tour de france riders on strava

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9 of the best Tour de France riders to follow on Strava

Following any one of these riders is guaranteed to give you an inferiority complex

Zac Williams/SWPix.com

Strava is a great way to track your fitness, see what your friends are up to, find new routes and to ogle at the physical feats of pro riders. Here are nine of the very best pro road cyclists to follow this Tour de France .

• Best cycling apps — 16 of the best iPhone and Android apps to download
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Before I start, I should warn you that no matter how strong you think your emotional constitution is, following any one of these pros is bound to give you a serious inferiority complex — the numbers and miles these riders put out is frankly ridiculous, and your ‘dedicated’ 10 hours a week of training will pale in comparison to their monstrous days out. Consider yourself warned.

What pro cyclists are on Strava?

Most WorldTour riders use Strava ( a comprehensive list of pros can be found on Strava itself ), but many seem to use it sporadically or have gone on a hiatus from the platform.

With this in mind, I have only included riders who use Strava regularly. Unfortunately that means Julian Alaphillippe, the current holder of the yellow jersey at the time of writing, doesn't make the cut. He's a Strava member but doesn't upload. Maybe if enough of us slip into his DMs we can convince him to start uploading his rides again?

Anyway, in no particular order, here are the top nine pros I recommend you follow on Strava during the 2019 Tour de France.

Romain Bardet

AG2R La Mondiale’s Romain Bardet is one of the best climbers at this year’s Tour and is a keen Strava user. His 95-page KOM closet is well worth a look.

Thibaut Pinot

Thibaut Pinot is another French climber to regularly upload to Strava and took the KOM on the ascent of La Planche des Belles Filles on stage six. The Groupama–FDJ rider scaled the 5.82km ascent, which averages 9%, in just 16:57 minutes.

Michal Kwiatkowski

Team Ineos rider and former world road champion, Michal Kwiatkowski, is a Strava nut (photo uploads included) and, unusually, often leaves his power data intact.

Richie Porte

Richie Porte is one of the GC contenders to upload to Strava. The Tasmanian came into the race with big ambitions but lost 1:40 minutes in the crosswinds of stage 10 .

Tejay van Garderen

EF Education First is the most social media-savvy team in the UCI WorldTour, but only a handful of its riders upload their rides to Strava. Luckily one of those riders is Tejay van Garderen, a fine all-rounder who has twice finished in the top-five of the Tour de France.

Van Garderen came into this year's race in red-hot form, having finished second at the Critérium du Dauphiné in June, but had to abandon after crashing on stage 7.

George Bennett

Girona-based antipodean and Team Jumbo-Visma rider George Bennett is another regular Strava user who tends to leave his juicy power numbers attached to his rides — the Kiwi put out an average of 365 watts on La Planche des Belles Filles . He also uploads photos from his training rides.

Wout van Aert

Cyclocross superstar Wout van Aert has made quite the splash at this year’s Tour, winning stage 10 in spectacular style in a sprint against Elia Viviani and Caleb Ewan.

Thomas De Gendt

Want to know what it takes to win a stage and a combativity award at the Tour de France? Thomas De Gendt is your man, providing data from that sensational solo victory on stage 8.

Daryl Impey

Daryl Impey is one of Mitchelton-Scott’s best riders as illustrated by his win — his first at Le Tour — on stage 9. He also gets a gold star from me for actually naming his ride .

I’m sure there are plenty of riders I have missed. I’d love to hear your suggestions for riders of all disciplines in the comments.

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Tour de France 2023: The best pros to follow on Strava during the world's biggest bike race

Brace yourselves, KOM holders, the Tour de France peloton is coming...

And don't for a second think that just because they're all big time with their fancy bikes, stage wins and leaders' jerseys that they won't, like the rest of us, log on to Strava after a hard day out to upload their ride.

> How to use Strava to make you fitter

In fact, it might be easier to write a 'who's not uploading their rides to Strava' feature this year, such is the ride-sharing app's grip over the cycling world. Here are the big names, and a few newcomers, we reckon it's worth dropping a follow...

Tadej Pogačar

Obviously. The two-time champ is on the comeback trail after that season-derailing fall at Liège–Bastogne–Liège, returning to racing and winning with Sunday's victory at the Slovenian national road race championships.

You can bet your bottom dollar, come Saturday, Tadej will be uploading all his Tour efforts... whether any jealous locals take issue with the blistering segment times remains to be seen...

