The CRAZY Power And Speed Of A Tour de France Stage Winner

Jonas Abrahamsen of Uno X Mobility won stage 11 of the 2025 Tour de France at the end of one of the craziest days in the race’s history. Handily, he subsequently uploaded his ride to Strava complete with power data, so Dan has been busy diving into the data.

The stats, both for power and speed, are mind-boggling. On top of that, Abrahamsen had broken his collarbone just two weeks ahead of the Tour de France, so to even be on the start line was an achievement in itself.

Jonas Abrahamsen’s Strava file: https://www.strava.com/activities/15135688156/overview

Power Vs Weight: The Tour de France Pro Who GAINED 20kg And Started Winning https://youtu.be/4S-AzyMPha4?si=vvWWnmOOGJnhqO5G

Chapters/Timestamps ⏱️
00:00 Intro: Analysing A Crazy Stage
00:25 The First Attack: 1,285 Watts from KM Zero
01:48 The First Hour: An Insane 51 km/h Average
02:40 The Breakaway Swells, The Pace “Relaxes”
03:15 The Final Hour: The Numbers Get BIG
04:00 The Penultimate Climb: 626 Watts for 1.5 Minutes
05:06 The Final Climb: 7.2 W/kg to Hold Off The Chasers
05:53 The Final 7km: Full Gas to the Finish
06:41 The Winning Sprint: A 1,342-Watt Kick
07:23 The Overall Stats: A Mind-Boggling Day
08:14 The Motorbike Controversy

Useful Links:
Subscribe and don’t miss a thing! 👉 https://gcn.eu/subscribe-racing
Visit the GCN Shop 👉 https://gcn.eu/gcnshop
Insurance: Viewers in the USA and UK can explore GCN Insurance products 👉 https://gcn.eu/GCNinsurance
Sign Up To The GCN Newsletter 👉 https://gcn.eu/Newsletter
GCN Training Plans 👉 https://gcn.eu/gcntp
GCN WhatsApp Channel 👉 https://gcn.eu/GCNwhatsapp
GCN Instagram Broadcast Channel 👉 https://gcn.eu/instagrambroadcast

What did you think of the ride?! Let us know in the comments 👇

🎵 Music – licensed by Epidemic Sound 🎵

📸 Photos – © Velo Collection (TDW) / Getty Images & © Sirotti Images

Brought to you by the world’s biggest cycling channel, the Global Cycling Network (GCN), GCN Racing brings you the best of the world’s bike races to your screens. So get involved, join us, and get ready to be in the thick of the action.

Engage with us on the channel and across social media – we’re here to answer every question you’ve got on cycling racing.

Facebook: https://gcn.eu/FBGCNRacing
Instagram: https://gcn.eu/IG-GCNRacing
Twitter: https://gcn.eu/TW-GCNRacing

Watch our sister channels:
Global Cycling Network – https://www.youtube.com/@gcn
GCN Tech – https://www.youtube.com/@gcntech
GCN Racing – https://www.youtube.com/@gcnracing
Global Triathlon Network – https://www.youtube.com/@gtn
GCN Italia – https://www.youtube.com/@gcnitalia
GCN en Español – https://www.youtube.com/@gcnenespanol
GCN auf Deutsch – https://www.youtube.com/@gcnaufdeutsch
GCN en Français – https://www.youtube.com/@gcnenfrancais
GCN Training – https://www.youtube.com/@GCNTraining
Global Mountain Bike Network – https://youtube.com/@gmbn
GMBN Racing – https://youtube.com/@gmbnracing
GMBN Tech – https://www.youtube.com/@gmbntech
Electric Mountain Bike Network – https://www.youtube.com/@embn

