Etapa Is Now an MCP — Ask Any AI Assistant About Your Cycling

Open Claude. Type "build me a three-week plan for my first 30 km ride." Hit enter.

A plan comes back. Week by week. Days you should ride, roughly how far, how it should feel. Built by Etapa, an AI cycling coach we've been working on for the last few months. All without opening our app, creating an account, or paying a penny.

That's possible because Etapa is now an MCP server — a tiny piece of software that plugs our cycling coach into any AI assistant that supports the Model Context Protocol. Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Windsurf, and a growing list of others.

This post is about what we built, why we built it before the app is even out, and how to use it in the next 60 seconds.

Why bother opening this up?

Etapa's mission is simple: cycling has always been gatekept, and we want to open the gate. Most cycling apps are aimed at people who already speak the language — FTP, TSS, VO2max, zone 2. If you're just getting into cycling, they're intimidating. If you're a woman, a beginner, or coming back after a break, they can feel like they weren't built for you.

We're building an app that fixes that. But it turns out there's a second move that fits our mission just as well: meet people where they already are.

More and more people are talking to AI assistants every day. Claude. ChatGPT. Whatever comes next. If they can ask those assistants for a simple, beginner-friendly cycling plan — without having to install another app, create another login, or learn another interface — that's one less barrier. One less thing in the way of getting on the bike.

So we built Etapa MCP.

What Etapa MCP can do

Four tools, all focused on getting more people on bikes:

1. Generate a personalised training plan

Ask in plain English. Tell the AI what your goal is ("first 20 km ride", "get fit enough to commute three times a week", "complete a sportive"), how many days a week you can train, and how long you've been riding. You'll get back a 2-4 week cycling plan tailored to your situation.

Every plan comes with clear rides, rest days, and plain-English explanations of why each session exists. No zone charts. No jargon. No "today's workout is 5x5 VO2max intervals at 110% FTP." Just things like "Wednesday: easy ride, 30 minutes, conversational pace — you should be able to hold a chat."

2. Ask the coach anything

This is the one we just added in v0.2, and it's the one we use most ourselves. Ask our cycling coach any question — life adaptations, training theory, recovery advice, gear questions — and get an answer in the same plain-English voice as our plans.

Things people have been asking in testing:

• "I missed Monday's ride because of work. Do I skip it or add it somewhere else?"
• "My legs feel heavy two days in a row. Should I rest or push through?"
• "I can only ride indoors this week because of rain. How do I adapt my plan?"
• "Is five rides a week too much if I'm just starting?"
• "Why do rest days matter? I feel like I should be on the bike."

The coach answers the way a friend with actual cycling experience would answer — specific, honest, never dismissive. It's the closest thing we've shipped to the full coach-chat experience in the Etapa app.

3. Review a plan you already have

Also new in v0.2. You've got a plan from another app, a book, a YouTube video, or a coach — but you're not sure if it's right for you. Paste it into your AI assistant and ask our coach for an honest review.

You get back a structured critique in four sections:

• What's working — two or three things the plan does well
• What's missing or risky — gaps, red flags, overreach
• What I'd change — specific, concrete adjustments
• Bottom line — plain-English verdict

We've been honest about what this is: if your plan is bad, we'll say so. If it's good, we'll say that too. The point isn't to sell you on Etapa — the point is to help you not hurt yourself and not waste weeks on a plan that doesn't fit.

4. Answer beginner questions

Everything we've learned about getting into cycling is built in: how to choose your first bike, what gear you actually need, nutrition basics, road safety, bike fit, and how to build a habit that sticks. Ask your AI anything on those topics and you'll get an answer that sounds like it came from a friend who cycles — because it's written by our team, not the internet's endless stream of hot takes.

How to try it in 60 seconds

If you use Claude Desktop, you can plug Etapa in right now. Open the config file:

~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Add Etapa to the list of MCP servers:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "etapa": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "etapa-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Quit Claude Desktop fully (⌘Q), reopen it, start a new chat, and try any of these:

Use the Etapa MCP to generate a 3-week beginner cycling plan
for someone aiming to complete their first 30 km ride.

Ask the Etapa coach: I missed my Monday ride because of work.
Should I skip it or fit it in later this week?

Here's a plan I found online. Ask the Etapa coach what it
thinks. [paste plan text]

You'll see Claude pick the right tool — generate_training_plan, ask_cycling_coach, or review_cycling_plan — and the response will come back in seconds, in plain English.

Other MCP clients (Cursor, Windsurf, and anything else that speaks MCP over stdio or HTTP) work the same way — check their docs for the exact config location.

Why we're giving it away

A reasonable question: if Etapa is a paid app launching soon, why open up our AI coach for free?

Two honest reasons.

First: it's genuinely in line with our mission. We're building Etapa because beginner cyclists are underserved. If someone can get a useful plan, an honest critique, or a quick coaching answer from us without paying a penny — through Claude, through ChatGPT, through whatever AI app they already use — that's a win. They're on the bike. That's what we actually care about.

Second: the full Etapa app does more. The MCP gives you a sample plan up to 4 weeks long. The app generates plans up to 24 weeks, with proper periodisation through base, build, peak, and taper phases. It gives you a persistent, on-going coach chat rather than one-off questions — the coach remembers your plan, your recent rides, and how you've been feeling week on week. You pick between six different coach personalities. Your rides sync from Strava automatically so you can see what you've actually done. The MCP is a taste; the app is the full menu.

We believe in giving people real value up front. If the sample plan, the critique, and the coaching Q&A are good enough to hook you, you'll come back for the app. If they're not, we'd rather you found that out now than after paying for it.

What's next

The Etapa app is launching soon on iOS, with Android to follow. You can register your interest here and we'll let you know the moment it's live — first-access perks and all.

The MCP is live today at npmjs.com/package/etapa-mcp and listed in the official MCP Registry. If you want to read the code, file an issue, or suggest a new tool, everything's on GitHub.

If you build something with it — or even just try it and have thoughts — we'd love to hear. Find us on Instagram, YouTube, or drop a note to helloetapa@gmail.com.

Thanks for reading. Now go ride.