Arne

Welcome to The Debrief, a new series on Grassdune. Every edition reconstructs one remarkable activity through the athlete’s FIT file, performance data and personal reflections. As you read along, you can explore Lars’ complete activity yourself at the bottom of this post, including the power file, lap data and graphs discussed throughout this article.

For this first edition, Lars Quaedvlieg was kind enough to share his complete race file and answer a couple of questions about his podium finish in Visegrád 4 Kerékpárverseny (UCI 1.2).

Most cycling fans know (kind of) how hard it is to race at the Tour de France. But many underestimate the level just below the WorldTour.

UCI 1.2 races don’t make many headlines, but don’t let that fool you. These races are seriously hard. Continental teams chasing UCI points. Young riders hoping to earn a professional contract. And some teams that simply love racing bikes and everything that comes with it.

Universe Cycling Team belongs to that last category. Rather than following the traditional Continental calendar, they travel wherever the racing takes them, hence the name Universe. They race because they love racing. Different countries, different cultures, different races. Performances matter, of course, but so does the adventure.
Their Instagram (@universe_ct) captures that spirit. Not polished sponsor content, but the kind of cycling that reminds you why many of us fell in love with the sport in the first place.

In this Debrief we’ll reconstruct Lars’ race from start to finish. Using his activity data, race metrics and his own reflections, we’ll break down what it really took to stand on the podium alongside Luca Cretti and Alessandro Verre, yes, the same Alessandro Verre who finished second on the Finestre stage of the 2025 Giro d’Italia.

So, what does it actually take to share the podium with a rider of that calibre?
Let’s find out.

The race at a glance
Before diving into the data, it’s worth understanding the challenge Lars was up against. The Visegrád 4 Kerékpárverseny startlist consisted of 1 UCI ProTeam (MBH Bank Ballan CSB Telecom), 10 Continental teams and 13 club teams.

The course itself offered little room for recovery. Riders first completed seven laps of a larger circuit, before finishing with two shorter finishing laps. Both circuits included the race’s defining moment: a 1-kilometre climb averaging 9.7%, meaning the climb had to be done nine times throughout the day.
After 3 hours, 52 minutes and 5 seconds of racing, the podium looked like this:
🥇 Luca Cretti MBH Bank Ballan CSB Telecom
🥈 Alessandro Verre MBH Bank Ballan CSB Telecom (+16s)
🥉 Lars Quaedvlieg Universe Cycling Team (")
Behind them followed another MBH rider, Márton Dina, just one second later, underlining the dominance of the Italian ProTeam throughout the race.

So what did it take to be on the podium with a rider like Alessandro Verre?
First thing I noticed: 205 watts average?! That can’t be right… For context, Lars weighs 63 kg. 205 watts doesn’t scream “podium in a UCI race.”

Then I noticed the normalized power: 70 watts higher. That immediately tells you this wasn’t one long threshold effort. This was a race of constant braking, accelerating, recovering, attacking and hanging on for dear life. And that’s exactly how Lars described it.

The race exploded almost immediately. The first two laps were ridden at a furious pace, with the second ascent averaging 465 W (7.4 W/kg) for 2 minutes and 35 seconds. The damage was immediate: after just two laps, only around 30 riders remained in the first peloton, while roughly 50 riders had already been dropped.

Then, typical cycling chaos happened. An open railway crossing forced the bunch to stop, allowing all the dropped riders to return. Fortunately, there was one lonely policeman standing guard to keep an entire peloton of cyclists in check if the lights would start flashing. Unthinkable in most Western European races, but nothing that made the Universe riders panic. They’ve seen far stranger things on their travels. As soon as the race restarted, four riders attacked, including Lars’ teammate Wessel Lange. They quickly built a lead of two to three minutes while MBH controlled the peloton behind. Eventually, the break was brought back just before the final local laps.
Once the race entered the final two local laps, things really exploded. The breakaway was caught, the pace immediately increased again, and another major selection followed. After the climb, only four riders remained off the front: Erik Fetter, Luca Cretti, Dominik Neumann and Lars Quaedvlieg.

Cretti then launched the decisive attack, riding solo to victory. Behind him, the chase group containing eventual second through ninth place came back together before the final ascent.

