We’re fed up of subscribing to be a cyclist — how much does cycling really cost in 2025?

If you like participating in and watching cycling, then like us, you've probably been bombarded with subscription price hikes in recent years. The death of cycling on Eurosport - and the £6.99 subscription that came with it, replaced by a £30.99 a month TNT paywall in its place - might have felt like the final nail in the coffin for some of you, but there are ways to soften the financial blow slightly and save money on other cycling-related regular payments.

Cycling coverage

From: £30.99/month

New price after saving: £10/month

I guess we might as well start with the bombshell that kicked this discussion off, the cost of watching our favourite sport. Many people were already very disappointed when GCN+ closed, meaning they would have to pay extra for Discovery+. To be honest, that jump up to £6.99 a month now looks like a drop in the ocean compared to this latest change!

Unfortunately, if you want to legally watch professional cycling in the UK then you really don’t have a lot of choice but to subscribe to TNT Sports. 2025 is the final year that there will be live coverage of the Tour de France on ITV, and we all know how little of everything else cycling-related you can find on Freeview.

There are a few ways you can legally reduce this cost. You can get TNT Sport for £20 a month as a Sky or BT add-on, or £18 through Virgin Media. We also spotted this deal if you’re an existing EE pay monthly mobile customer, a whole telly and TNT Sports subscription for £10 a month. Now that seems like much better value!

Because there has been so much reaction to this, we've actually published a whole other feature on ways you can watch cycling for less in light of the TNT subscription bombshell. 

Strava

From: £8.99/month

New price after saving: £4.59/month

Also making its way out of our bank accounts each month is a Strava Premium subscription. This also used to be a fair bit less, but unfortunately for me I’m just too invested to quit. I like seeing how I’ve done on segments and comparing my times to a few years ago, and I also like to use Strava to make cycling routes.

To reduce the cost this year, I’m going to bite the bullet and pay for a year up front. That will set me back £54.99, which although painful works out to be quite a lot cheaper at about £4.59/month. 

Other things you could try to wean yourself off Strava is using a free platform such as Garmin Express or the Wahoo app for post-ride analysis, and use the free version of Strava to stalk your mates. I’m also a big fan of Strava sauce, a free Google Chrome extension that gives you all kinds of additional nerdy data!

British Cycling/personal insurance

From: £7.50/month

New price after saving: £7.50/month

Whether you race like I do, or not, you may also be splashing out on a British Cycling membership. Personally, I’m shelling out £50 a year for a standard membership and then £40 on top of that for a race licence, which enables me to spend even more money entering local road and criterium races. That £90 annually works out at £7.50 per month.

If you want to race in the UK then you don’t have a lot of choice but to pay this. Even if you don’t then the standard membership is a pretty good idea as it gives you third party liability insurance. Having had plenty of acquaintances make use of this it really is worth its weight in gold, giving you one less thing to worry about if anything bad does happen while you're out cycling.

The only thing that you might want to look at, if you don't race, is switching to a Cycling UK membership. If you’re a student, want cover for the whole family or are on means-tested benefits it could work out much cheaper. In fact, some Cycling UK membership plans start from £2.84/month, and you still get that all important third- party cover.

Beyond insuring yourself, if you want to insure your bike against theft and damage then be sure to use our handy comparison tool to find the best deal. 

Zwift

From: £17.99/month

New price after saving: £0/month

Call me what you want, but I find that I train much harder during the winter months when I’ve got access to my Zwift account. At £17.99 a month though, this is yet another subscription-based service that has seen a massive price increase in recent years.

There are plenty of cheaper alternatives out there. Rouvy, for example, costs about a third less at just over £12 a month. If you're really trying to cut down on your subscriptions then it's hard to look past switching to MyWhoosh (below). It's a free indoor training app with nearly all the functionality of the big paid ones. 

However, with many of teammates using Zwift for group rides, workouts and race leagues, I just can’t tear myself away. If, like me, you begrudgingly pay for Zwift each month, then I'd say always remember to cancel or pause your subscription over the summer if you’re not using it - set a reminder in your calendar now!

Also, don’t buy a new turbo trainer without taking advantage of the year's free Zwift that many come with. As for paying for it on a yearly basis, well yes, you’ll save two months, but for me paying monthly works better. 

TrainingPeaks Premium

From: £16.10/month

New price after saving: £5/month

If you’re serious about training plans, fitness, and fatigue, chances are you’ve at least considered using Trainingpeaks Premium. This online platform and app is what many of the pros use to track and plan their training in minute detail. It's also a favourite among coaches.

Up until recently, I was paying out for this. If you pay monthly then that’s about 20 dollars a month, or £16.10. Once again this is a platform that rewards you for paying annually. You can get it for half the price at £100, or about £8.40 a month.

With British Cycling memberships you can then get 25% or 40% off yearly subscriptions, but even if you’re not a standard or premium member it’s worth looking out for discount codes online as they do often come up. If, like me, you’ve decided it's all a bit excessive but still love to plan your training, then I’d recommend checking out Golden Cheetah. It's free and although definitely not as user-friendly, it does have much of the same functionality.

Nutrition apps

From: £8/month

New price after saving: Free

Quite a few of us on the road.cc staff are also subscribed to nutrition apps to help track and monitor what we eat. 

MyFitnessPal is a very popular option, its premium subscription costing £5.99 a month, and EatMyRide is a cycling-specific app that we rated very highly for on-bike nutrition insights. It's priced at just over £8 a month.

To be honest, it's hard to see anyway of reducing these costs - but you could try Cronometer which is free, or do the labour intensive job of tracking macros manually.

Bike insurance

From: £5-£60/month

New price after saving: Same price

The exact amount that you'll be spending on bike insurance depends on many factors: how many bikes you have, the value of your bikes, where you live and the type of coverage you're after.

To reduce this cost we recommend shopping around each year to ensure you're getting the best deal, trying to find discount codes to reduce your premium and not just accepting renewal quotes without haggling. Just like with car insurance, insurance firms will reduce your premium if you threaten to take your business elsewhere. Our final tip is to see if you can get your bikes added to your home insurance, which can sometimes save a significant amount. 

Cycling coaching

From: £20-£150+/month

New price after saving: Same price

And finally, a very popular expense is a coach. Don’t get me wrong, a good coach will likely make far bigger difference to your cycling performance than spending more on your bike, but they also don’t come cheap. In the office, we have riders spending from anything between £20 a month to £150 a month on coaching to keep them accountable and doing the right kind of training.

Unfortunately not all coaches are as good as others, so if you are spending money on this then make sure you find a reputable coach that’s communicating how you want them to, and is backed up by lots of genuine reviews. 

Why does it matter?

Personally, I don’t think that any of these things are too luxurious. I realise that I could definitely live without quite a few of them, and you can let me know if you think I’m being excessive in the comments below.

I guess the point is, is it really any wonder that people aren’t getting into cycling any more? Running has a much smaller barrier to entry, to give one example. You don’t need a bike for starters, although a coach, Strava and a nutrition app are equally as useful. It's less likely that you’ll be paying for an indoor training app or expensive streaming service, though.  

> 6 of the best value bike upgrades

Hopefully, at least some of those people put off by the price will see at least some of these tips and realise that there is plenty of money to be saved if you search around. Feel free to give us your recommendations on how to save money without compromising on all these lovely things in the comments below...