Chris Froome racks almost 2,000km on Strava ahead of first race of the year

It’s almost impossible to imagine the workload required to finish first in the toughest sporting event in the world, the Tour de France.

Fortunately for us, Chris Froome often gives us a welcome insight into his early season preparation via Strava.

We have already reported on some of the Team Sky leader’s monster rides from 2019, but his overall stats for the year are also worthy of attention.

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The 33-year-old has racked up almost 2,000km on Strava as he opens his season at the Tour Colombia stage race on Tuesday (February 12).

Froome has ridden an average of 496km a week on the bike since the start of the year.

Of course these are just the training rides Froome has chosen to upload to Strava, with his true total of miles likely to be even higher.

In just 14 rides uploaded to the social media apps for athletes, Froome has ridden 1,984km and climbed 43,020 metres.

Most of the rides were recorded during his training stint in Colombia, where he has spent the last two weeks at altitude before his first race of the year.

Froome is riding the South American stage race with team-mate Egan Bernal, the 2018 winner of Tour Colombia.

His biggest ride of the year was a 225km effort in South Africa with Team Sky’s Salvatorre Puccio.

>>> Chris Froome: ‘I can keep going for another five years’

After touching down in Colombia, Froome also uploaded an unusual ride to Strava after taking his time trial bike off-road during a 188km ride.

Last January, Froome treated his fans by uploading his January training miles to the social media app for athletes, letting cycling followers see exactly how much training it takes to win Grand Tours.

As you would expect from a man targeting both the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France last year, there were some pretty serious base miles, with Froome kicking off the year with a 32-hour week in which he rode more than 1,000km.

Froome is looking to take his fifth Tour de France victory in 2019, joining the elite club of riders with the same winning record.