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.
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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.
