of tailored programmes it offers. Guided via virtual control of your smart trainer paired with a clean graphical interface, you can set your goal, and with enough time and effort, watch your progress improve session by session.
- Buy TrainerRoad subscription, currently $20 per month
Best chamois cream to keep your turbo training comfortable
Chamois cream can be an indoor cyclist’s best friend, especially if you are clocking more miles on the turbo trainer than usual.
An anti-bacterial substance, chamois cream is designed to eliminate friction between your skin and your clothing, hopefully preventing those dreaded saddle sores and, even worse, potential infections.
The nature of riding on a turbo means you are likely to be rooted to your saddle, pedalling harder than your usual ride outdoors, producing more sweat that doesn’t get to evaporate, increasing the chance of those sores forming.
Lather some chamois cream onto your undercarriage and you may just protect yourself from some pretty unsavoury injuries.
Recommended chamois cream: Assos chamois cream
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£18.99 | View offer
Unlike most things from Assos, its chamois cream is very reasonably priced for a 140ml pot and like its cycling kit, it is very good at doing what it sets out to do.
It’s fairly odourless, has a paste-like consistency and an easy-to-access pot, and as such we like this chamois cream a lot.
- Buy now from Cyclestore (£18.99)
The best indoor-specific cycling kit
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If staying in is the new going out you’ll need yourself a new get-up. Several brands now make indoor cycling kit ideal for at home or in the gym.
We’re still fans of using last season’s pro kit shorts and eschewing a top, but if you live with other people who might not consider this an appealing sight, here are some brands to look out for…
Bib shorts and jerseys for indoor cycling: Madison Turbo
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Stripped to the minimum, these lightweight shorts are designed to be breathable when stationary. With a pad that’ll withstand washing at 60°C, they should stay fresh for longer, a trait helped by their anti-bacterial fabric.
- Buy now from Freewheel (£49.99-£59.99)
Top for indoor cycling: Triban 500 Women’s Tank Top
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£14.99 | View offer
A few brands make indoor cycling jerseys – although I can’t fathom why you’d need the sleeves. Anyway, a base layer works just as well if you need to keep covered. Alternatively, this tank top from Decathlon is both cheap and quite fetching.
- Buy now from Decathlon (£14.99)
Cap for indoor cycling: Rapha Sweat Cap
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£38 | View offer
Again, why the peak? To keep the glare of the halogen downlighters out of your eyes? I’d go tennis-style headband to stop sweat dripping into my eyes.
However, if you’ve £38 burning a hole in your pocket, this cap from Rapha is the height of indoor cycling style.
- Buy now from Rapha (£38)
The best shoes for indoor cycling
Shimano IC5 SPD
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£95.99 | View offer
Gym bikes tend to use mountain bike-style SPD cleats. These require a two-hole fixing, unlike the three-hole type found on road pedals.
They’re also far easier to walk in and less likely to scratch the floor. Not so much of an issue if you’re using your own bike at home, but a set of dedicated turbo trainer shoes is still a good idea if you don’t want to stink out your best racing slippers.
- Buy now from Freewheel (£95.99)
Shimano IC1 indoor cycling SPD shoes
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£69.99 | View offer
These cheaper unisex models from Shimano will work with both styles of cleats. Ultra minimalist and with easy Velcro closure, they’re quick to dry and not too expensive either.
- Buy now from Freewheel (£69.99)
Read our comprehensive guide to what to wear on the turbo.
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