Tadej Pogačar set new records on 288 Strava segments on his way to a third overall victory at the Tour de France this month.
The Slovenian was crowned champion once again in Nice last weekend, following an impressive three weeks of racing in which he won six individual stage victories.
Now, new data from exercise-sharing app Strava has shown the extent of Pogačar’s dominance, revealing him to have broken 288 KOMs, all the while becoming the platform’s most followed athlete.
The UAE Team Emirates rider’s first win came on stage four from Pinerolo to Valloire, which saw the riders tackle the slopes of the infamous Col du Galibier. He took a handful of KOMs on the Galibier itself, which came just days after he took the KOM on the San Luca climb in Bologna on stage two in Italy.
He then picked up tens of segments over the first week, before claiming his most impressive feats on stages 15 and 19, when he took the KOMs on the mountains of Plateau de Beille and Isola 2000 respectively.
Pogačar earned the KOM on the Plateau de Beille with a remarkable time of 39:39, annihilating a 26-year old climbing record in the process. Prior to the Slovenian’s win, the record for the climb stood at 43:28 and was set by Marco Pantani. Pogačar smashed the Italian legend’s time by almost four minutes, an earth-shattering effort.
Four stages later, he then set another jaw-dropping time on Isola 2000, taking the KOM for the segment with a time of 37:37. Remco Evenepoel, third on the stage, was over two minutes slower than the Slovenian.
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Pogačar then wrapped up the race with another remarkable KOM on stage 20, taking the best time on the Col de la Couillole as he won his fifth stage of the race.
Strava segments do not just count entire climbs, but also the numerous sections that make them up. Of Pogačar’s 288 new trophies, more than 10 came on the Col de la Couillole, while over 50 came on the Plateau de Beille alone.
Strava also confirmed that Pogačar is now the most followed athlete on the platform, taking the crown from Wout van Aert, with a following of 728,087 people.
During the Giro d’Italia, which the Slovenian won by almost 10 minutes earlier this year, some of Pogačar’s race files were flagged by fellow users, before being reinstated by Strava. “Haters gonna flag,” the 25-year-old joked in one file title.
Pogačar is next expected to compete at the one-day GP Montreal and Québec races in Canada, before heading to Switzerland in September for the UCI World Championships. It was announced on Monday that the Slovenian will miss the Olympic road race next month due to fatigue.