> Tadej Pogačar uploads Tour of Flanders win to Strava... gets flagged

A quick mention for reigning champ Jonas Vingegaard too... the great Dane is on Strava , but hasn't uploaded since a training camp ride on Tenerife in March 2021. A return now seems unlikely.

Wout van Aert

The man who can do it all. Whether it's sprinting to green, time trial destruction, epic stage wins or peloton-shredding work for team leader Vingegaard, the newly crowned Belgian TT champ will be uploading it all to Strava.

Mathieu van der Poel

The big question of this list — will Mathieu make a return? The prodigious pedalling power used to be a prolific Strava sharer:  Flanders , Giro wins, THAT Amstel victory for the ages and the  Strade Bianche watt explosion all with full glorious power data uploaded for our nerdy pleasure.

However, the Dutchman's account has been dormant since the start of the year, with not even a first San Remo nor Roubaix tempting him back. Are the Van der Poel Strava glory days a thing of the past?

Tom Pidcock

Another former favourite-turned-sporadic ride sharer, Mr Pidcock goes in search of stage wins once again this July, looking to add another to his ever-growing palmares and building on last year's Alpe d'Huez epic .

That sent us into something of a meltdown when it appeared on Strava, 100km/h Galibier descent max speed and all, a stunned reaction repeated over the winter when Pidcock went and obliterated the Sa Calobra KOM . An uploader for the big occasion, come on Tom, bag another big one and stick it online for us...

Thibaut Pinot

One stage win. Just one Thibaut Pinot stage win is all we ask from the next three weeks. Victory or defeat, it'll all be there because he's a pretty staunch Strava user.

David Gaudu

Next up, the teammate of Pinot and fellow French darling. Gaudu loves a Strava upload, rarely missing a ride. Now 26, the FDJ climber's hunt for a podium will be under the microscope of the French expectation as well as his online following.

Romain Bardet

One more home favourite for the list. The perennial French hope's tenth appearance at his home Grand Tour and looking for a return to the podium six years since his last.

Jasper Philipsen

The pick of the sprinters on Strava. Two stage wins last year, how many more this term? He'll have to find time to accept your follower request, mind, but I guess that makes the whole process a touch more personal...

Egan Bernal

Back at Le Tour for the first time since 2020, the 2019 winner will be the Ineos Grenadiers' Strava man to watch, alongside the aforementioned Pidcock and road captain Michal Kwiatkowski . 

Dylan van Baarle

The newly crowned Dutch champ will be one of the easiest riders to spot in the peloton, resplendent in his national champ's jersey, something proudly Dutch team Jumbo-Visma will be sure not to skimp on colour for.

A crucial cog in the Jumbo machine, Van Baarle will be an interesting follow to see just how much work a loyal domestique gets through.

Fred Wright

Another national champ now. Can Fred finally get that Tour stage win, in the bands, after five top 10s last year? Fingers crossed.

Seven British riders will be on the start line in Bilbao, EF Education-EasyPost's James Shaw one of the most intriguing. After a couple of years with Lotto-Soudal earlier in his career, Shaw has served his time on the British Continental scene, rebuilding with SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling and Ribble Weldtite.

Just a couple of years ago the Nottingham-born rider was racing the Tour of Estonia and smaller 2.2 French races... now he gets his shot at the biggest one of them all. Be sure to follow his progress.

The best of the rest

Remember when we said it would be easier to list the riders not on Strava? Fill your boots...

• Tiesj Benoot
• Christophe Laporte
• Matej Mohorič
• Nils Politt
• Stefan Küng
• Valentin Madouas
• Michael Woods
• Victor Campenaerts
• Jasper Stuyven
• Matteo Jorgenson
• Simon Yates
• Ben O'Connor
• Richard Carapaz
• Neilson Powless
• Kasper Asgreen
• Rémi Cavagna
• Yves Lampaert 

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Dan is the road.cc news editor and has spent the past four years writing stories and features, as well as (hopefully) keeping you entertained on the live blog. Having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for the Non-League Paper, Dan joined road.cc in 2020. Come the weekend you'll find him labouring up a hill, probably with a mouth full of jelly babies, or making a bonk-induced trip to a south of England petrol station... in search of more jelly babies.