On those last two local laps, with 3 hours and 40 minutes already in the legs, he averaged 383 NP for almost 20 minutes. That is 6.1 W/kg. His final three ascents were completed at an average of 450 W, 420 W and 475 W respectively, big numbers after nearly four hours of racing.

On the last ascent MBH seemed to be on its way to do a full podium but Lars still had one final effort left. In the sprint for the remaining podium places, Lars produced 623 watts for 21 seconds, peaking at 749 watts, to overhaul Márton Dina in the closing metres and secure third place. Not quite a bunch sprint winning sprint, but note the effort that Lars is already coming off!
Looking at the power file, it’s easy to see why the average power doesn’t tell the full story. The race wasn’t won by riding hard for four hours, it was won by surviving every decisive acceleration and still having enough left in the end.

Enjoyed this Debrief?
Give the account a follow for future editions.
Every remarkable activity has a story. If you’ve done, or know someone who has done, a race, ride or adventure worth sharing, I’d love to hear from you. The next Debrief might be yours.

Send me a DM or email me at arne@grassdune.com.

The 2026 Dutch National Time Trial course was ideal for a bit of data nerding. The opening part of the course consisted of a long, straight section with smooth tarmac, wide roads, no corners and almost no wind. In other words: about as good as you can hope for when trying to compare riders using public data.

Using the Strava segment “NK tijdrijden 2026 - eerste deel” (≈4.60 km), I estimated CdA for riders who had public power data available and compared those values with the official TT results. It turns out to produce some interesting insights: not only into how aerodynamic efficiency varies between riders, but also into the relationship between power, aerodynamics and final performance. It even provided some useful context for my own ride.

One small caveat: there was a slight tailwind of just a few km/h on this section of the course. On the other hand, the opening part of the segment was on slightly rougher surface than the remainder. Rather than trying to perfectly correct for every variable, let's assume these effects roughly offset each other and focus on comparing riders under the same conditions.
Unfortunately, most of the podium riders did not include their power data (as always..., maybe they should try Grassdune🤔). But we do have some data for some of the podium riders in MU23 and top10 results in ME.

So let's dive in! I provided the results, sorted by CdA, for each category below. For reference: Remco Evenepoel's CdA (small rider!) is estimated at 0.16 and Filippo Ganna's CdA (big rider!) just below 0.19.
Men Elite
- Ard Stuiver recorded the lowest CdA in the dataset (0.173), despite finishing 21st. A good reminder that aerodynamics alone do not determine the final result: power production remains equally important.
- Maarten van den Berg stood out by combining a top-10 finish (7th) with a decent CdA (0.192) while also producing 386 W on the segment. This is arguably one of the strongest combinations of aerodynamics and power in the dataset.
- My own ride (15th, 0.195 CdA) was encouraging from an aerodynamic perspective, knowing the background on this bike build 😆.
Men Under 23
- The CdA values at the front of the U23 field are remarkably consistent. Jarne van de Ven and Michiel Mouris both estimated at 0.179, while riding over 400 W, illustrating how closely matched the top riders were.
- Ruud Nagengast posted the lowest CdA (0.175) despite finishing 17th, again showing that excellent aerodynamics cannot compensate for differences in power output over a full time trial.
- The U23 category has the highest concentration of riders combining sub-0.20 CdA with 400+ W, highlighting the depth of aerodynamic and physiological performance in this field.
Women Elite
- Very little data on top riders unfortunately
- Quinty Van Klink recorded the lowest CdA of the entire analysis (0.171), despite finishing 24th. Like the men’s field, this demonstrates that a low CdA does not automatically translate into a top placing.
- Sveva Klok appears to have one of the strongest overall combinations, pairing a top-20 finish, 257 W, and an CdA of 0.191.

This won’t replace a wind tunnel anytime soon, but it is fascinating to see how much information can be extracted from public ride data. Think again why many riders hide it. I'm digging my own grave here.

If you enjoy these kinds of data nerding articles, let me know!

This is my first real Grassdune post.
People who know me well know I spend a (sometimes ridiculous) amount of time training. Cycling, mostly. I love the long rides. Four, five, six hours. But I also love the structured interval sessions.

And honestly… I might love what comes after just as much. Looking at the data. Re-living the ride through numbers, photos, videos.

But what I might enjoy even more than my own training?
Looking at someone else’s. Because there’s real value in that.

