Riding with Bernard, your virtual training partner!

Bernard is your professional FulGaz training partner! He loves nothing more than crushing watts and eating hills before breakfast, all while never showing any signs of weakness across his digital face.

To enable Bernard, click on the settings “cog” in the top right corner and then select Virtual Rider. Ensure the Ride Against Bernard tick box is selected, then below this select Bernard’s average power output. Put your ride mode into Reactive and get ready to roll out with your new training partner.

When you select a video and ride, Bernard’s time will be displayed across the bottom of the screen alongside yours. You will also see Bernard’s “dot” on the gradient map at the top of the screen, giving you an indication of how far ahead or behind he is on the course.

Setting up the way Bernard rides with you:

1) Basic Bernard

If you’ve selected Ride against Bernard and set his power, this is “Basic Bernard” mode. For simplicity, in this mode Bernard weighs the same as you.

All you need to do is switch him as outlined above and set his power number. Bernard will then lock in this wattage and ride at this number for the entire ride. Flat roads, uphill, downhill. He will hold this wattage like the seasoned pro he is. 

2) Advanced Bernard

You may notice with “Simple Bernard” that he is not always that realistic. If you set him to 250 watts he’ll hold that uphill, then hammer down the other side at 250 watts also! You’ll never catch him soft pedalling! Bernard’s Advanced Power Settings enable you to adjust how he reacts to climbs and descents.

To access these settings, go into your settings, then Virtual Rider, then scroll down to Bernard Advanced Power Settings.

The default settings have Bernard pushing harder uphill and easing off when going downhill (he will back off or even coast down the descents). You can adjust his weight and aerodynamic drag as well as a percentage power increase/decrease depending on the gradient of the road.

The standard values are rather good, but you can tweak them to suit your own style or how you would like Bernard to ride. If you find Bernard powering away up steep climbs, reduce the top percentage until you can keep up. Likewise for descents. It can take a bit of "trial and error" but once you get him right, he will be your faithful domestique for life.

He works hard for you, so be sure to shout him a virtual espresso at the post-ride cafe! ;-)