Spotted on Strava: Two Tours, an Epic Track Session & Minecraft
Multi-Sport
From a hectic opening week at the Tour de France to some huge FKTs and a little bit of Minecraft, there have been plenty of impressive activities happening on Strava this week.
It's been a memorable opening week in the Tour de France. Romain Bardet got the ball rolling, Tadej Pogacar picked it up and ran with it, Biniam Girmay out-sprinted him towards the line, and Remco Evenepoel kept the GC tight with an outstanding performance in the Time Trial. Then came the gravel. Going into the rest day, the Tour de France organizers threw a doozy into the mix with a Stage 9 that had the riders walking up hills at one point. Roll on Week Two!
While the men were racing around France, the leading women were duking it out in the Giro d'Italia Women. Elisa Longo Borghini edged out the opening time trial, finishing just a second ahead of Aussie Grace Brown. Borghini holds the lead going into Stage 4 of the race, but there are some big names - and big hills - on the horizon, meaning the battle for the GC is shaping up nicely going into the second half of the race.
On the subject of big hills, it was a huge week for leg-sapping FKTs on Strava. Kyle Curtin hiked the furthest of anyone, registering a massive 489 miles / 787 km as he set an FKT on the Colorado Trail. Not far behind Kyle was Christof Teuscher, who completed an epic 311 mile / 502 km FKT on the Palouse to Cascades Trail. And then Laura Matsen Ko set out to complete a unique 'sea to summit' FKT - riding from Tacoma, Washington, to the base of Mount Rainier, and then running to the summit of the highest peak in the contiguous United States.
Sticking with impressive things done on two feet, Nedd Brockmann surely takes the award for GPX recording of the week. The Aussie, who will attempt to break the world record for the fastest time to cover 1000 miles / 1610km on foot this October, completed 100 miles / 161 km on his local run track, averaging 5:18/km pace for no less than 14 hours, 12 mins, 26 seconds. Onya Nedd!
Changing pace. Changing sport. Heck, changing it all right now. Because on the same day that Nedd was smashing it up on the track, Kevin Nguy secured a 'world-first' when he recorded his run on Strava in... Minecraft. The 1 mile / 1.6 km sprint (4:48/mi pace) was on a largely flat course around what looks to be an office block.
And, finally, like all good things in life, we finish where we began, with the Tour de France. Back in Australia, Big Bird Strava Art continued his run of impressive 'drawings' with this celebration of all things Tour de France. Chapeau Big Bird.