Performance lives in the data.
Meaning lives in the story behind it.
Seeing what someone did is interesting.

Understanding why they did it – that’s where it becomes powerful. The problem is: these two are often still completely disconnected.

On Strava you see the numbers.
On Substack you read the story.

But nowhere do they truly come together. That’s where Grassdune started.

Grassdune is a place where you don’t just upload an activity – you break it down.
The data.
The context.
The why behind the session.
What went right AND what didn’t.

Not just highlights. Actual training. And if people genuinely care about your journey, they can go deeper. Athletes shouldn’t have to rely on cringe, obligatory sponsored posts to support their sport.

They should be able to do that through the thing people actually care about: their journey. No pressure to perform for attention.

On Grassdune you can follow for free or subscribe for a few euros per month to support an athlete and get deeper insights into their training.

And for anyone who wonders where that name “Grassdune” comes from. It comes from the Dutch word ”grasduinen”: browsing, digging around, exploring without a clear goal. That’s still one of my favourite things to do:
Diving into other athletes’ training, learning from it, getting inspired. Grassdune is built for that.

If that sounds like you, you’re in the right place 👇
Welcome to Grassdune.🌱

Situation: currently writing this from my Ibis Styles hotel at Paris Orly Airport. Yes ladies and gentlemen, Ibis Styles, not Budget, because that’s how we roll. Jokes. If there had been an Ibis Budget, I would’ve been in the Budget. It would also fit the cycling vibes better. I’m pretty sure a lot of cyclists have seen the inside of plenty of Ibis hotels while travelling to (French) races.
After a quick spin this morning, I stuffed my car with two bike bags. One for the road bike and one for the TT bike. Despite my mother’s little faith in the packing skills of her son, I did manage to fit everything comfortably, as you can see.

After a not-so-quick drive into Paris, the final 30 km took me 1.5 hours. Away from the charm of the city centre, it’s a horrible city to drive through. I can’t imagine having to navigate those roads every day. Not even speaking of the suburbs. I stopped for “dinner” before the final stretch, hoping traffic would dissolve a little. During the 500-metre walk from my car to the sandwicherie, I saw more alcoholics, homeless people and drug addicts than I normally see in an entire year back home. A little moment of appreciation for my own neighbourhood.
Enfin. I eventually made it to the hotel and had a quick chat with the team about how we’re going to clean up the GC and take 4 stage wins in the coming race in Guadeloupe. Because that’s what I’m here for, in case you missed it. On Friday, a 10-day UCI 2.2 stage race starts in Guadeloupe. And we’ll be there.

I’m planning to post a short blog every day about the experience. They probably won’t be overly polished, because I might be short on time or just tired or both. But at least you’ll get them as they are.

Cheers!

“Eva from one year ago would have countered that attack immediately, just to show everyone how strong I was. This time, I didn’t.”

Welcome to The Debrief #2. For this edition, I spoke with Eva van Agt (FDJ-United SUEZ) about her first professional victory at La Périgord Ladies (1.1). And of course we also got our hands on the .fit file, so you can nose around the data yourself while reading this article.

For those who follow women’s cycling (and of course you all do. If not, get out!), Eva is probably best known as one of Demi Vollering’s super domestiques. We’ve seen her work in the mountains during Demi’s Giro victory, but also in hilly classics like Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Amstel Gold Race.
Eva is the type of rider who rarely rides for her own chances. She joined FDJ as a highly valued domestique after her time at Visma Lease a Bike. But don’t let that fool you. In this race, Eva showed that years of riding for others had also taught her something else: excellent racing instincts.
The parcours
La Périgord Ladies is a 126 km hilly one-day race starting at Lac de Rouffiac and finishing on a local circuit in Boulazac. After roughly 110 km of racing, the riders enter the final circuit containing La Combe Neuve: 1.8 km at 4.6%. Not exactly a monster climb.
But because the entire race rolls up and down, it’s the perfect profile for a race that can go in almost any direction. And that’s exactly what happened. If you want, you can relive the race here. The livestream is worth checking out. Bad video quality and commentary you can barely understand: pure French cyclisme. It doesn’t get much more French than this.
The race
Eva's victory came together from a combination of circumstances (as for any cycling race). With Karlijn Swinkels and Maeva Squiban at the startline, UAE had two of the main contenders in their team. On paper, Caroline Andersson (Liv Alula Jayco), Kathrin Schweinberger (Human Powered Health) Emma Comte (Cofidis) were also amongst the pre-race favorites. However, the lack of a clear favorite made this race perfect for a break.