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Strava Launches Tour de France Hub with Routes/Segments/Rider Uploads

Back a few months ago, Strava teased an upcoming Tour de France hub that’ll allow you to track riders, stages, segments, and more – for both the men’s and women’s races this year. Today, that new hub launches ahead of the Tour de France starting next week. Albeit, since riders haven’t done the riding thing yet, you won’t quite see all the data goodness till after finishing those first few stages.

There are essentially a few core sections to this whole thing, which is in a new hub within the app, really the first time we’ve seen anything like this to my knowledge. In short, there is:

A) Complete listing of all stages: This includes the exact Stage routes and the ability to zoom in on any portion of the map, including in 3D view B) Consolidated pro rider upload page: For riders that upload to Strava (which, is the majority of them), you’ll be able to find the riders activity file and do whatever it is that you normally do when it shows up in your feed C) Consolidated list of key stage Strava Segments: Strava has gone through and highlighted a handful of key Strava Segments on each stage (from what would otherwise be thousands and thousands of Segments). So you can see how the riders do on that, as well as perhaps compare it to your own efforts if you’ve ridden it in real life. D) Various Strava Challenges: Strava has also created challenges around time, distance, and elevation that you can partake in. Or, you can just do like every other proper cyclist and sit on the couch and yell at your TV instead.

Now as noted, this all launches today, and assuming you’ve updated your Strava app recently, you should start seeing this at the top of the Feed, or you can click on this link here to get right into it (from the mobile app). Doing so brings you to this page below, which on the top shows the overall route, and then down below has some of the challenges, as well a link to the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (the 8-day variant for the women that starts later in July).

Clicking to explore the Stages, you’ll be brought to Stage 1, where you can browse the Stage in either regular map view, or 3D map view.  Down below is an ‘official’ segment, which I presume just means the curated one for that section. Given Stage 1 is a time-trial stage and simply a short 13km circuit around Copenhagen, they didn’t exactly have a lot of options for ‘proper’ Strava Segments. As you can see, this one is 0.7km long at 0.2% incline.

(The Tour starts in Demark this year for the first few days, before going to France, then sauntering into Belgium for a short bit, then back to France, then dipping into Switzerland for a few stages, before finally going back to France and staying put.)

If you tap the ‘All’ button, you’ll see a listing of all Stages. First the men’s and then the women’s stages (since that’s the date order):

You can then tap on any given Stage for the same details as before, this time I selected the July 14th Alpe d’Huez stage (Stage 12), which looks much cooler in the app, and has the three major climbs of the day (Col de la Croix de Fer, Col du Galibier, and Alpe d’Huez). That should be an epic race day, appropriate also being Bastille Day (La fête nationale française).

All of this is pretty cool. About the only caveat is that as someone living in Europe, I don’t see any easy way to tap on these routes and create a normal Strava route from it that I can ride. Obviously, these routes exist somewhere as proper Strava Routes, but it’d be great for Strava to stick a list somewhere (or, perhaps it’s somewhere but just not findable). Countless people ride these routes during the Tour de France (usually morning of, day before/after).

Again, these are all obviously pulling from just a Strava Route ID, and it’d be great to have said listing of those route ID’s (also, it may surprise you to learn that getting the *precise* TdF routes ahead of time is actually really challenging, most of the time this is only really available in the final days via various media/press packets, and not actually published anywhere in a public way – so if Strava puts these somewhere logical, that’d be awesome).

(Speaking of lists, Strava actually used to have a consolidated Top Cycling & Top Running routes for many cities on a simple blog page. But with their newish insta-routing rollouts, they’ve sadly redirected all those pages to a generic marketing page. Those Top 10 route pages were awesome, and I often used them in a number of cities, as they were legit human-curated completed with photos and more. Here was the page for the Amsterdam routes , you can still find it in the Internet Way Back Machine from last fall though . What’s silly is that Strava is/was the dominant result for all these cities before they redirected these, which they’ll ultimately lose to other pages.)

In any case, I’m looking forward to seeing how this all works once the riders start pedaling. I don’t expect the data to be that exciting after the first day, given the shortness of the Stage, and the fact that it’s a time trial stage. But, once we get into the main stages, it should be pretty interesting – especially if they have the vast majority of the Peloton onboard.

Back in March when they announced this, they noted that last year “72% of the men’s peloton and 68% of the women’s peloton were on Strava.” and that “This year, we expect it to be universal” – hopefully that’s the case. And, hopefully, after a few days of this going live, we’ll see other athletes jump onboard as well.

