Decades ago, one of my colleagues was a rabid cyclist, frequently riding his bicycle to work, what should have been a 3 mile trip, by way of a town 35 miles to the north and home by way of a town 28 miles to the south.

He once discussed a programmable exercycle, i.e. a fixture into which he could fasten his bike and have the traction wheel loaded in accordance with a program corresponding with one or another of the courses on which his club raced, mostly in the mountains.

I guess the goal was to maintain conditioning such that he'd have enough "oomph" where the steep climbs and sprints were located while maintaining the desired position in the pack. Not knowing much about the details of sport cycling, I'm not exactly sure what's involved.

However, it seems to me that there was some discussion about using a mosfet circuit driving a motor that loaded the traction wheel, such that the resistance was similar to what would be encountered on a particular course, and, the elevation of the rear wheel, with respect to the front, would reflect the relative slope at that point on the course.

Has anyone developed such a device yet? Would it even be helpful?

RE