Breakaway formation
The break went in rather atypical fashion when one rider attacked through the feed zone, around 40 km into the race. Generally not the most appreciated move in the peloton, but perfectly legal.
Eva happened to be perfectly positioned. Not because she expected an attack, but because she wanted to spread herself out from her teammates through the feed zone. A common trick: soigneurs can’t hand bottles to six teammates passing by together.

Eventually 11 riders make it into the break out of which 9 will battle for the win in the final: Eva van Agt (FDJ United – SUEZ), Karlijn Swinkels (UAE Development Team), Mackenzie Coupland (Liv AlUla Jayco), Babette van der Wolf (EF Education–Oatly), Caroline Andersson (Liv AlUla Jayco), Laura Molenaar (VolkerWessels Cycling Team), Emily Dixon (CANYON//SRAM Generation), Noémie Abgrall (Ma Petite Entreprise).

Looking at Eva’s power and heart rate data, it immediately becomes clear that the half hour following the attack was one of the hardest sections of the race until the real finale. Typical breakaway formation: a hard acceleration to establish the gap, followed by a more controlled pace once the break is clear.
During this phase, Eva rode 30 minutes at 238 W normalized power with an average heart rate of 165 bpm. Hard, but certainly not all-out. For context (and we’re gentleman enough not to ask directly), Eva weighs 54 kg according to ProCyclingStats.

Not dedicating 100% to this break makes perfect sense tactically. The break was decent, but not ideal for Eva. Karlijn Swinkels is fast and difficult to drop on this type of terrain, while Liv AlUla Jayco had two riders represented. There was no reason for Eva to burn unnecessary matches. And if the break were to come back, FDJ still had five strong teammates behind to play the race. So the plan was simple: do your turns, but don’t go all in.

Eva is patient
After the break had established a decent gap, the pace settled and the time gap hovered around 1.5 to 2 minutes. Things remained relatively calm until the race really kicks off again around 102km, when Karlijn Swinkels attacked on one of the steeper kickers. Babette van der Wolf immediately responded, while the others hesitated for a moment. Eva decided to close the gap herself. A 2-minute effort at 350 watts, with a big acceleration at the start.
Here came a key part: staying calm. Just because you can close an attack doesn’t mean you should counter it immediately. Eva remained patient, exactly as she put it herself: "Eva from one year ago would have countered that attack directly, show them how strong I am, this time I didn't".

And so the group was brought back together and the race continued, but from km 115 to 123 attacks follow. You can clearly see the repeated power surges in Eva’s race file as she responds to the accelerations. On the first climb of the local circuit, Andersson attacks from the back of the group. Eva follows and the two briefly get a small gap. However, Eva isn’t overly eager to ride all the way to the finish with Andersson. On the next climb they both attack several more times, but the climb simply isn’t selective enough to create real separation. And so, it becomes increasingly clear that the race is going to be decided in the final flat kilometres to the line.
Timed to perfection
Eventually, with 1.3 km to go, right after an attack by Laura Molenaar, Eva launched the move that would win her the race. Of course, every successful attack needs a bit of luck. You need a gap, and you need the riders behind to look at each other for just long enough. But watching both the race and the data, there are a few things Eva got exactly right:

1) Patience. Eva was never overly eager to attack herself. She tested the competition on the climbs, but never blindly threw in efforts that only wasted energy.
2) The anticipation gap. Eva’s positioning throughout the finale was excellent. She stayed a bit more in the back of the group, allowing her to keep overview. Also she leaves a little gap to the rider in front of her to anticipate and build speed for her own attack.
3) Attack after the attack. Laura Molenaar attacked first. Coupland closed the gap. As often happens, the group briefly relaxed after bringing the move back. That’s exactly when Eva went. Not before. Not five seconds later. Right in that small moment where everyone else had just spent a little energy.
4) The sprint vacuum. In almost every reduced bunch sprint, there is a strange moment, usually somewhere between 1.5 km and 500 m to go, where nobody really wants to attack. If you close an attack there, you risk wasting your sprint. But it’s also too early to start the lead-out. The result is this brief vacuum where everyone is waiting for a move, but no one makes one.
Eva recognized that moment perfectly.