Certainly, it behooves riders to get themselves onboarded into the list, since that in turn means more people will see their accounts, which in turn draws more attention to their sponsors, which in turn is what makes professional cycling ultimately tick. Just like any other professional sport.

With that, certainly more to come from the Tour de France next week, stay tuned!

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19 Comments

I hope you get the chance to do a tech from the tour video like you’ve done in the past. Best of luck buddy 👍

A few years ago I noticed that the pros would often wait a day or two before uploading a race day. I wonder if there was some sort of game of chicken going on that they’d only upload if specific other riders uploaded first. Or they’d cut out the power meter data.

I train with a fellow kayaker who is completely paranoid about his competition knowing about his training even though he’s 60 years old and there isn’t any money on the line in kayaking. I mean paranoid to the point where he’s demanded I don’t mention his name on my blog or YouTube videos if we’re training together, he even made me take down videos because it caught him saying something about his training. All his Strava workouts are private unless he wants to steal one of my CRs. I liked to point out that pro riders with millions of euros on the line aren’t as paranoid as him, but he doesn’t care. I just laugh and refer to him as “the other guy” on my blog and put in a music clip whenever he talks on my videos.

I’ll be watching the TdF (both the men’s and women’s) but I did not “Follow” the new Strava “Hub” simply for fear that Strava will give me stage results before I have a chance to watch the stage. I’m in the U.S. and often ride in the morning and watch the stage in the afternoon. The last thing I want to do is to check Strava after a ride and see who won the stage. Has Strava said how they are planning to present information about each stage? Will they push data into your feed that contains spoilers or is it up to the user to make a selection to see stage data?

This is a really good point. I’m in Australia, and don’t want the results spoiled each morning. @DCRainmaker, have Strava said anything about this? Is it possible to remain spoiler-free?

Was going to ask the same question. It looks like a nice feature but I hope they’ve thought about the spoiler aspect.

OK. Really cool. But, in looking at the various stages, I do not see course profiles. I am I just being a dunce in not finding them?

Annoyingly, the same functionality isn’t on Strava Web.

Agreed. A lot of the new “bells and whistles” roll out on the app and never get implemented on the web version, but at the same time, the app lacks many of the functionality available on the web (flybys, fatigue and form on fitness graph, and more). I don’t think Strava has a coherent technology plan (or maybe even a plan at all) for their product interfaces.

My wife uploads to Strava; I’m content with Garmin, why duplicate my efforts?

Thanks for the links to the Amsterdam Strava routes. I forgot about those. I’ve been here for two months and using routes from Maats and Kaptein. Always good to have more routes!

Are you going to see any stages? I was just in Copenhagen and they have TdF stuff up everywhere.

Yup, I’m headed up early Thursday morning and will be there a couple days. :)

I was dumb and didn’t wear a mask and got covid. :-(

Only took 30 minutes to get through security at Schiphol on a Friday morning. Lots of people there but it went fast. With all the news, expected it to take 4 hours. :-)

Yeah, the last few trips I’ve taken have been pretty consistently an hour (for security). I think GPLAMA was an hour leaving, but Des a bit faster.

I only just recently discovered the RTL page that shows the calendar of expected numbers by day at the airport, helping a fair bit to judge things. It’s a few weeks old, but most summer plans would be locked in now for most people.

* link to rtlnieuws.nl

Strava is increasingly trying to become a social media entity – I just want to see my own activities and those I follow – plus analytics. Not lots of filler and promotions that I can’t turn off.

Thinking it will soon be time to unsubscribe and find an alternative. Shame I’ve been with them from Beta…

To be fair, that’s literally in the title of their homepage (Strava.com): “The Social Network for Athletes”

I don’t mind the TdF stuff. I think sometimes the challenges can become a bit crazy, but I don’t even notice it anymore. My brain just filters it out automatically.

I might be misremembering, but didn’t I have to sign up to see the Tour de France portal? They’d probably keep nagging if I didn’t, though…

As for challenges, the major problem of cheating would simply vanish if they got rid of the leader boards and turned them into personal challenges. Maybe keep the ability to see the people you follow in the same challenge, but I really don’t need to see all of the cheaters.

