Tour de France cycling highlights tracked from riders' saddles

Fast enough to excite a traffic cop – that’s how speedy cyclists are on the Tour de France.

Germany’s John Degenkolb recorded two of the five fastest speeds on the Tour‚ including the fastest overall - sprinting 78.48 km/h.

Together‚ the riders burned an estimated 23‚940‚000 kilocalories: That’s about 85‚807 hamburgers.

The race this year‚ which comprised 21 stages covering a total distance of 3‚360 kilometres‚ was won at the weekend by Briton Chris Froome. Colombian Nairo Quintana finished second and Spain’s Alejandro Valverde in third place.

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Global IT organisation Dimension Data analysed data coming from trackers under the saddles of riders in the Tour de France to provide this year’s race highlights‚ which include:

The five highest recorded sprint speeds were:

• 78.48 km/h - John Degenkolb - TGA - Rancourt (Stage 5)
• 76.46 km/h - André Greipel - LTS - Gare de Moncontour (Stage 8)
• 75.13 km/h - Peter Sagan – TCS - Argentan (Stage 7)
• 64.67 km/h - John Degenkolb - TGA - Trois-Villes (Stage 10)
• 62.96 km/h | Thomas De Gendt – LTS | Rioupéroux (Stage 18)

The average recorded speed of the riders across the 21 stages was 38.34 km/h‚ while the highest average speed was 55.45 km/h (stage 1).

The lowest average recorded speed across the 21 stages was 28.94 km/h (stage 19).

The riders covered 59‚556 metres of elevation over the 58 categorised climbs: That’s about 6.7 Mount Everests

The five climbs with the lowest recorded average speed were:

• 15.52 km/h Côte de la Croix Neuve - Stage 14 (3 km cat.2 at 10.3%)
• 15.84 km/h Alpe d’Huez - Stage 20 (13.8 km ²HC at 8.1%)
• 16.21 km/h La Pierre-Saint-Martin - Stage 10 (15.3 km HC at 7.4%)
• 16.49 km/h Plateau de Beille - Stage 12 (15.8 km HC at 7.9%)
• 16.76 km/h Lacets de Montvernier - Stage 18 (3.4 km cat. 2 at 8.2%)

The Tour de France BETA living tracking website attracted over 660‚000 visitors over the three weeks‚ which the company said was a pleasing result for this first year.