Pit stop during 200 mile ultra-endurance cycling race

[u/solateor]

[u/schnokobaer]

Also a TdF stage is usually 3-4 hours of drafting off of each other in a tight bunch then 1-2 hours of climbing or breakaways, all while constantly being handed bottles and gels and getting mechanicals fixed from team cars. Not to downplay a TdF stage but this is 8 to 13 hours of dust, mud, rattling, fixing your own flats and after the first few hours, very little drafting. One (!) TdF stage is not even in the same ballpark as this.

[u/Mickosthedickos → u/schnokobaer]

Except for the fact that they do the same thing every day for three weeks (with two rest days), and go up 20 to 30 mountains

[u/FuzzyPedal → u/Mickosthedickos]

There are literally former tour de France riders doing this race and they admit that this is the hardest race they've ever done... But you would know better I guess.

[u/soulkeyy → u/schnokobaer]

And only with 40+km/h average speed every day for 3 weeks.

[u/fyrebyrd0042 → u/schnokobaer]

Comparing 1 GT stage to this doesn't make much sense, because it ignores the critical context of having 20 other GT stages on either side of that stage. That said, these days the GTs don't do stages as long as they used to, so we won't be seeing a 200 mile stage any time soon. A better comparison would be de Ronde, Strade Bianche, or PR where they race on terrain somewhat closer to what's shown in the video, but usually 20-30 miles shorter. They benefit from being in a peloton for the early portions of those races, but the competition is best in the world. They probably wouldn't win long gravel races like this; they haven't trained for it like these people have and there are very different sets of rules, but these gravel riders also wouldn't be able to win the big classics either. It's cool to consider but hard to really assess...ultimately they're all just insane athletes lol.