Radial Cycling App: A Must-Have for Pro Cycling Fans?

If you haven’t heard of Radial before, you’re not alone. But there are already plenty of reasons to jump on the bandwagon early.

Let’s take a closer look at this Bluesky-based early-release cycling app, and determine whether it offers fans a better race companion experience than existing platforms.

Why a Bluesky-based pro cycling app?

With all the talk about Bluesky among cycling fans on social media, you might be wondering:
what’s the big deal?

There are tons of established social media platforms out there, like Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, or even TikTok. Why invest so heavily in Bluesky, something that’s relatively new?

For those who aren’t familiar with the platform, Bluesky was created by the cofounder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, to be a new “decentralized” social media. It uses open technology that prevents any single billionaire or corporation, like X’s Elon Musk or Facebook/Instagram’s Meta, from fully owning your digital identity on the site. It uses the familiar “short-post” format of Twitter, but there is no central Twitter-like algorithm pushing content to you. Instead, the platform is designed to be more customizable. As such, Bluesky has emerged as a strong successor to Twitter because it looks and feels similar.

There is also a growing community of cycling fans using the platform. Some of the community-building on the platform can be credited to the team behind Radial.

The larger Radial “ecosystem” centers around Bluesky.

Radial can be found on the web at radial.racing. Its main developers are Derek van Vliet (@derek.bike) and Kristo Jorgenson (@kris.to). If that second name sounds familiar, it’s for good reason! Kristo is the brother of Visma Lease-a-Bike rider Matteo Jorgenson! Kristo describes himself in his Bluesky bio as a cyclist and software developer. Over the past several years, he’s been contributing to building the cycling community on Bluesky. He’s become a recognized voice in that space. For example, his account often appears alongside journalists, riders, and real media outlets in curated “starter packs” geared towards cycling fans new to the platform.

As for Radial itself? The account already facilitates some cool features on Bluesky itself. A group of Bluesky feeds, such as “Pro Cycling Chatter,” aggregates pro cycling posts from across the social network. These feeds have also become very popular with Bluesky users. Radial also operates a “labeler” tool, that assigns tags to user profiles to indicate their involvement with cycling. The features all “live” under the radial.racing domain and have been integrated within the Radial app.

Wait, how does that work? If you aren’t very tech-savvy (like me!) then you might not see how a random app can connect to Bluesky. In fact, the Radial app is built around the Bluesky ATProto platform. Websites like ProCyclingStats or FirstCycling (or even this blog!) are closed and centralized; only the operators of these sites have the ability to make updates and changes. They also can’t be tightly integrated with social media like that. The Radial app, however, is built directly on the Bluesky software. I’m interested to see how this connection is leveraged as the app continues to develop.

What features does the Radial Racing app currently have?

In addition to tapping into the Bluesky-centered social media aspects, the app is full of other features. Some of its main functions are unique and even more useful and engaging than what other existing platforms offer!

These features include:

• A home page with live race updates as well as recent results. Individual sections in this page have a “spoiler” button, meaning that the status or results remain hidden. This is very useful if you don’t want to know what’s happening in an ongoing or recent race!
• The live race data and stats are standout for the app’s development thus far. Radial tracks live race situations and features interactive course profiles. Unlike static images on other platforms, users can interact with and zoom in on stage and route profiles to see exactly where the key climbs and sectors are.
• A “Chatter” tab directs users to Radial’s Bluesky feeds. Feeds include news updates and video clips, along with the primary “Pro Cycling Chatter” and “Pro Cycling Trending” tabs. The integration Bluesky and the app provides a seamless and accessible entry point to the community, even for non-Bluesky users. You can check out the conversations happening there and participate right in the app.
• An “Explore” tab allows users to browse the Radial information database by riders, races, or teams. This is actually one of the strongest and most comprehensive areas of the app. When looking at upcoming races or start lists, I found this to be a much more user-friendly experience than web-based alternatives.
• For each race, a “Where to Watch” directory is a great value-add for fans planning to watch races on TV. It acts as a broadcast guide and shows exactly where/when to catch a race or stage broadcast. This is all facilitated by user feedback as well, so if anyone sees an error, they can submit a correction.
• The “Notifications” tab connects to Bluesky and displays Bluesky notifications. A similar “Profile” page takes you to your own fully-integrated Bluesky profile.

If you want the sweet juice of bike racing, Radial is now live on the iOS App Store! Download it here, and please be in touch to let us know how to make it better. We have a lot more planned 😎. This is really just the beginning apps.apple.com/us/app/radia…

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— Radial Pro Cycling (@radial.racing) May 15, 2026 at 12:01 PM

So is Radial really a must-have app for cycling fans?

While there are still features coming to the app in the future, I’ve been pleased with my experience so far.

I’m not associated with Radial in any way. I also don’t know anything about making an app, or how this Bluesky-integration platform ATProto works.

However, what I do know is that the user experience in Radial is a standout. Not just for keeping up with racing, but also especially the connection between the Bluesky social network and the app. Radial has already built a good presence on Bluesky. Having that presence integrated together with stats and race results is very useful. Note that the curated feeds make it easy to engage with cycling content without any extraneous Bluesky “noise.”

This level of integration may be daunting to non-Bluesky users, who are less familiar with the platform. That is the primary downside to the app as it stands now.

Although Radial is still in development, I experienced very few technical issues while using it. Early adopters may be able to guide and inform which features the app developers prioritize. I recommend that anyone who gives the app a whirl sends “bug reports” or feature suggestions to the developers. That’s one of the best ways possible to help support the development of this new app.

What’s still coming for this app?

The pre-release version of the app has some great features built in. However, we’re still waiting on more info about what’s to be included down the line. Additionally, release timings for other platforms (Android/web) haven’t been officially documented anywhere. This all makes sense as the app is still in active development. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens when (and if) this takes off among cycling fans.

The verdict: a promising new platform to support the cycling fan community.

While the app is still in early stages, it’s excellent to see a new competitor entering the cycling stats and engagement scene.

If you’re like me, the ads and glitchiness on alternatives like ProCyclingStats have become really unbearable in recent months. It’s also nice to see a platform coming directly from cycling enthusiasts and active members of online cycling fandom. The connection with social media also sets it apart conceptually from the existing platforms. As someone who participates in “cycling chatter” on Bluesky, I love the idea of having that experience curated within the app.

Ultimately, that’s why I think this app is worth watching. That’s especially if you’re active at all in pro cycling corners of social media. It’s already shaping up to be a great resource for cycling fans.

The only question remaining is: will it actually reach any kind of mainstream popularity?

Radial might become an essential for cycling fans, but of course, nothing is set in stone. It depends on the direction the app takes from here, and how much momentum its developers can build.

In the meantime, want to be an early adopter? We’ll just have to wait and see what else the Radial team have up their sleeves!

Are you interested in trying out the Radial app? Why or why not? Let us know on Bluesky or in the comments! ★