Dayne and Georgia Muller opened City Alps Amsterdam in March 2019. The 200sq m boutique indoor cycle and strength studio is aimed primarily at cyclists, runners and other outdoor sports enthusiasts who are looking for a community to train with all year round.
“We started City Alps for people who, like us, are looking for a place to train for a race, trip or adventure, big or small, while living in flat and sometimes wet Amsterdam!” explains Dayne. “We are a fun, down to earth community of cyclists, trail runners, climbers, triathletes – basically anyone, regardless of their fitness level, who enjoys training towards something outside the four walls of a gym.”
The boutique studio has 21 Precor Spinner® Chrono Power Bikes as well as bosu balls, resistance bands, free weights, kettlebells, medicine balls, suspension trainers and sandbags. City Alps offers three distinct classes: performance-focused and wattage-based ‘Ride’ classes, high intensity functional training ‘Ride & Lift’ classes and strength and mobility ‘Lift’ classes for endurance athletes.
The studio is also distinctive in that it uses the digital training system Spivi® to help create an immersive environment for members in its ‘Ride’ classes, based on real-time data. City Alps is the first indoor cycle or spinning studio in the Netherlands to partner and work with both Precor and Spivi.
“Because we are a performance-orientated boutique studio that’s also fun and community focussed, Spivi® Smart Training Systems was the ideal choice for us,” explains Georgia.
Professional cyclists often train with power meters to know how hard they are working.
With the Precor Spinner® Chrono Power Bikes, City Alps is able to take performance-based cycling indoors, accompanied by encouraging, highly knowledgeable instructors.
Georgia, who has been a certified Spinning® instructor for 14 years, says: “We knew we wanted bikes that could track real wattage output – we would have been silly to choose anything else. Wattage-based training is where the spinning world is heading. We use power metrics to ensure our members are working in the right zone depending on the class structure we have created … be it Vo2 max intervals, lactate threshold or improving general aerobic endurance capacity.
“Each member can do a test to assess their individualised power or functional threshold power – they can then put it into the Spivi app and train in their individualised power zone. This means all training is personalised to exactly where members are at fitness wise.”
Dayne continues: “The Precor Spinner® bikes are the perfect indoor bike. They are as close to an outdoor bike as we could find, the geometry is spot on and the feel of the bike is smooth and consistent. They are straightforward and easy to use but still technically advanced enough to provide all the data and real-ride feel we need.”
Spivi allows City Alps members to personalise their experience, track data, download it and upload it to apps like Strava, as well as gamify certain classes and bring out riders’ competitive side by tracking progress on a leader board system. “We have an active City Alps Strava club; if it’s not on Strava, it didn’t happen!” says Georgia.
“The combination of the Precor Spinner® Chrono with Spivi has taken our classes and the spinning experience to the next level … Spinning 2.0! The power output on the bike gets projected onto the screen so that members can compare their effort with classmates, creating healthy competition and motivation. People love having the class data – they all receive emails after the class summarising their workout and can see what wattage they’re putting out each week to track and monitor their progress.”
City Alps currently has one location in Amsterdam Oost, with plans to open a second studio in 2021. Ultimately, the couple aim to have three locations by the end of 2022, and then will look to franchise the business model.
Georgia says: “For now, we are focusing on making sure that the technology, infrastructure and training for staff and instructors is set-up for future growth. We are committed to offering our community world-class training, support and events to get out there, get #adventureready and conquer their mountain. We hope to be the ‘Only Mountains in the Netherlands’ and ultimately a hub for outdoor athletes throughout the world.”
