Capacity and the third week at the Tour de France

Many of us enjoyed the insane climbing feats on the mountain top finishes at the Tour de France. What is hard to comprehend is what they did to get there.

I’m not talking about the thousands of hours of training to hone their craft, I’m talking about the 3–5 climbs the riders tackled before the finishing climb(s).

Seeing this first hand this year reminded me of how robust the engines on these athletes need to be. The ability to absorb a massive amount of punishment throughout the day and still have the ability to lift the pace after a big day, separates the contenders from the pretenders.

Stage 14 was a great example of this. This stage was not very long by TDF standards at 153k (95 miles) but packed in 14,100ft of climbing. With four categorized climbs before the last climb, this was a perfect scenario for Jumbo Visma to put a stranglehold on the race.

Their team captain and reigning champion held yellow jersey by a slender margin but knew that they had to start beating down their opponents (really just one, Tadej Pogacar) with an infernal pace throughout the stage. On every climb they held a reported pace of 5–5.5 watts per kilogram.

A majority of the peloton can handle this pressure on one or two long climbs but this compounds as the climbing stacks up. By the time they hit the bottom slopes of the last climb, there were only 15 riders remaining in the first group. Not one attack was launched, just a day that got exponentially harder with accumulation of fatigue. This, in a nut shell, is modern cycling.

The repeatability of efforts that are just below your maximal capabilities, will always be your true test of endurance and form in a Grand Tour. However there is only one Grand Tour where the standards are so high, Le Tour de France.

We don’t need to compare ourselves to these aerobic beasts. This is solely a reminder that one off efforts and PR’s are fantastic for morale and seeing where you stack up but the repeatability of efforts below your max is also an amazing reflection of your fitness. This is only achieved with longer rides and time in the saddle, which will give your engine a bigger gas tank and capacity.