On Saturday, Team Belkin’s Laurens ten Dam rode to fifth place on stage eight of the Tour de France, while Chris Froome scarpered up the road alone for the stage victory. That in itself isn’t the interesting bit. I’ve been following Laurens on Strava for the last year, so when I saw Laurens finish so highly, I immediately logged on to take a look at his ride and give him some ‘kudos’.
So did 2,146 other people. With 1547 comments, his ride certainly attracted some attention on Strava. The details for that stage include a 37.6km/h average speed, 92.2km/h max speed, and an average power of 379 watts.
Now, I know there are a lot of people who hate Strava, but with access to information such as this it pulls away the veil of secrecy that has always covered pro cyclists' performances in races like the Tour de France. In an era when transparency is key to moving forward and leaving the problems of doping in the past, being able to view and analyse a ride in such detail as Strava offers must be seen as a positive step forward.
See Laurens ten Dam on Strava here. And you can see Saturday's ride, titled simply 'hard day' right here.
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8 thoughts on “Laurens ten Dam’s Tour de France on Strava”
the garmin squad are…wait
the garmin squad are…wait for it….on garmin connect.
not all the rides are there but enough, the numbers make me feel fat and slow!! :O
Funnily enough I was looking
Funnily enough I was looking at Dan Martin’s winning ride on Garmin connect: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/339429962
Three things struck me about Dan the Mans data – the max speed 63.8 mph, he’s not using the pimpiest model of Garmin (a 510) and that 105 miles and 13200 ft of uppage at 21.6 mph is a damn sight quicker than my pedestrian pace !
badback wrote:Funnily enough
On Google Chrome I have the Dictionary of Numbers app that helps explain numbers (usually large ones) in different formats to get a better understanding over the information. I liked what it said about your comment:
…63.8 mph [≈ sailfish —fastest fish], he’s not using the pimpiest model of Garmin (a 510) and that 105 miles [≈ length of the Suez Canal] and 13200 ft of uppage at 21.6 mph [≈ Top speed of a running cat or dog.]
510’s nice and light and he
510’s nice and light and he doesn’t really need a map 🙂
Dave Atkinson wrote:510’s
That’s why I use a 200. (or is it because I’m a skint tight arsed northerner !) 😕 😉
Guys!
Jeremy Roy of FDJ and
Guys!
Jeremy Roy of FDJ and Thomas De Gendt are also strava’ing all their rides!
http://app.strava.com/athletes/1855274
http://app.strava.com/athletes/1655561
Now that Ted King is outta
Now that Ted King is outta the race, I had to follow LTD to get the Strava deets.
Just to correct the article,
Just to correct the article, if there’s no “lightning bolt” next to the ride, then the power is Strava-calculated, not real. So 379w is not a useful stat for that ride as it assumes he was riding solo, doesn’t take into account the wind, etc.
Ten Dam rides with power in training and often posts those rides, but this particular ride does not include his data from his powermeter.