Tour de France: Power data makes performance in the peloton measurable

France – 18 July 2026: The pros’ pedal strokes have long contained a second, invisible Tour. While the peloton is riding Stage 14, power meters on the crank, pedal or rear wheel continuously transmit figures to bike computers: watt readings. They show how much mechanical power a rider produces in every phase of the race – during an acceleration, in the slipstream, on a descent and especially when the road turns steep.

For riders and sporting directors, this data is a tactical tool. Power can be combined with heart rate, speed, cadence, gradient and temperature. This allows a professional to pace their effort instead of digging too deeply into their reserves in an early attack. In the team car, the graphs help plan exertion and recovery more precisely over a three-week race.

What matters is not simply the highest number on the screen. An output of 400 watts means something different for a heavy time-trialist than for a light climber. That is why the ratio of watts to body weight is also often considered. It describes how much power per kilogram an athlete can produce on long climbs. Yet even this comparison needs context: wind, altitude, heat, road surface, race duration and work in the peloton all change the calculation.

In future, the data is intended to serve not only sporting progress. Since 2025, the International Testing Agency, ITA, has been investigating whether performance values recorded over the long term can supplement existing anti-doping efforts. Using performance models, the project is intended to examine whether unusual developments can be reliably identified and used for a smarter selection of tests. It is explicitly a research and assessment project, not automatic proof of guilt.

This is precisely where the sporting and legal challenge lies. An exceptional value may be explained by the course of the race, equipment, weather, training build-up or differences in measurement. Power meters from different manufacturers are not necessarily calibrated identically. The ITA therefore intends to consider the data only in conjunction with other findings, such as information from tests, the biological passport and intelligence from within the sporting environment.

At the 2026 Tour de France, the ITA is once again conducting an independent anti-doping programme on behalf of the UCI, cycling’s world governing body. The wattage would not be a judge, but an additional spotlight on a rider’s performance curve. For the race itself, it remains above all a precise measure of effort: a number that makes the battle against wind and gravity visible without being able to tell the whole story of a day in the saddle.