Eventually, Eva’s patience paid off. In her race-winning effort she peaked at 810 watts before settling into roughly 350 watts 1min20s averaging almost 49 km/h on the flat run to the finish. Pretty aero that is!

Watching the broadcast, it immediately feels like the race is over. Eva gets the gap, the group hesitates, and nobody is coming back. Funny enough, Eva herself didn’t. She told me she wasn’t convinced she’d won until after crossing the finish line. Remarkable, because from the outside everything screams: the race is over.
Maybe next time she’ll know a little earlier that it’s done before it’s done, and ride to the line with just that little bit more confidence.

Anyway: Bien Joué, Eva.

Another little promo for a great story on The Debrief:

“Eva from one year ago would have countered that attack immediately, just to show everyone how strong I was. This time, I didn’t.”

Welcome to The Debrief #2. For this edition, I spoke with Eva van Agt (FDJ-United SUEZ) about her first professional victory at La Périgord Ladies (1.1). And of course we also got our hands on the .fit file, so you can nose around the data yourself while reading this article.

For those who follow women’s cycling (and of course you all do. If not, get out!), Eva is probably best known as one of Demi Vollering’s super domestiques. We’ve seen her work in the mountains during Demi’s Giro victory, but also in hilly classics like Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Amstel Gold Race.
Eva is the type of rider who rarely rides for her own chances. She joined FDJ as a highly valued domestique after her time at Visma Lease a Bike. But don’t let that fool you. In this race, Eva showed that years of riding for others had also taught her something else: excellent racing instincts.
The parcours
La Périgord Ladies is a 126 km hilly one-day race starting at Lac de Rouffiac and finishing on a local circuit in Boulazac. After roughly 110 km of racing, the riders enter the final circuit containing La Combe Neuve: 1.8 km at 4.6%. Not exactly a monster climb.
But because the entire race rolls up and down, it’s the perfect profile for a race that can go in almost any direction. And that’s exactly what happened. If you want, you can relive the race here. The livestream is worth checking out. Bad video quality and commentary you can barely understand: pure French cyclisme. It doesn’t get much more French than this.
The race
Eva's victory came together from a combination of circumstances (as for any cycling race). With Karlijn Swinkels and Maeva Squiban at the startline, UAE had two of the main contenders in their team. On paper, Caroline Andersson (Liv Alula Jayco), Kathrin Schweinberger (Human Powered Health) Emma Comte (Cofidis) were also amongst the pre-race favorites. However, the lack of a clear favorite made this race perfect for a break.

Continue reading here!

Last ‘big’ session before travelling to Guadeloupe next week Wednesday for a 10day stage race. Prepare for some blogs coming up😎

Planned for some Vo2 work. But go a no from the legs after the first effort.🫠 So many years of training a still feels like failing when not going with the intended plan.

Hi all!

Quick promo and sneak peak of the first article of a new page on Grassdune: The Debrief. 👇🏻

Welcome to The Debrief, a new series on Grassdune. Every edition reconstructs one remarkable activity through the athlete’s FIT file, performance data and personal reflections. As you read along, you can explore Lars’ complete activity yourself at the bottom of this post, including the power file, lap data and graphs discussed throughout this article.

For this first edition, Lars Quaedvlieg was kind enough to share his complete race file and answer a couple of questions about his podium finish in Visegrád 4 Kerékpárverseny (UCI 1.2).

Most cycling fans know (kind of) how hard it is to race at the Tour de France. But many underestimate the level just below the WorldTour.

UCI 1.2 races don’t make many headlines, but don’t let that fool you. These races are seriously hard. Continental teams chasing UCI points. Young riders hoping to earn a professional contract. And some teams that simply love racing bikes and everything that comes with it.

Universe Cycling Team belongs to that last category. Rather than following the traditional Continental calendar, they travel wherever the racing takes them, hence the name Universe. They race because they love racing. Different countries, different cultures, different races. Performances matter, of course, but so does the adventure.
Their Instagram (@universe_ct) captures that spirit. Not polished sponsor content, but the kind of cycling that reminds you why many of us fell in love with the sport in the first place.

