15,000 km from January to July: Strava reveals data of what it takes to prep for the Tour

Strava has posted some exclusive data from the top pros on what they do to get ready for the Tour, and it’s just as impressive as you’d think. Strava analyzed training data from January to June 2022 from pro riders to highlight what it takes to prepare for the Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. On average, the athletes’ elevation gain through training has covered the equivalent of riding Mount Everest 20 times since the start of the year.

Watch how much faster a WorldTour rider is than a regular cyclist

The data reveals that pro cyclists have individually covered at least 15,000 km in distance while training for the race since January. the equivalent of cycling from the U.S.A. to Australia and comparable to completing the Tour de France five times over. The riders who have tracked the most distance year to date have covered nearly 17,000km.

5 Key data points

1.Training hours: On average, pro cyclists recorded over 400 hours on the bike in individual training hours so far this year. However, the highest volume riders have clocked nearly 600 hours since January

2. Gaining momentum: As we approach the Tour, some riders are committing over 30 hours each week of training on the bike surpassing 1,000km per week.

3. Elevation: Further to hours and distance, the total elevation gained by the pro riders during their training in 2022 is over 180,000 m, the equivalent of climbing Mt Everest over twenty times

4.Going the distance: The longest individual ride amounted to just over 300 km . This is the equivalent of cycling from San Francisco to Fresno, California. On average, athletes are completing a ride of similar distance once a week, every week

5. Calorie burn: male and female riders training for the race have individually burned over 350,000 calories. This is comparable to burning the calories that would have been consumed from eating over 4,500 French macarons or 1,500 croissants

6. Collectively, the pro cyclists have been awarded 10 million kudos on the platform to celebrate their training endeavors.

Data collection pre-Tour

To uncover the data, Strava aggregated and anonymized the stats of 36 competitive cyclists riding in either the Tour de France or Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift 2022, and their training logged from January to June 2022. This analysis only includes training rides tracked on Strava.

The Tour de France will run from July 1st to the 24th and is made up of 21 stages, covering 3,328 km in total. The first edition of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift is set to take place between July 24 and July 31. The race will take place over eight stages and cover 1,029 km in total.

In 2021, 72 per cent of cyclists uploaded their race efforts to Strava and 62 per cent of stage wins in the 2021 Tour were uploaded to Strava.