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Strava reveals the gruelling demands of the 2015 Tour de FranceStrava logo

Strava reveals the gruelling demands of the 2015 Tour de France

Just how hard was the Tour? Strava has the answer
by David Arthur @davearthur
Tue, Jul 28, 2015 12:02
8

If you watched the 2015 Tour de France, you might be wondering just how hard the race was for the 160 finishers? How fast did they pedal around France? How much climbing did they do? How many calories did they burn through?

All those questions and more have been answered by Strava, with MTN-Qhubeka’s Jacques Van Rensburg uploading all 21 stages of the Tour to Strava, complete with power and heart rate data, providing us with perhaps the most revealing insight into the demands of the race.

Jacques Van Rensburg finished 51st out of 160 finishers, with a total time of 87hrs 04mins 30secs. To put that into context, Tour winner Chris Froome was a full 2hrs 18min 16secs faster.

His total distance was 3,403.6 km (2115 miles) as recorded on Strava (of which 3,360 km or 2,087.8 miles, are the official race distances). His average speed over that distance was 38.39km/h (23.85 miles) with an average power output of 208 watts. His average cadence was 86.

He climbed an astonishing 45,134 metres. To put that into perspective, it’s the equivalent of ascending Mount Everest over five times. 

- See Romain Bardet’s Tour de France stage 18 winning ride on Strava

You’re probably expecting he used up a lot of calories on his lap of France? You’re not wrong, he went though 74,983 calories. That’s a whopping 291 Big Macs.

That’s an impressive effort indeed. Some other interesting facts have been revealed by Strava from the handful of riders that have been regularly using Strava during the race. Total KOMs claimed, and not likely to be toppled for a long while, is 845. And the total kudos handed out to those riders amounted to 279,430.

- New Strava Live offers real-time data as you ride

You can view Jacques Van Rensburg's Strava profile here for a more detailed look at his Tour de France. 

Tour de France 2015
Strava
David Arthur @davearthur

David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes. 

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8 comments

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Morat | 9 years ago
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Just shows how hard it is to lose weight purely through exercise - which sucks because I'd gladly cycle all day if it meant I could indulge freely in pies 2

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babyblinkman | 9 years ago
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Its actually only 147.6 big macs , according to mcdonalds there are 508 kcals in each big mac .... He could also have eaten 1737 chicken mcnuggets

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StraelGuy | 9 years ago
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On a slightly different note, there's an unofficial running race in Boston, America, where you have to buy a tray of 12 doughnuts, eat them ALL and then have a 5 mile race 31 .

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Beaufort | 9 years ago
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I see sponsorship opportunities; I think the racers should HAVE to eat 13 Big Macs during each stage. That'd be a terrific leveller. Fillet-O-Fishes can be substituted for those who prefer fish, with a calorie adjustment of course.

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DeCockburn | 9 years ago
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That is only 13 Big Macs a day. I am disappointed. I thought they'd be gobbling more.

But Chris Froome did give the game away a bit when his Big Mac wrapper go stuck in his chain on the Champs Elysee.

All the other riders in Team Sky have their soigneurs blend-up their Big Macs and put them into water bottles half filled with Coca-Cola.

Not Froome. He eats his straight from the bag. Because he's posh. Apparently Dave Brailsford had to stop him from keeping a knife and fork tucked in the back of his jersey, and made him eat his 13 Big Macs a day with his hands. This was on stage 3. Froome got angry and slapped a patty onto Brailsford's head through the window of the team car.

Unfortunately everyone was too busy looking at Cancellara's broken back to notice.

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Airzound | 9 years ago
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Yeah and no mention of the fries, dips and Coke which are also consumed.

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RobD | 9 years ago
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What's worrying, it takes riding a whole tour de france to burn off 291 big macs, I work with people who eat at least one a day, that's a lot of riding they could do with getting done...

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kwalsh1 | 9 years ago
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I might have ate the same amount of Big Macs watching them !!

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