In this Debrief we’ll reconstruct Lars’ race from start to finish. Using his activity data, race metrics and his own reflections, we’ll break down what it really took to stand on the podium alongside Luca Cretti and Alessandro Verre, yes, the same Alessandro Verre who finished second on the Finestre stage of the 2025 Giro d’Italia.

So, what does it actually take to share the podium with a rider of that calibre?
Let’s find out.

The race at a glance
Before diving into the data, it’s worth understanding the challenge Lars was up against. The Visegrád 4 Kerékpárverseny startlist consisted of 1 UCI ProTeam (MBH Bank Ballan CSB Telecom), 10 Continental teams and 13 club teams.

The course itself offered little room for recovery. Riders first completed seven laps of a larger circuit, before finishing with two shorter finishing laps. Both circuits included the race’s defining moment: a 1-kilometre climb averaging 9.7%, meaning the climb had to be done nine times throughout the day.
After 3 hours, 52 minutes and 5 seconds of racing, the podium looked like this:
🥇 Luca Cretti MBH Bank Ballan CSB Telecom
🥈 Alessandro Verre MBH Bank Ballan CSB Telecom (+16s)
🥉 Lars Quaedvlieg Universe Cycling Team (")
Behind them followed another MBH rider, Márton Dina, just one second later, underlining the dominance of the Italian ProTeam throughout the race.

So what did it take to be on the podium with a rider like Alessandro Verre?
First thing I noticed: 205 watts average?! That can’t be right… For context, Lars weighs 63 kg. 205 watts doesn’t scream “podium in a UCI race.”

Then I noticed the normalized power: 70 watts higher. That immediately tells you this wasn’t one long threshold effort. This was a race of constant braking, accelerating, recovering, attacking and hanging on for dear life. And that’s exactly how Lars described it...

CONTINUE READING 👇🏻
The Debrief: https://www.grassdune.com/@the-debrief

If you open your Instagram now. Or no, maybe don’t. Leave it.
Finish these two minutes of reading first, then you’re free to scroll.

My Instagram is currently about 80% cycling (and 20% Haaland). No surprise. I love cycling and Instagram knows it. The algorithm has done exactly what it was supposed to do. Except that my feed has become increasingly filled with what I would describe as performative cyclists. The GRWM video rate is peaking. I’ve seen more bib shorts being snapped onto suspiciously non-cycling butts, more jerseys being zipped only three-quarters high than I dare to admit.

Then when they actually set off for their ride. Or at least for the five seconds that make it into the reel. My eyes hurt. Cyclists can usually tell within about a second whether someone actually rides bikes. There’s something about how they sit on the bike, how they pedal, how they corner. I can’t really explain it, but almost every cyclist immediately recognizes it.
80% percent fails the test.

And yet… apparently this is what ends up on my feed. Now before people get nosy: yes, I know. The algorithm is showing me more of what I already interact with. And yes, I’m not immune to it either: I still watch the reels. But I’m also convinced this genre has exploded, and Instagram simply doesn’t distinguish between someone who actually rides bikes and the performative cyclist.

The bike slowly seems to disappear. Not literally. But it has become more of a prop. A prop in the background of the GRWM. A prop next to the coffee. A prop behind the recovery shake, shaken so close to the camera that I can almost smell the fake vanilla.
Somewhere along the way, the ride stopped producing the content. The content started producing the ride. Maybe there’s nothing inherently wrong with that. But I do think something changes when posting becomes part of the reason to ride instead of riding becoming the reason to post.

Which is probably also why I enjoy writing on Grassdune so much. Not because I dislike Instagram. Quite the opposite. Instagram is brilliant at what it was built to do. Grassdune just tries to reward something different. Long-form instead of short-form. Context instead of aesthetics. Thoughts instead of trends.

Not for the clicks, but for myself and the handful of people who enjoy reading along. Just like I ride my bike for myself and the handful of people I happen to share the ride with. Cyclists are surprisingly introspective.

I sometimes wonder what Instagram would look like if the algorithm rewarded genuine curiosity instead of beauty. If it preferred written stories over reels, and thoughts over trends.
It would probably look a little bit like Grassdune.

Not because Instagram is bad. But sometimes I just want somebody to explain to me, in 500 words, what they got out of the ride.
Not how they looked getting ready for it.

