Top five insane Strava rides by the pros
From Chris Froome to Annemiek van Vleuten and James Hayden


Strava has seen some truly momentous rides logged on its social media platform since launching in 2009.
Over the last decade, the app has become an almost essential tools for countless amateur riders and even many pros.
The likes of Chris Froome, Egan Bernal and Annemiek van Vleuten use Strava to give fans a great insight into the training required to be the very best in cycling.
Recently Oliver Naesen posted an enormous 360km day in the saddle on Strava, which is a pretty memorable way to deal with the unexpected off-season.
Inspired by Naesen’s heroics, we decided to look back through the archive and dig up five of the biggest Strava rides we’ve seen:
Chris Froome - Empty the Tank
Team Ineos leader and four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome is famed for posting some monster rides on Strava.
Froome doesn’t post all his rides online, but when he does they’re guaranteed to impress.
In January 2018, Froome posted a 271km ‘Empty the Tank’ ride on Strava.
The six-hour training session took in 3,485m of climbing around his home in Johannesburg, South Africa, with the Brit holding a staggering 44km/h for the ride.
Annemiek van Vleuten – Empty the Tank
Froome appeared to start a trend, as Mitchelton-Scott’s Annemiek van Vleuten posted her own ‘Empty the Tank’ ride online
The Dutchwoman posted her own 234km, eight-hour ride in southern Italy while ride with the men’s squad on a training camp in January this year.
World champion Van Vleuten climbed 4,572m and held an average speed of 28km/h.
Richie Porte – Everest challenge
After a slightly disappointing return to the Tour de France in 2019, Richie Porte wasn’t content with the 3,000km of racing in his legs and decided to take on a new challenge.
Just a few days after stage 21 in Paris, Porte (Trek-Segafredo) helped friend and professional triathlete Cameron Wurf celebrate his birthday as the pair completed the Everest challenge on the Col de la Madone.
Porte set off at 6.20am and rode for 16 hours to crest the 13.1km and 10 per cent climb a total of 11 times.
They racked up an enormous 9,012m of elevation gain, above the 8,847m needed to reach the summit of Everest.
Mathieu van der Poel – Amstel Gold Race 2019
Superstar Mathieu van der Poel can win in almost any discipline, but he has yet to take a victory as memorable as his phenomenal Amstel Gold Race win in 2019.
The Dutchman chased down a stacked breakaway down with the entire peloton on his wheel, rode past Julian Alaphilippe and Jakob Fuglsang, and still put out an enormous sprint to take the win.
Fortunately for us, Van der Poel shared his data from the ride on Strava.
Over the 260km race, he averaged 337w weighted for the day.
His 20-minute max was 378w (5.17w/kg) and he will put out a maximum of 1,400w during his final sprint.
James Hayden – Silk Road Mountain Race
James Hayden is one of the best ultra-distance riders racing today and he has done some truly remarkable rides.
Normally ultra-distant races are so far, competitors upload their rides day by day, but Hayden opted to posted his entire ride from the 2019 Silk Road Mountain Race in one activity.
During the 1,700km ride through the mountains of Kyrgyzstan, Hayden spent 126 hours (or 5.25 days) in the saddle.
The ride took him to 30,495m of altitude gain and he burnt an insane 39,000 calories during the 14.1km/h average ride.
Thank you for reading 5 articles this month* Join now for unlimited access
Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription
Join now for unlimited access
Try first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
Alex is the digital news editor for CyclingWeekly.com. After gaining experience in local newsrooms, national newspapers and in digital journalism, Alex found his calling in cycling, first as a reporter and now as news editor responsible for Cycling Weekly's online news output.
Since pro cycling first captured his heart during the 2010 Tour de France (specifically the Contador-Schleck battle) and joining CW in 2018, Alex has covered three Tours de France, multiple editions of the Tour of Britain, and the World Championships, while both writing and video presenting for Cycling Weekly. He also specialises in fitness writing, often throwing himself into the deep end to help readers improve their own power numbers.
Away from journalism, Alex is a national level time triallist, avid gamer, and can usually be found buried in an eclectic selection of books.
-
-
No joy for Yates after Giro d'Italia victory: five talking points from stage 14
Yates won the stage, but he wanted to win the race
By Stephen Puddicombe • Published
-
Men's Velocio LUXE bib shorts review
They're as good as the price demands, quickly becoming the go-to bib shorts
By Chris Marshall-Bell • Published
-
Mathieu van der Poel relaxed about rest of Giro d'Italia: 'We already achieved everything we wanted'
Dutchman looking to enjoy the next two weeks of the Grand Tour, after completing his goal of wearing pink
By Ryan Dabbs • Published
-
'I would have signed for this before': Van der Poel holds onto pink jersey at Giro d'Italia with second on time trial
Dutchman hopes to hold onto race lead until Sicily
By Adam Becket • Published
-
'It really hurt' — Mathieu van der Poel on his first Giro d'Italia stage win
Dutchman leads race after stage one in Hungary
By Adam Becket • Published
-
Mathieu van der Poel storms to victory on stage one of the Giro d'Italia
Alpecin-Fenix rider claims pink jersey after his win, Biniam Girmay in second
By Adam Becket • Published
-
Chris Froome: Being competitive at Tour de France would be a 'dream scenario'
The Israel-Premier Tech rider on being back at his normal level, appreciating his past, and aiming to have form late into the season
By Adam Becket • Published
-
Mathieu van der Poel says he didn't have the legs to follow everybody at Amstel Gold Race
Dutchman says that Tour of Flanders suits him better after Amstel fourth place
By Adam Becket • Published
-
'Winning is not as easy as everyone thinks' — Mathieu van der Poel after second Tour of Flanders victory
Dutchman says he was calm heading into the sprint on Sunday
By Adam Becket • Published
-
Can Mathieu van der Poel beat Wout van Aert at Tour of Flanders? Dutchman says he'll need to get better
Despite winning at Dwars door Vlaanderen, Alpecin-Fenix rider says Flanders is another step up
By Adam Becket • Published