{"id":682169,"date":"2026-07-09T11:16:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T11:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/682169\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T11:16:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T11:16:13","slug":"i-wanted-to-enjoy-myself-baptiste-veistroffer-shares-the-stats-behind-his-144km-tour-de-france-solo-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/682169\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I wanted to enjoy myself\u2019: Baptiste Veistroffer shares the stats behind his 144km Tour de France solo break"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday\u2019s stage 5 was the first sprint stage of this Tour de France, and a welcome reprieve for the GC hopefuls and breakaway specialists after a hard, sweltering start to the race. There seemed to be a consensus that the day would be left to the sprint teams. But Lotto-Intermarch\u00e9\u2019s Baptiste Veistroffer had a different idea.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Frenchman sprinted away from the peloton as soon as Christian Prudhomme waved his flag and found himself up the long straight road from Lannemezan alone. And so it was for a grand total of 144km until the peloton reeled him in before a crash-ridden sprint that was won by Decathlon CMA CGM\u2019s Olav Kooij.<\/p>\n

After the stage, Veistroffer said: \u201cI wanted to enjoy myself, and that\u2019s exactly what I did right from the start, at kilometre 0. I thought it through, and then I went for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The feat earned Veistroffer the most aggressive rider award and an appearance on the podium. \u201cIt\u2019s a dream for any cyclist to stand on the Tour podium \u2013 for the pros, for the amateurs\u2026 There\u2019s nothing better, so I\u2019m really proud today,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So how did he do it? Veistroffer\u2019s Strava gives an insight into the 26-year-old\u2019s feat. According to his account, Veistroffer averaged 44.1km over 162.97km. His average power<\/a> was 323W and his weighted average power was 343W.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, his top speed was 89.8kph and he hit a maximum power of 1,358W, according to data captured by his Garmin Edge 850<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Along the way, Veistroffer earned the Coup de cul Montesquiou KOM and several top 10s.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"LottoVeistroffer’s feat earned him the most aggressive rider award. Jeef Pachoud \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

His solo breakaway attack just surpassed Norway\u2019s Jonas Abrahamsen and his 141km solo attack on stage 8 of the 2024 Tour de France<\/a> from Semur-en-Auxois to Colombey-les-Deux-\u00c9glises.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Veistroffer\u2019s attempt, conducted on his Orbea Orca Aero<\/a>, fell victim to the breakaway\u2019s extremely narrow chance of success<\/a>. The last rider to win a stage from a solo break of over 100km was Christophe Agnolutto in 2000, where the Frenchman held off the peloton after a 120km attack.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lotto-Intermarch\u00e9\u2019s sprinter Arnaud De Lie abandoned the Tour de France after stage 3, potentially liberating Veistroffer to go on the attack yesterday. Veistroffer has also developed a habit of getting in the break this season, so could this be the beginning of a Victor Campenaerts-style Tour de France?<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven how fit I am, I might have to be a bit more selective because there\u2019s a chance to achieve something really good,\u201d Veistroffer said.<\/p>\n

More on the 2026 Tour de France<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yesterday\u2019s stage 5 was the first sprint stage of this Tour de France, and a welcome reprieve for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":682170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-682169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=682169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}