I guess Strava was way over optimistic. Less than 50% of the riders end up uploading their activities and almost non of them show their heart beat and Power data which is the interesting data.

Indeed, hovering super-consistently around 80-85 riders for the first three stages.

That said, I’m willing to give them till Wednesday on this one, for a few reasons:

A) I wouldn’t be surprised to see some riders behind on Strava (toggling from private to public), and today being a rest day, they might catch-up. B) It wouldn’t surprise me either if Strava themselves hasn’t got all the riders tagged. Perhaps new accounts, etc… This is a holiday weekend in the US (including Monday), so I’d give them till end of Tuesday to sort things out. C) I could also see some Strava/ASO to teams pressure here on Monday/Tuesday. The Strava partnership was very visible at the Tour itself, across many mediums. Let alone the digital side. If I was Strava, and whatever I paid for this partnership, I’d be mildly annoyed that whoever promised more rider participation (be it ASO or teams or both), isn’t materilizing. All that takes is a single message going out to the teams with flowery language about sponsorship visibility for teams/etc via Strava rides.

But yeah, it’s not off to a good start, but I’m willing to give it a few days to settle out.

With the lack of the important data such as Power (Watts) you have time to look for other ‘fun facts’ such as – – Wout van Aert using EDGE 130 on the TT stage but 830 on the other 2 stages… I guess every gram counts. – On the TT stage – most riders start their timer a few good minutes ahead of the ‘green light’… Don’t have time to mess with that once their pushing the pedals. – Cadence from these PRO riders is incrediable… etc.

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Many readers stumble into my website in search of information on the latest and greatest sports tech products. But at the end of the day, you might just be wondering “What does Ray use when not testing new products?”. So here is the most up to date list of products I like and fit the bill for me and my training needs best! DC Rainmaker 2023 swim, bike, run, and general gear list . But wait, are you a female and feel like these things might not apply to you? If that’s the case (but certainly not saying my choices aren’t good for women), and you just want to see a different gear junkies “picks”, check out The Girl’s Gear Guide too.

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Strava partners with Tour de France to feature rider data

Riders in Tour, Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift to be compiled in new content hub

The social fitness app Strava announced on Tuesday a three-year partnership with the organisers of the Tour de France and the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) to create a new content hub in the app to capture riders' data from the events.

According to the press release, the rider data from 62 per cent of Tour de France stage wins last year were loaded to the Strava app, allowing users to see the winners' routes, times, segment records and in some cases, heart rate and power data that produced the victory.

Last year, Cyclingnews analysed Ben O'Connor full file of data from his stage 9 win in the Tour de France at Tignes and demonstrated just how hard the Tour de France is . In 2020, Cyclingnews analysed Tadej Pogacar's record-breaking ride over the Col de Peyresourde.

The press release did not mention requiring riders to participate in uploading their data to Strava but said the hub would be "dedicated to telling the story of the riders through their daily activity uploads and photos". The Tour de France takes place from July 1-24, 2022 and the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift will take place July 24-31, 2022.

Tour de France 2022 Tour de France 2022 route revealed Tour de France Femmes 2022 Tour de France Femmes 2022 route revealed

Strava's CEO and co-founder Michael Horvath said the partnership will give its users "a new way to follow the action of the iconic races" and pointed to hosting hubs for the men's and women's Tours as evidence of the company's commitment to "promoting equity and inclusion in sport".

"The Tour is the most watched annual sporting event in the world, and three-quarters of the peloton shared their rides on Strava last year," Horvath said. "This partnership and future events on Strava will let more riders, including the women’s peloton, engage with cyclists around the world in new ways and inspire cyclists regardless of gender, age or where they live.” 

According to the press release, the ASO has used Strava to help design courses for the Tour de France, while 72 per cent of Tour de France participants uploaded race efforts to the app.

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Yann le Moënner, the CEO of the ASO said partnering with the app will help fans "get closer to the Tour de France and the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift and discover new routes for future challenges inspired by the world's greatest riders".

US national champion Lauren Stephens (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB), said she has used Strava to help motivate herself and push for segment records and lauded the support of the company for the Tour de France Femmes.

"Sponsor support from companies like Strava makes this possible, and improves the race for the riders. I feel more respected and validated, and that brings more pressure, in a good way, to perform and make the racing exciting for the people and the brands that are supporting you and creating more opportunity. This competition is my primary race focus for the season and the centerpiece of my race calendar."

