5 Essential Apps for Cyclists on Tour

After a solid six months on-the-hop in Europe, without these Apps I’d still be lugging around libraries of books, flyers, magazines, maps, tourist guides, flyers and printed memorabilia.

Have I succumbed to the Internet of Everything? (IoE – yes that’s a new industry buzzword!) It is becoming readily apparent, no matter where, the mobile device is cementing its place at the centre of the digital economy. And my digital world. With advancements in telecommunications and network access, it’s possible to be connected almost anywhere, Australia, Asia, India, Europe, USA, the list goes on.

These Apps make the life of a cyclist on tour even easier (Android focus here).

1. Strava Cycling
Strava Cycling not only turns your smartphone into a cycle computer, it also connects you with other cyclists and makes you look like a climbing devotee with all those obscure KOMs and weird segments you’ve managed to secure in the middle of nowhere.

See our previous post on how to really make this work for you when you land in a new location.

2. Daily Yoga
After racking up another bunch of frequent flyer miles Daily Yoga offers various guided sessions. It’ll help iron out any wrinkles before you get bounced around on the euro-cobbles or next tour de cafe.

You can choose different durations and intensities of the sessions as well as which area of your body to target, lower, upper and other combinations. Great for a tune-up!

3. Kindle Reader
Buy an e-book or e-magazine on-line and take it with you everywhere in bits and bytes. Virtual dog-eared pages and notes jotted in the margin, all on your tablet or smartphone anytime.

Great for the plane, the cafe, the hotel, the bar, the meadow or the mountain peak.

4. Evernote
Are you a scriber, note-taker, jotter, news-clipper and scanner of all things information? Evernote replaces your notebook, scrapbook, clipper and whatever else you’ve been lugging around to remind you of those things you know you’ll never remember otherwise. The most intelligent notebook on the block in my view.

Take a picture of that must-have brochure or delectable artisan-style fromage, type in a note, tag it and you’re away. Search by note, notebook, keyword or tag to retrieve it, via your smartphone, tablet or internet cafe. All ready for you in the cloud.

5. Hootsuite
Managing and switching between multiple social media profiles can be a bit cumbersome if it’s all done by smartphone. Hootsuite takes away the pain and presents your social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc) in one dashboard. Tweet, update your status, follow your friends all in one place. Like!

They’re FREE too!
At the date of publishing all these Apps are free too! There are options to upgrade and pay for additional services but in the main the base functionality make them more than worthwhile.

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