TOUR DE STRAVA

 It's the most popular cycling social media site going but only just over two thirds of the Tour de France peloton are on it. Vern Pitt investigates

- Vern Pitt

Uh-oh,” the email reads. “Someone stole your KOM.” It’s probably not the kind of thing you need when racing the Tour de France and we think we know someone who has been getting a lot of them.

“We’re in the region of Romain Bardet who has all the KOMs here and I think he’s going to lose them all,” says Oliver Naesen, rider with Ag2rCitroën, with just a tiny hint of glee ahead of stage 11 through the Massif Central. “The stage yesterday [to Issoire] and also three days ago [to Puy de Dôme] the pace was extremely high. We were raking in KOMs.”

In this respect Bardet is like any of us when the WorldTour peloton comes to town; if you’re not losing the KOM you’re probably taking a bumpy ride down the list. But we are less likely to have to face the teasing from our work colleagues. “If I see him today I will probably say, ‘Hey you lost a few,’” says Naesen.

Bardet and Naesen are just two of the 131 riders who started the Tour that are on Strava, though only around 80 post their rides for any given day on the race. Strava would like that to increase. Last year the US company became an official partner of the Tour for three years pledging to “develop new and unique experiences for its global community of athletes to follow the excitement of each stage of the race”. Currently this extends to a Tour de France club page which collates images and rides from the Tour and has 195,000 followers, and posting the relevant segments for a day’s stage on the Tour de France’s official website.

However, there are barriers to its more widespread adoption in the pro peloton and consequently giving fans the insights Strava and the Tour would like.