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Cyclingnews is the world's leader in English-language coverage of professional cycling. Started in 1995 by University of Newcastle professor Bill Mitchell, the site was one of the first to provide breaking news and results over the internet in English. The site was purchased by Knapp Communications in 1999, and owner Gerard Knapp built it into the definitive voice of pro cycling. Since then, major publishing house Future PLC has owned the site and expanded it to include top features, news, results, photos and tech reporting. The site continues to be the most comprehensive and authoritative English voice in professional cycling.

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Tadej Pogačar Keeps Getting Flagged on Strava

“Who TF flagged me?” wrote the Slovenian superstar, who, despite leading the Giro for 18 stages, ultimately wants his KOMs.

“Who TF flagged me,” the 2024 Giro d’Italia leader posted to his Strava account . He also added a few emojis to let everyone know he was having a laugh about it.

The stats on the day showed that Pogačar rode a distance of 220.96 km (137 miles) and an elevation gain of 5,531 meters (18,146 feet), completed in six hours nine minutes and 47 seconds for an average speed of 35.9 km/h (22.3 mph). That is, admittedly, pretty wild.

And then it happened again. On Wednesday, the day after Pogačar took his fifth win of the race, he got flagged for a second time. For this one, he posted, “Haters gonna flag.” He also took the KOM on the PASSO ROLLE da bivio Valles segment.

‘Flagging’ on Strava occurs when another user on the app highlights an activity as questionable. This commonly happens when someone clearly kept their activity going even though they were in a vehicle. It also happens if someone uploads an activity under the wrong mode, like a bike ride that’s listed as a run and is thus impossibly fast.

And to be fair, Pogačar does ride his bike at speeds that could be confused for a motor vehicle, but he still doesn’t appreciate his KOMs being taken away because he’s just so fast.

GCN reported that “the activity initially appeared without any KOMs, but Strava later cleared the flagging, and Pogačar’s KOMs were reinstated. The most prestigious being the full Passo di Foscagna climb, where he launched his stage-winning attack and took nearly two minutes out of the previous KOM.”

“‘It happens a lot,’ Pogačar said of the incident. ‘It’s a funny moment, but it’s good that people can see how fast we actually go on some of these iconic climbs.’”

Strava is advancing to move away from “flagging,” as they’re introducing more AI features to help better identify “irregular, improbable, or impossible activities.” The feature will be known as ‘AI-enabled Leaderboard Integrity,’ and will allow riders of all levels to “play fair,” even the ones who seem beyond human capability.

Micah Ling is a freelance writer who lives in the mountains of Colorado. She splits her free time between mountain biking and trail running.

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'I have dreams on the road' – Puck Pieterse takes Tour de France Femmes by storm in her first-ever stage race

Three days in, the 21-year-old has a stage win and is leading two classifications—not bad for someone who, by her own admission, is still “just feeling it out” on the road

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Imagine lining up for your first-ever stage race, and it happens to be the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift - the biggest women’s cycling race in the world.

But rather than being intimidated by the grandeur of it all, Dutch cyclist Puck Pieterse is taking the Tour by storm, attacking the race favourites and sprinting to a photo finish on Stage 4 to take a stage win and the lead in two classifications — not bad for someone who, by her own admission, is still “just feeling it out” on the road

The 21-year-old is best known for her stellar cyclocross and mountain biking performances and her quick ascent in the dirt disciplines. Her gutsy racing and pure joy in riding bikes make her both a fan and a media favourite everywhere she goes. 

With her sights set on the Paris Olympics mountain bike race , road racing thus far has been nothing but a side project. Before lining up for the Tour de France Femmes on Monday, she’d competed in just eight road races in 2024 and two in 2023. 

But her eight-day spring campaign in 2024 saw her contest some of the year's toughest races, including Tour of Flanders and Strade Bianche. While inexperienced, Pieterse proved that she’s no ordinary talent. Of those eight races, she finished in the top 10 seven times, including a podium finish at Trofeo Alfredo Binda and the Ronde van Drenthe. 

After wrapping up her short but successful campaign, Pieterse shifted her focus entirely to mountain biking, where she claimed three World Cup wins and the European title. But her much-anticipated Olympic campaign ended with the biggest disappointment of her young career: a flat tyre took her out of medal contention, and she finished fourth. 

