Product Description

Warm up to a video montage of the architecture, canals, and little shops of Venice. After you find your legs on a gradual climb, youll get your speed fix by riding along a quiet highway overlooking the Ligurian coast near Bracco. These two sections lead to a brisk riverside run in Valstagna along the River Brenta. The fast pace of these flat to rolling sections will be the perfect setup for the killer climb that awaits you below the mountain village of Rocco. Finally, cool down to a photo montage of the behind the scenes activities of the film and riding crew, and the places where they stayed.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27812 in DVD
• Formats: Dual Disc, DVD, Miniseries, Digital Sound, Limited Collector's Edition

Features

• Virtual rides through exotic locations from the rider's perspective
• Multiple selectable coaching tracks from international coaches
• Licensed commercial music - no royalty free junk
• Bonus 30-minute pilates training specifically for cyclists
• All video shot in High Definition

Customer Reviews

More virtual cycling fun from Global Ride
I bought Global Ride's first series of cycling DVDs, Global Ride: Hawaii Series Virtual Cycling Dvds Boxed Set three months ago and have been waiting patiently for their next offering ever since. Judging from this first volume in the Italy series, it was worth the wait.

This series is enhanced by a countdown clock for each leg of the ride on the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. I found that the clock helps me to focus better, particularly as I tire towards the end of the ride.

The Global Ride formula remains the same: each DVD offers four different coaching tracks. "Speed & Power in Italy" gives you the choice of an American, German or Australian coach, plus a live track from a spinning class using the DVD. So you can ride with a different coach each time, choose the one whose personality and coaching style appeals best, or soak up the energy from a spinning class. All the coaches are riding with you; you can hear them breathing just as hard as you are. Or you can select the "music only" option and just enjoy the music and scenery.

Global Ride DVDs are geared towards both hard-core road cyclists and confirmed spinners. Because of the DVDs are shot from the cyclist's point of view, the sense of virtual reality is very strong; I found myself leaning into corners and watching out for oncoming traffic.

In "Speed & Power in Italy" you will warm-up to the strains of Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" as you take in views of Venice. But don't let the romantic music and scenery fool you - this will be one tough ride!

For my first outing, I rode with the US coach, Matty Reed, who has an impressive bio - World Champion 2006 Teams Race, 2008 USA Olympic Trials Champion, 2008 USA Olympian and 2008 USA National Champion.

The ride starts on the Ligurian Coast with a 12-minute leg called "Blasting Through Bracco". At the beginning of each section, a Google Map image shows where you will be riding, with the route animated in red - very cool! On this part of the journey, two cyclists will join you; sometimes you take the lead and sometimes they cut in front of you, which always makes my competitive edge kick in.

The second leg starts in Valstagna in the Bassano del Grappa region. At 22 minutes, this section is the longest and takes you alongside the River Brenta. The scenery here is absolutely stunning, but it goes by so quickly! The soft electronic rock music is well chosen with lyrics like "I Wanna Be in the Zone" and "Life is Too Short".

The last leg, "Rockin' to Rocca" is a 10-minute hill challenge which takes you up a steep winding road to the mountain town of Rocca. The music changes to hard-driving rock to spur you on. At this point, a renegade rider turns up, outfitted in yellow and blue to match his bike. Perhaps he thought he looked too smart not to be on camera! "He's on a mountain bike - we should be able to catch him!" yells Matty. "Come on, we gotta catch this guy!"

The ride clocks in at 60 minutes, including the warm-up and cool-down, but seems to go by much faster - always a sign of a good workout DVD. "Speed & Power in Italy" also includes a bonus 30-minute Pilates session to strengthen your core for cycling.

next best thing to actually biking in Italy
I'm an avid cyclist fortunate enough to be living in Sonoma County California which has some of the best rides to be found anywhere literally just outside my door. However when it rains and I cannot go out for a ride I find myself on my indoor trainer watching a cycling DVD. Recently my daughter for my birthday gave me the cycling video "Speed and Power in Italy" produced by Global Rides. This video is the next best thing to actually being in Italy and cruising their country roads which I think is every roadies dream. Beautiful scenery, scenic mountain passes, mild grades, straights, rollers, sleepy little towns and at the end a killer climb and backed by awesome music which seems to get you into the mood. This video is the perfect tool to help with your training on the dreary rainy days when you wish you were out riding. Give it a try. I highly recommend this video as an addition to your cycling DVD library.

Beautiful scenery, hardcore workouts
I just got my first DVD of the Global Ride Italy series ("Speed & Power"), and I have to say it's really nice. The DVD is in two major parts.

The first part is an hour long tour of Italy from a biker's perspective (and speed). There 3 or 4 distinct stages covering different parts of the Italian countryside, along the flats and in the hills. The idea is that you're on an indoor training bike (wind trainer, rollers, spinning bike, or in a studio), and pacing your workout based on what's happening on the screen. Going up hills, blasting through tunnels, and coasting downhill. I find the scenery fun to watch even when not on a bike.

There are four audio coaching tracks. Three individual coaches from different countries, and one "group session" that was recorded live. You can get that "surrounded by people" feeling without actually having to leave home. If you don't want a coach, you can play just the music.

The coaching voices are on the left channel, and the music on the right, so you can dial in your mix of voice and beat. That gives you five end-to-end playthroughs before repeating. The American coach gives you a pretty tough goal to shoot for during the last stage, so it won't get boring anytime soon.

What's pretty neat about the Global Ride DVDs is the second part - they have an additional section after the cycling: this DVD has a thirty minute or so Pilates workout. Previous Global Ride DVDs have also had Yoga and hand weights. If you've never done Pilates you can see what's involved before you go to a club. It's kinda cool that they acknowledge there's more to bicycle performance than just time on the bike.

The quality of the music, video, and coaching is very high. It's obvious a lot of time and attention went into the details.