Peloton apologises after issues with Thanksgiving ride: ‘We let you down’

Live ‘Turkey Burn’ ride set Guinness World Records for participation

(Getty Images)

Peloton has apologised to its customers after technical issues kept them from joining its special Thanksgiving ride.

The rides had been held to break the Guinness World Records for the largest live streamed cycling and running classes.

But they also had the effect of breaking Peloton’s systems, with riders unable to join the “Turkey Burn” class with instructor Robin Arzón for the first 20 minutes.

Peloton’s relatively new chief executive, Barry McCarthy, apologised for the experience on the company’s official Facebook page.

“We set out to create an amazing annual Turkey Burn Ride experience, and we let you down,” he wrote on the page. The number of riders “overwhelmed our technical infrastructure”, he said.

“I know for many of you, this has become an annual tradition, and we owe you the best possible Member experience,” he wrote. “On behalf of the team, we apologise.”

Despite the issues, Peloton was able to set the records for the largest live streamed cycling and running class. The company brought in Guinness World Records officials to verify the count, and were given the record for the ”Most viewers of a static cycling lesson live stream on a Bespoke platform”, as well as for running.

The cycling class had 27,550 live participants, a spokesperson said. That was lower than the number that had been seen on the leaderboard, though it is not clear whether the discrepancy was the result of the technical problems.

Despite the official recognition, the ride and run is not actually Peloton’s biggest live ride: 2021 and 2020 saw more, with the latter seemingly setting the record at more than 50,000 people, according to Peloton news website Pelobuddy.

Peloton saw rapid growth through 2020 and 2021, spurred in large part by the move to work out at home during lockdowns. But it has experienced a number of issues since, including recalls of its bikes and seemingly lower interest as people head back to gyms.

It has lost around 80 per cent of its share price value since it was listed towards the end of 2019. And its stock has fallen almost 97 per cent since its record highs in late 2020.