Following the mountain bike race, Pieterse went to altitude camp with her Fenix-Deceuninck teammates, the biggest goal of which was to get her mind off the disappointment and refocus on a new and exciting goal: her first Grand Tour.

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Pieterse approached the Tour with a mix of excitement and uncertainty. “This will be my first stage race, so we’ll see how that goes,” she said, carefree and excited before the Tour’s start.

“In the spring, I learned a bit about how the peloton works, and I can climb a little, but those last two days are really big climbing days, and I’m not trained for that,” she said.

Instead, Pieterse is more than willing to play a supporting role for intended GC riders Yara Kastelijn and Pauliena Rooijakkers, but she’s not one to waste an opportunity to ‘have some fun with it’ either. 

That ‘fun’ was had on Stage 4 . The blue jerseys of Fenix-Deceuninck were never far from the front, riding aggressively and helping Kastelijn earn points for the climber’s jersey. On Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons, the day's final launchpad, Kastelijn couldn’t quite keep up with pace and so Pieterse claimed the points over the top of the climb herself, moving her into the polka-dot jersey for the next day. Over the summit, only Pieterse, Rooijakkers, yellow-jersey wearer Demi Vollering (SD Worx - Protime) and Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) were left on the front. Off the quarter went, hoping to stay clear of the peloton as Liège neared. In their fight for the last bonus points of the day, Rooijakkers fell off the back. Now, only three were left and, as Pieterse put it after the race, the poker game began with 1K to go. 

In the dash to the line, Niewiadoma made a last-ditch attempt to lose the faster sprinter but it was too late. Pieterse jumped first with 300 metres yet to go. But she held off her compatriot by a tyre width to claim her first UCI road win.  

While she was in disbelief, her team director, Michel Cornelisse, expressed nothing but pride and confidence, stating: “When Puck participates, she only wants one thing, and that is to win.”

“I think she proved today what she’s capable of,” Cornelisse told Cycling Weekly . “If she can win here in Liège today, why couldn’t she win Liège Bastogne Liège ?”

The days ahead are no Classics courses, however. Those wanting to hold on to a jersey of any kind will have to best some of the biggest climbs in cycling, including the biggest icon of the Tour de France itself: the Alpe d’Huez . 

Still, Cornelisse has nothing but faith. 

“We have two cards to play with. We know Pauliena [Rooijakkers] can handle the high mountains and I have no doubt [Pieterse] can hold her own in the mountain,” he said. “She’s in such good form. She’s certainly not going to hand the win over.”

Pieterse is also not unfamiliar with the Alpe d’Huez. She previewed the climb on August 3rd when she managed to climb herself onto the Strava leaderboard with the third-best time behind former pro and expert climber Emma Pooley and British national hill climb champion Illi Gardner .

Pieterse admitted that she has dreams on the road, but those “are probably a bit further in the future.”  

That future may be coming sooner than she thinks, however, with a chance to prove herself up Alpe d’Huez just days away. 

Take note because Puck Pieterse is doing more than ‘just feeling it out’—she’s making her mark, and she’s only just starting out.  

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Cycling Weekly 's North American Editor, Anne-Marije Rook is old school. She holds a degree in journalism and started out as a newspaper reporter — in print! She can even be seen bringing a pen and notepad to the press conference.

Originally from The Netherlands, she grew up a bike commuter and didn't find bike racing until her early twenties when living in Seattle, Washington. Strengthened by the many miles spent darting around Seattle's hilly streets on a steel single speed, Rook's progression in the sport was a quick one. As she competed at the elite level, her journalism career followed, and soon she became a full-time cycling journalist. She's now been a cycling journalist for 11 years. 

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Power Analysis: How Niewiadoma Survived Vollering’s Alpine Onslaught to Win the Tour de France Femmes

We dig through the data to reveal how vollering was possibly just a few watts short of successfully defending her title sunday in the alps..

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After more than 1,000 kilometers of racing, Kasia Niewiadoma won the closest Tour de France in cycling history.

Four seconds separated her and Demi Vollering in the final general classification of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift , and it all came down to the final climb of the race.

Vollering lost nearly two minutes when she was left behind – literally – after a crash in stage 5 . Her own teammates abandoned her, leaving the 2023 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (TDFF) winner chasing alone.

Niewiadoma finished 2nd that day, taking six bonus seconds that would ultimately be more-than enough to win the GC.

