Day 8: Tour de Force
While many athletes have weeks — or even months — between their last pre-Olympics competition and the Olympics, some road cyclists participating in the Paris Olympics had just 13 days.
The Tour de France, the most prestigious of the three men’s Grand Tours, is a multi-stage cycling race held in France every summer that winds across the country and closes in Nice, on the south coast of France.
“The Tour is just under 2,500 miles, I believe, and on average, day-to-day, it’s between four to six hours on the bike every day for three weeks,” said Matteo Jorgenson, a first-time Olympian who became the first American to finish the Tour de France in 10 years with his eighth-place performance this summer. “Typically, day-to-day, we’ll climb between 1,000 and 5,000 meters — [that] was the biggest … of elevation gain.”
Every four years, the world’s best male cyclists are tasked with recovering from the French course and shifting their focus to the Olympic men’s road race. The route in Paris is the longest in Olympics history, standing at 272 kilometers (170 miles) long with 13 climbs totaling 2,800 vertical meters.
SEE MORE: Men’s road race Olympic preview: What to know and who to watch
Jorgenson crossed the finish line in Nice on July 21. His Olympic race is on August 3.
On the latest daily episode of The Podium: An NBC Olympic and Paralympic podcast, titled “Day 8: Tour de Force,” Jorgenson dishes his secrets to recovering from one grueling race while preparing for another.
“Unless you’re on the bike, and you’re fueled and concentrated on the effort, your brain knows that it’s time to recover,” Jorgenson said. “A big part of this sport is being good at not bike riding … just being good at laying down and being calm.”
Hear all of that and more on the eighth daily edition of The Podium.
New episodes of The Podium will be released every day during the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
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