Stage 11 of this year’s Tour to France was one of the craziest I have ever watched. Non-stop attacks, unwritten rules broken, and the race favorite hitting the deck. It all happened. But coming up, I’m going to be analyzing the mind-boggling power numbers and speeds of Yonas Abrahamson on route to the stage win. Let’s get straight into it. After the longest neutralized zone I think I’ve ever seen, they hit kilometer zero and the attack started immediately. First to go, Yonas Abrahamson of Uno X. He was followed by Swiss champion Mario Schmidt of Jacob and David Aalerini of Estana. Now another Uno X rider is in position four, Andreas Lechnes. He lets the wheel go and so the front three get away. So let’s take a look at that first attack. Abrahamson hits 1285 watts in his initial kick, but then straight away he has to stop pedaling for a lefthand corner. After that, he’s back up to 1126 watt, picking the speed up towards 60 km hour. In the first 2 1/2 minutes of racing, he makes nine surges at over 580 W, often far greater than that, as he swaps turns with his breakaway companions, trying to establish a gap over the Pelaton. So his average power for that first 2 minutes 22 is 505 W. Average speed 56.3 km hour. Now for context, Abrahamson weighs around 80 kg. That’s well documented including from ourselves in an interview we did with him last year before the tour of France. He deliberately put on a lot of muscle a few years back gaining 20 kg. You can find out why he did that in the video that’s linked in the description below. Now the problem that front trio had is that whilst they got an initial gap, the attacks resumed behind and they never seemed to stop. That meant they could never let their foot off the gas. So for the first 5 minutes of the stage, Abrahamson’s average speed was 54.3 km/h. After 10 minutes, 52.7. And after an hour, still 51 km hour. And for those of you who work in miles, that is close to 32 mph. Average power over that first hour was 370 W, but with the gap to the bunch still not over a minute, they couldn’t relax nor lower the tempo. And that really was the story of the day. There was a 10-minute lull where the race briefly calmed behind, but after that, it all kicked off yet again. And from there to the finish, there was just no let up at all. It was probably the most intense stage I think I’ve ever watched. Now just under the midway point of the stage, the front group swelled to five riders as Fred Wright and Matthew Burgo managed to bridge to the front from the bunch. And with a bigger group, there was more time to sit in. And with the final hilly part of the stage still to come, this was the most relaxed part of the day for them, if you can call it that. Abrahamson’s power for that 45minute period was just 313 watt. His lowest power for that duration of the entire day. Average speed also came down at that point, 46.8 km/h for that 45 minutes. From there to the finish though, it was around an hour of racing still to go. And in that final hour, Abrahamson’s power was 334 W. So, a fair bit lower than the initial hour of racing. With so many punchy climbs on that part of the course, it was a lot less regular. So whilst his average power was lower, his normalized power, which accounts for irregularity of power applied to the pedals, was actually quite a lot higher. His peak normalized power for 1 hour was 399 watt and that came in the last hour of the race. His peak half hour normalized power was 431 watt and also came at the very end of the stage. And it’s when you go into the finer details that you see why that normalized power was so high there. Abrahamson’s first serious acceleration came on the penultimate climb of the stage. When he went, he hit close to,00 watts. And this came at a point on the climb where he’d already been riding at 431 watts for almost 3 minutes. Only Schmidt was able to follow him with the other three rides in the front group distanced. Then for the last 1 minute 26 seconds of that climb, Abrahamson averaged 626 watts. And that was after 3 hours of full gas racing. Believe it or not though, his peak two minutes from the stage was not on that climb. It was still to come. So for an hour, Abrahamson’s group had been chased by another group of five riders full of some of the biggest hitters in the sport. Vanderpool, Vanart, Simmons, Delely, and Laurance. So for what felt like an eternity, they hovered at around 25 seconds from the lead group. Uh the front group obviously didn’t want them to make contact, and yes, they were probably helped by the vehicles in front of them. More on that later on, but that’s probably why Abrahamson accelerated on the penultimate climb and why he continued to ride so hard on the final climb of the stage. There was a sharp right hand that led them into that final climb and with his double-digit gradients, Abrahamson kicked out of the corner at over a,000 watts. For the next 2 minutes, he averaged 609 watts, which is his highest power for that duration of the entire stage. And it came right at the end of it. The entire climb there took him 2 minutes 37 over which he averaged 577 watt which is 7.2 watts per kilogram over that duration. Impressive in itself, let alone after 3 hours at 344 watts average power. Now given that Machivander dropped everybody else in his group and closed the gap to Abrahamson and Schmidt by almost 10 seconds on that final climb, goodness only knows what power he was doing at the time. Unfortunately, we don’t have that data to hand. The gap to much of Anderpool at the top of the climb was 25 seconds, but he continued to reduce it down the descent and on the flat run into the finish. Uh the initial descent took them a minute and a half and it did offer that leading duo riders some rest bite, just the 224 average for Abrahamson, but from the foot of that descent to the finish, they had to press on given Machiv Vanipur’s looming presence. So over that final flat 7ks, the front two riders averaged over 48 km/h with Abrahamson at 355 watts average. Pretty incredible really that Vanderpool was still closing in on them though, isn’t it? But he didn’t get quite close enough. Abrahamson and Schmidt both fully committed. Neither missed a turn and so they fought the stage went out between them in what was a two-up sprint. Let’s delve into the details of that sprint, then. Abrahamson’s peak power there was 1,342 watts and he kept it over 1,000 watts all the way to the line. For 15 seconds he averaged 1135 watts and that was just enough to pip Schmidt to the line in what was a very close sprint. His peak 5 seconds of 1258 watts also came in that sprint. So, a reminder, his peak power over all durations from 4 minutes 50 up to 3 hours 15 all came from the first part of the race, kilome 0. But every peak power under 4 minutes 50 came in the last half an hour. So, to win a stage of the tour to France, you need to be able to ride ridiculously hard all day and up that power at the end of the stage. So, here are the overall stats for the stage itself, not including the neutral zone. 3 hours 16 minutes, 48 km/h average, 344 watts, normalized to 383 watts. He burnt 4,000 kg and he got one epic stage win. Just a shame really for Marish Schmidt that there can only be one winner. He really deserved that, too. Just before I move on, a reminder that Jonas Abrahamson actually broke his collarbone just over two weeks before the tour to France started in a crash at a tour of Belgium. So, it’s highly doubtful that he would even start, but he did. Not only that, he made the front echelon on day one of the race and 10 stages later took his first ever stage win at the tour of France. And my word was it so welld deserved. So, what about those motorbikes and vehicles in front of the front group? I mean, I saw a lot of people complaining afterwards that it was a bit unfair for Vanderpool that the front rides were helped so much by those race vehicles. So, yes, they were helped. Race vehicles are a problem and do affect the outcome of races. Until they change the rules or use drones or ensure that these vehicles are so far in front that the camera work isn’t as good as we’re used to on TV, that’s going to be the case. However, I’m going to tell you who over the years has benefited more from those vehicles than any other rider in those front groups. Vanderpool. He knows only too well that if you get ahead of the game, you’re going to get that benefit of extra drafting. I’m taking nothing away from Vanderpool’s wins. What I’m saying is that we should take nothing away from Abrahamson’s win on stage 11. Uh, one last thing, Uno X put everything into making their rides, including Abraham, as arrow as possible for those breakaway stages, from the wheels to the frame to the clothing and helmet. There is radio down the front of his jersey, and they’ve even got Boa dial covers for the shoes. There was a hell of a lot that went into that first tour stage win for that team. Right, let me know what you think. Do those power numbers leave you in disbelief or is it just their job to be that good? Also, what should be done about these inra vehicles that are shaping the results of these stages? I’d love to get your thoughts and ideas. Let me know in the comments section below. Okay, enjoy the rest of the tour of France and I’ll see you for the GCN racing news show on Monday.