For a few years now, game makers and fitness freaks have been trying to marry exercise with video games. They think if they can make working out more like a video game, we'll do it more often. Our response: Good luck with that!

The results have been mostly lousy. (EyeToy Kinetic for the PS2? Zzz.) But recently we stumbled on something that feels like it might be a step in the right direction: Expresso's new S2 bike. With the Tour de France just a few weeks off, we decided to use the S2 to channel our inner Lance Armstrong.

Imagine a typical exercise bike crossed with a powerful PC. Throw in a 17" LCD TV, a heart-rate monitor, music, and TV channels, and you've got the S2.

Here's how it works: You set the parameters for your virtual pace rider and he takes off down the virtual highways and byways on screen. From there, it’s your job to keep up.

Simply having the pace rider, oddly enough, makes exercising feel less lonely and more competitive. You really want to chase that little guy down when he pedals off in front of you.

Naturally, since this is a PC-based game, data from your ride is saved, so that the next time you ride, you can actually race against your previous performance. (You'll see a "ghost" of yourself on screen.) This isn’t just a gimmicky console add-on, it’s a genuine performance tracker.

For instance, between workouts, you can visit expresso.net and get up-to-date detailed records of all of your workouts. This is a terrific way to see how much progress you're making. (Or not making, as the case may be, Mr. Lazy Bones.) You'll find calculations of your average heart rate, calories burned, average speed, and a number of other stats.

Unfortunately, no matter how wrapped up you get with trying to keep pace with your ghosts and pace-setter, at the end of the day, this is still exercise, boys and girls. You're going to sweat. Your muscles are going to burn. While exercising will never be as much of a blast as playing The Bigs, a round of Pac-Man, or trying to pull off a million point trick in the latest Tony Hawk, the S2 still makes exercise more fun than any other activity in recent memory.

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