Top 5 male pros to follow on Strava.
Professional athletes used to be secretive about their training, apparently not wanting to let anyone else have the key to their success. It seems these days are long gone now, with many pros across a range of endurance sport being quite open on Strava with all sorts of data showing us their power, heart rate and pace from every session they do. Here is a list of some of the best pros to follow on Strava from cycling, triathlon and running. Following pros on Strava is great for a number of reasons including getting training insights, seeing some massive sessions and bumping our own motivation. It’s important that we do not try and copy these sessions – this could lead to overtraining or injury.
Chris Froome
This man needs no introduction but the four-time Tour de France champion and seven-time Grand Tour winner pumps out some top tier rides on Strava. He doesn’t seem to post all of his training but he often uploads power data from interval sessions and also discusses his training and 2019 Dauphine crash rehabilitation on his YouTube channel. Froomey lives in Monaco too – so many of his uploads feature stunning photographs as well as big numbers.
Nice day out with the Esterel gang 😎☀️ #cycling pic.twitter.com/FxG7GZXDLn
— Chris Froome (@chrisfroome) September 7, 2021
Norwegian Triathletes
Ok – so this technically isn’t one pro, it’s actually advice to follow as many of Arild Tveiten’s training group as possible. This includes the recent men’s Tokyo Olympic triathlon champion, reigning Ironman 70.3 and PTO champion as well as the trio of male Norwegians which finished 1-2-3 at World Triathlon Championship Series Bermuda. These guys post most of what they do (apart from swimming) to Strava and it’s completely insane. At the time of writing, Kristian Blummenfelt has run 3,000km this year (almost 100km a week average!) and that’s on top of huge amounts of running and cycling. If you want to see exactly what it takes to make it to the very top of the triathlon world – follow this lot on Strava. One warning would be to not copy their training. You could end up quite seriously injured.
Kasper Asgreen
Winner of the 2021 Tour of Flanders, one of the most important one-day classics of the calendar, Kasper Asgreen is nicknamed ‘The Motorbike’ by team mates. This is because he’s fast and his training rides are no different. If you’ve ever got back from a ride and averaged 20mph, or 32kph, you probably felt quite happy with yourself but that would be slow for Kasper. Not all pros ride like this but he just can’t seem to help going fast. If you want to see some rocket riding, Kasper is the place to go. His average speed for the last four weeks across all of his rides has been 33.42kph, that’s almost 21mph! I’d be surprised if he was ever able to convince anyone to go out training with him.
Sometimes you’re more lucky than others… Thankfully the guys brought me back to the front after an ill timed mechanical in the technical final of today’s stage. The GC remains the same so we try again for the win tomorrow 👊🏻 pic.twitter.com/sPIeMqVkLG
— Kasper Asgreen (@k_asgreen) September 1, 2021
Sage Canaday
Professional Mountain Ultra Trail runner Sage Canaday is an interesting guy. He lives in Boulder, Colorado, and has a YouTube channel (V02maxProductions) as well as a really solid set of ultra running results. His mantra of ‘any surface, any difference’ really shows in his training with track reps being uploaded one day and twenty mile mountain runs the next. I think if we all ran as much as Sage seems to be able to without getting injured we’d be quick too! A really cool guy and well worth a follow.
Sam Long
‘YO! YO! YO!’ screams the ‘Big Unit’ who has the ‘strongest legs in triathlon’. Sam Long is a big personality and does some big training sessions to match. While he may not be everyone’s cup of tea one thing which can’t be denied is that this guy works hard! He puts out huge sessions on the bike and run especially. Like Sage, Sam lives in Boulder and for the last four weeks has averaged 450km of cycling and 68km of running – with tapers for races and intercontinental travel! The big unit works hard and has a stellar set of results to match and he’s only getting better. Worth a follow if you want to get a good insight into the world of long course triathlon and his YouTube page is pretty funny too.
You might have noticed an absence of female athletes in this list and that’s because there are so many that they deserve their own post. To be honest, this list of male pros is hardly exhaustive and there’s many missing who are also a good follow. Whether you’re an aspiring pro, a junior looking up or a weekend warrior one thing is constant – DO NOT COPY THEIR TRAINING. Instead, you should use it for inspiration, analysing general themes and use their commitment as motivation for your own training. For example, if you see an interval session you’d like to try and complete start by doing half of it then progress slowly over a few weeks to doing the whole thing. Make sure to use the correct relative intensity too so that you’re not overexerting yourself. Pros inspire us to be better versions of ourselves, within and outside of sport and Strava helps us find out what they’re up to.
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