But there were still three stages to go, and Vollering was determined to take back time in the mountains.

The Dutchwoman attacked on stage 7 to Le Grand-Bornand , but she couldn’t distance Niewiadoma. Vollering was, however, able to beat Niewiadoma in the sprint, gaining a handful of bonus seconds and a morale boost heading into the final stage.

High stakes in the high Alps

The grand finale of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift featured 3,748 meters of climbing in 150 km, with a summit finish atop Alpe d’Huez.

But Vollering wasn’t content to wait for the final climb. She sensed weakness in Niewiadoma, who later admitted that she hit a mental and physical low on the penultimate climb.

Vollering attacked on the Col du Glandon with more than 50 km to go in the TDFF. Niewiadoma was immediately under pressure, and the Dutchwoman began extending her advantage.

It was a huge attack with still a third of the stage remaining – could Vollering maintain this pace?

Vollering – Final 6.7km of the Col du Glandon

• Time: 25:48
• Estimated average power: ~5.2w/kg

Niewiadoma – Final 6.7km of the Col du Glandon

• Time: 26:45
• Estimated average power: ~5w/kg

Thankfully for Vollering, she had company (and help) in the form of Pauliena Rooijakkers and Valentina Cavellar. However, the SD Worx rider was keen to push on, even more so than the other riders.

Thus, Vollering was stuck doing most of the work, especially in the valley before Alpe d’Huez.

At the bottom of Alpe d’Huez, Vollering had a 43-second advantage over the chase group containing Niewiadoma.

Rooijakkers was planted on Vollering’s wheel, and Cavellar had been dropped, so it was all up to the defending TDFF champion to go for the win.

The time gap seemed to bounce around at many points during the climb.

First, the ticker read 43 seconds, then it was 46, and then 53, and then right back down to 44 seconds. At 14 km with an average of 7.9%, Alpe d’Huez is one of the hardest climbs we’ve ever seen in women’s cycling.

Vollering and Niewiadoma were locked in a shadow boxing match, each delivering blows to the other without actually seeing their opponent.

Nearly a minute up the road, Vollering was out of Niewiadoma’s sight, but both riders continued to push on with everything they had.

With 2km to go, Rooijakkers put in a dig that Vollering was able to match. Évita Muzic accelerated out of Niewiadoma’s group, but the maillot jaune was able to follow.

With 1km to go, it looked like it was going to be a nail-biter.

Vollering distanced Rooijakkers in the final sprint, taking the stage win and a 10-second time bonus. Niewiadoma couldn’t do the same to Muzic, losing the sprint for third but crossing the line one minute and one second after Vollering.

The world whipped out their calculators … and Niewiadoma was the winner of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.

Niewiadoma – Alpe d’Huez

• Time: 49:58
• Estimated average power: ~4.9w/kg

Vollering – Alpe d’Huez

• Time: 49:40

We can see from the data that Niewiadoma recovered extremely well between the Col du Glandon and Alpe d’Huez. Most riders completely crack when they are dropped by more than a minute, but Niewiadoma continued to push on.

After the race, she said she ate everything in her pockets after getting dropped on the penultimate climb.

That pocket food saved her Tour de France.

A few watts short of a title defense?

Compared to Vollering’s previous performances, the Dutchwoman was clearly not at her best, especially after the crash on stage 5.

Just last year, Vollering did more than 5.1w/kg for 53 minutes of the Col du Tourmalet, a high-altitude climb that goes up to more than 2,100 meters.

I’m not sure what four seconds translates to on a long climb like Alpe d’Huez, but it is likely one or two watts (0.02w/kg) that decided the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.

Fun fact: the Alpe d’Huez QOM is held by Illi Gardner, who completed the climb in 46 minutes and 36 seconds in July 2024.

Gardner is a hill climb specialist who earned the QOM during a Gran Fondo event. Gardner averaged 244w (5.4w/kg) during the effort and went more than three minutes faster than Vollering and Niewiadoma.

At the end of the day, Niewiadoma took the biggest win of her career at the most important race in cycling.

The emotion poured out of her and her team at the finish line; conversely, present on Vollering’s face was the unmistakable emotionless face of disappointment.

*** Power Analysis data courtesy of  Strava

Strava Sauce extension

• Kasia Niewiadoma
• Demi Vollering 
• Illi Gardner

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