Tour de France Strain, HRV, and Recovery Metrics From EF

Understanding your heart rate during cycling can help you train smarter and reach your goals faster. While many cyclists search for a single "average" number, the reality is more nuanced. This article explores what constitutes a good cycling heart rate, how to use heart rate zones effectively, and what elite performance looks like through data from the Tour de France.

What is a good average heart rate for cycling?

There is no universal "average" heart rate for cycling. Your heart rate during a ride depends on your effort intensity, fitness level, age, and terrain.

Instead of focusing on one average number, understand your personal heart rate zones and how they relate to your training goals.

Factors that influence your cycling heart rate

Several factors determine your heart rate response during a ride. Understanding them helps you interpret your data with more accuracy.

Age: Your maximum heart rate generally decreases as you get older. This natural physiological change affects your training zones.

Fitness Level: As your cardiovascular fitness improves, your heart becomes more efficient. A fitter cyclist will have a lower heart rate at the same effort compared to someone less conditioned. They can also sustain higher heart rates for longer and recover more quickly.

Intensity and Terrain: Your heart rate rises and falls with your effort. Riding on flat roads at a steady pace results in a lower, more stable heart rate than sprinting or climbing steep hills.

Recovery: Your body's readiness for a ride plays a significant role. If you are well-rested with high Recovery, your heart responds more efficiently to strain. When fatigued or under-recovered, your heart rate might be higher than usual for a given effort.

How to use heart rate zones for smarter training

Training with heart rate zones is more precise than aiming for a simple average. Each zone corresponds to a percentage of your maximum heart rate and stimulates different physiological adaptations. Lower-intensity zones build your aerobic base and endurance, while higher zones improve speed and power.

By monitoring which zones you are in during a ride, you can ensure your effort aligns with your goal for that day. WHOOP personalizes these zones by calculating your max heart rate, giving you a more accurate guide for your training.

Tour de France cycling data: Strain, Resting Heart Rate, HRV, Sleep & more

"The Tour de France is arguably the pinnacle of endurance sport performance. WHOOP has allowed us to quantify both the strain and daily recovery of some of the fittest athletes in the world, and the numbers are impressive," said Kevin Sprouse, Head of Medicine for EF Pro Cycling. The EF squad finished 4th out of 22 teams at the 2020 Tour de France, and was the top team overall for 7 of the race's 21 stages.

Below we'll share insights gained from monitoring these athletes' physiological data while competing in one of the most grueling events in sports.

3 weeks of all-out Strain

WHOOP quantifies the strain (cardiovascular load) your body takes on each day on a 0-21 scale. Through the Tour's 21 stages (which spanned just 23 days total with only a pair of days off), the EF riders posted average day strains of 20 or more 13 times. On other days they averaged 19.5, 19.4, 19.2, 18.8, and 18.0 (see graphic below).

WHOOP classifies anything above 18 as an "all-out" effort, meaning the EF athletes pushed themselves to the limit nearly every time they got on the bike, for 3 weeks straight. The WHOOP strain metric is highly individualized—if an elite athlete and an average athlete do the same thing, the activity will cause less strain for the better athlete. Considering that the EF riders are among the most physically fit humans on the planet, the fact that they still put up strains in the 20s on a regular basis is mind-boggling.

THE AVERAGE DAILY WHOOP STRAIN AND RECOVERY FOR EF RIDERS DURING THE 2020 TOUR DE FRANCE.

Phenomenal Resting Heart Rate and HRV

On the day the Tour began, the team members' average resting heart rate was 42 beats per minute (the American Heart Association says that anything between 60 and 100 bpm is normal). Their average heart rate variability was 139 milliseconds (the average HRV for all WHOOP members is 64 ms).

As the Tour progressed, it naturally took a toll on these impressive metrics. After the first week, the team's average RHR had risen to 51 bpm, and its average HRV had dropped to 73 ms. However, it took just one day of rest for these numbers to bounce back.

Following the riders' day off prior to Stage 10, the EF team's average RHR and HRV were actually better than they were before the race began, at 40 bpm and 152 ms, respectively. The team also averaged a 90% WHOOP recovery (a measure of the body's readiness to take on strain) after the first rest day, better than the 73% on the morning of Stage 1.

Incredible Recovery

It'd be natural to assume that day after day of all-out strain would significantly hurt the team's recovery each morning. That was not the case with the EF riders. "I've seen lots of 20.7 [strains]," said Sprouse, "rarely is it lower than 20."

"What's just as amazing is the fact that recovery scores tend to be good as well, often 55% and higher. That is a huge testament to the amazing staff we have supporting these guys at the Tour. From the finish line to bedtime, everything is set up to encourage recovery so that they can perform again the following day."

Over the entire 23-day Tour, the team's average daily recovery never dipped into the red (33% and below). It even stayed in the green (67% and higher) 4 times following stages where the average strain was 20+.

Pushing heart rate to the limits

Another indication of just how hard these riders pushed themselves is the amount of time they spent at close to their max heart rate. In Stage 8, Neilson Powless was on the bike for a little more than 4 hours. His average heart rate was 165 bpm, and he spent 51% of the time at 80-90% of his max heart rate.

He was in the 90-100% of max heart rate zone for 38% of the stage, or 1 hour and 35 minutes.

The power of Sleep

After crushing themselves on the road all day, effective sleep is an essential aspect of recovery. Powless, in particular, was spectacular at this. The team averaged just shy of 8 hours per night during the Tour, however Powless regularly got about half an hour more than his teammates did.

On the night of the race's second rest day (between Stages 15 and 16), Powless got just over 9 hours of sleep. He also spent 5:51 (a whopping 64% of his time asleep) in what we call the "restorative stages" of sleep (REM and deep sleep). People usually only spend about 40-45% of their sleep time in these stages when the body repairs itself.

Following the first rest day, Powless slept for 7:59 and spent 5:02 in REM and deep sleep (63%). This helped him achieve a 92% recovery the next morning. Photo Credits: Getty Images, Jered and Ashley Gruber

Go beyond averages to optimize your performance

While elite data from the Tour de France is impressive, the most valuable insights for your training are your own. Understanding how your body responds to different rides, how your sleep impacts your next day's performance, and how well you are recovered are key to making sustainable progress.

Moving beyond generic averages and focusing on your personalized data is how you can train smarter and achieve your goals.

Frequently asked questions about heart rate and cycling

What is the 80/20 rule in cycling?

The 80/20 rule suggests that about 80% of your weekly training time should be at a low intensity, with the remaining 20% at a moderate-to-high intensity. This approach helps build a strong aerobic base while providing the high-intensity stimulus needed for performance gains. It also minimizes the risk of overtraining.

Is a heart rate of 170 bpm okay when exercising?

Whether a heart rate of 170 beats per minute is appropriate depends on your age and fitness level. For a younger individual, 170 bpm could be a sustainable heart rate in a higher training zone. For an older person, it might be at or near their maximum heart rate.

How does heart rate impact my WHOOP Strain during cycling?

WHOOP uses heart rate to calculate Strain by measuring how hard your cardiovascular system is working over time. Higher heart rates—especially sustained efforts in elevated zones—contribute more to your overall Strain. This means longer or more intense rides will result in higher Strain scores, helping you understand how taxing a workout was on your body.

Why does my heart rate stay high even when my effort feels easy?

If your heart rate feels elevated during an easier ride, it may be influenced by factors like heat, dehydration, poor sleep, or accumulated fatigue. In these cases, your body has to work harder to maintain the same output. WHOOP may also reflect this with higher Strain for the same perceived effort, signaling that your body is under more stress than usual.