I close my eyes as dance music pulses through the darkened room. The sweat is dripping from my face.
Around me, equally sweaty people gyrate to the beat.
Somewhere to my left, a whistle shrieks. We all raise our arms and shout, voices merging with the thumping bass.
No, this is not a club on a Friday night.
It is 2pm on a Thursday and I’m taking the inaugural class at Team Cycle, Aberdeen’s first dedicated cycling studio.
Team Cycle won’t open its doors until Friday April 28. But I’m here with about 20 other people to test-pedal the Commerce Street spin gym ahead of the big launch.
Owner Kerry Smith, who is leading today’s class, has told me Team Cycle is based on cycling studios such as SoulCycle and Flywheel that have taken London and New York by storm.
These are places that eschew the step machines, swimming pools and multi gyms to focus only on spinning.
And the spin classes are like no other – part disco, part motivational seminar and – as I am finding out – all pain.
Orchestrating the energy in the room
We are about halfway through and my legs are getting wobbly.
I’ve stopped blowing the pink plastic whistle attached to my handlebars. I need all the air I can spare.
Fortunately, Kerry is there to provide a second wind. The former owner of the Warehouse gym on nearby Mearns Street has been running spin classes for years.
She knows exactly what to do.
Sitting up front on her own bike, she’s like a DJ orchestrating the energy in the room, matching the tempo of our pedaling to the music.
Through her head mic, she shouts the mantra that spells out the Team in Team Cycle.
“Together! Everybody! Achieves! More!” she yells.
I put my head down and pedal even faster.
Watch the very first Team Cycle spin session here
Speaking to me a few days before the class, Kerry lays out her reasons for starting Team Cycle.
“I’ve tried classes all around the UK and what I’ve found is that it works because it’s just spin,” she says of the dedicated cycling studio format.
“Some people don’t like crossing that gym threshold. This is a completely different vibe.”
Part of that vibe is the visuals Kerry incorporates into each class, which appear on a giant screen in front of the riders. She spends hours looking for footage to fit the mood she wants.
The videos she picks are not always what you would expect. In my session, a surprise was the amount of news videos that flash up on screen.
Dancers in Ethiopia, activists throwing paint on Vincent Van Gogh’s sunflowers, a big poster of former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev – even a montage of the Covid lockdown.
Kerry says the topical touch is her speciality. It might not be for everyone, she admits, but when it hits, it hits big. She says one customer even started crying.
“He said he was just so taken in by the emotion of it,” Kerry recalls.
I’m intrigued. Why does news footage have this effect? Should we all start working out to Newsnight?
“Part of it is a connection to you inner self, maybe,” Kerry says after thinking about it for a moment.
“And it will depend on who you are as a person whether it floats your boat or not.”
The magic of the music
Does it float mine?
Before the class I would have said no. But something about the sight of those Covid lockdown signs and Kerry’s exhortations to be a better me worked their magic.
The music helped, expertly timed to lift the energy at just the right time.
By the end of the session I was soaked in sweat and unsteady on my feet. I felt good. I felt I’d pushed myself to the limit.
Or at least I did until the woman on the bike next to me spoke up.
“They went a bit easy on us there, didn’t they?” she said.
Team Cycle is at 36 Commerce Street, Aberdeen. Classes start on Friday April 28 and can be booked for £15 each. A monthly membership for unlimited classes costs £50 (£30 for students).
