Deck de France turns your smart bike trainer into a Steam Deck controller

A free open-source tool called Deck de France lets you use a smart bike trainer as a game controller on Steam Deck — or any Linux PC. Developer Sukolupo built it primarily for the Tour de France games, where pedalling harder directly translates to in-game speed, but it works in other titles too.

The app connects via Bluetooth Low Energy using the Cycling Power Service protocol, which means it's compatible with a wide range of smart trainers and power meters. Confirmed supported hardware includes Tacx NEO, NEO 2T, Flux, Bushido, Vortex, Satori, and Booster; Elite Suito-T, Justo, Direto, Drivo, Rampa, and Sterzo Smart; Wahoo KICKR and KICKR Core; Zwift Hub and Zwift Hub One; CycleOps Magnus and H3; Garmin Vector 3 power meter pedals; Magene S3+ sensors; and any BLE-based crank or pedal power meter from brands like 4iiii, Stages, or Favero. In Rocket League, pedalling triggers boost. In Forza titles, pedal power maps to acceleration. Grand Theft Auto even lets you control a car's throttle with your legs. There's a catch though — you still need a standard Bluetooth controller for everything else, so in Rocket League you'd steer and play normally while pedalling for boost. Sukolupo says setup takes about five minutes, and the full instructions are on the project's GitHub repository.

Smart trainer integration with PC gaming is a niche that dedicated apps like Zwift and Rouvy already own, but those are purpose-built cycling platforms rather than general game controllers. Deck de France takes a different angle — it doesn't replace your game, it just adds your legs to it. The Steam Deck is the obvious target given its portable form factor and Linux base, but the tool runs on any Linux machine.

The project is early and rough around the edges, with several devices listed as untested but expected to work. For cyclists who already own compatible hardware and want a slightly absurd way to sneak cardio into a gaming session, it's a low-barrier experiment worth trying.