Ik reageer notoir langzaam op appjes. Niet expres. Ik zie vaak een appje binnenkomen op het lockscreen van mijn telefoon, concludeer dat het op dat moment geen haast heeft en vergeet vervolgens volledig dat iemand mij iets gestuurd heeft. Het aantal keer dat ik een dag later een chat open met de gedachte “oh ja, daar zou ik eigenlijk nog op reageren” is hoog.

Tijdens de Tour de France is dat anders. Dan is het wél expres. Tussen een uur of drie ’s middags en een uur of negen ’s avonds ben ik namelijk niet alleen langzaam met reageren, maar eigenlijk gewoon onbereikbaar.

Dat zit zo. Doordeweeks ben ik meestal nog aan het werk als de finale bezig is. In het weekend ben ik vaak zelf aan het fietsen. Zoals vandaag. Dan ga ik zes uur fietsen en kom ik ergens halverwege de middag weer thuis. Tegen die tijd is de Tour natuurlijk al lang onderweg.
Waar de meeste mensen dan inschakelen voor de laatste vijftig kilometer, begin ik juist graag bij kilometer nul.

Sterker nog, ik vind het begin van een etappe vaak het leukst. Welke ploeg mist de vlucht? Wie springt er mee? Hoe ontstaat zo’n kopgroep eigenlijk? Dat zijn allemaal dingen die je mist als je alleen de finale kijkt. Soms spoel ik onderweg wat door als er een uur lang weinig gebeurt, maar meestal kijk ik de etappe gewoon vanaf het begin terug.

En daar begint het probleem.
Vanaf dat moment leef ik eigenlijk een paar uur achter op de rest van de wielervolgers.
Zodra de finale live bezig is, gaat mijn telefoon op slot. Ik heb daar zelfs een apart knopje voor gemaakt waarmee WhatsApp, Instagram en de rest van mijn social media tijdelijk uitgeschakeld worden. Niet omdat ik ineens heel productief wil zijn, maar puur om één reden: ik wil niet weten wie er gewonnen heeft.

Toch blijkt dat verrassend lastig. Ik heb namelijk, net als zoveel anderen denk ik (hoop ik), zo’n vast telefoonrondje. Even nu.nl. Daarna Instagram. WhatsApp. WielerFlits. Terug naar nu.nl. Zonder erbij na te denken.

Juist dat automatische gedrag is gevaarlijk. Soms betrap ik mezelf erop dat ik Safari open en “nu.nl” al heb ingetypt voordat ik me realiseer dat de Tour nog niet gekeken is. Dan gaat de pagina gelukkig net op tijd weer dicht.
Andere keren gaat het de hele middag goed. Geen spoilers. Geen uitslagen. ’s Avonds zet ik eindelijk de etappe aan, helemaal tevreden dat het gelukt is.

En precies op dat moment pak ik gedachteloos mijn telefoon. Instagram open. Eerste bericht: de winnaar. Bedankt hè.
Maar ik verdien het. Moet je maar niet op je telefoon zitten. Lesje discipline.

Tadej Pogačar took the Tourmalet KOM. Not exactly breaking news. So instead of looking at watts, VAM or climbing times, I decided to look at something else: temperature.

The 2026 Tour de France has once again reminded us what racing in extreme heat looks like. Ice socks, bottles over the head and riders finishing completely cooked have almost become part of modern Grand Tours.
The Col du Tourmalet has now featured in the Tour de France 91 times, making it the most climbed ascent in Tour history. It also has one big advantage for a little bit of Grassduning: almost every recent Tour ascent is sitting on Strava.

The data
Of course, I could have looked up historical weather records. But where’s the fun in that? Instead, I collected Tourmalet efforts from recent Tour de France editions and extracted the temperatures recorded by the riders’ head units on Strava.
This year’s ascent was certainly a warm one, but not the hottest in the dataset. That honour goes to Laurens ten Dam, who climbed the west side of the Tourmalet in 2016 at an average recorded temperature of 33°C.
At the other end of the spectrum sits Wout van Aert, whose 2021 ascent averaged just 21°C.

Still, one thing stood out. Pogačar didn’t just climb the Tourmalet in one of the hottest editions in this sample, he also crushed the previous KOM held by Bardet by 4 (!) minutes.
If there was still a lingering hope that extreme heat might be one of his few weaknesses, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to argue that it is.