Over a period of six months, WHOOP analysed more than 1,400 nights of cycling by seven professionals from UAE Team Emirates. The data collection spans from winter training right through to the Tour de France, revealing a remarkable picture: Pogačar is not simply fitter than the others. Above all, he seems to have better control over his body and to be able to bring it to peak condition at the crucial moment.
Even the underlying assets are exceptional
Anyone looking for an initial indication of an endurance athlete’s calibre often looks at their resting heart rate. For Pogačar, this stands at just 42 beats per minute. By way of comparison, WHOOP users of the same age average 59 beats. The difference becomes even more pronounced when it comes to heart rate variability, or HRV for short. This is regarded as an important indicator of recovery, adaptability and the resilience of the autonomic nervous system. Whilst the average user records 66 milliseconds, Pogačar’s figure is 100 milliseconds.
Even at night, the world-class rider works on maintaining his lead. On average, he sleeps 26 minutes longer than comparable WHOOP users and scores 19 points higher on the Sleep Consistency Score. As a result, his WHOOP biological age is a full twelve years younger than his actual age (27).
It is not the form that matters, but the timing
What is striking, however, is that within the UAE squad, Pogačar does not initially appear to be an outlier at all. Many of his team-mates are also performing at an extremely high physiological level. The difference lies elsewhere. The analysis shows that all seven riders followed the same training schedule. Intensive training blocks were followed by the Tour de Suisse as the final major test of endurance ahead of the Tour de France. This was followed by the classic tapering phase, i.e. the controlled reduction in training load.
Interestingly, Pogačar actually hit a bit of a slump at first. His HRV dropped to 88 milliseconds and his recovery values to 43 per cent. Yet whilst many riders simply take it easy during this phase, Pogačar seems to really come alive. Just in time for the start of the Tour, he reached his best figures of the season:
- HRV: 121 ms
- Resting heart rate: 38.2 bpm
- Recovery: 78%
His recovery progress is particularly noteworthy. From his ‘low point’ to the start of the Tour, it improved by 79 per cent. The second-best team-mate managed just 44 per cent. The message here is that top riders often do not stand out simply because they have the best figures in the spring. They manage to reach their peak form just as the world’s greatest cycling race gets underway in France.
The champion’s remarkable consistency
During a three-week stage race, many riders’ bodies go into a constant state of crisis. Sleep quality fluctuates, stress levels rise and recovery suffers. Not so for Pogačar. During the Tour, he slept an average of 8.1 hours a night. That is actually significantly more than during his immediate build-up phase, when he averaged 6.9 hours.
Even more interesting is his stability. His HRV variability stood at just 13.4 per cent. The team average for this figure was 19.4 per cent. At first glance, this might sound like a minor statistical footnote, but it is potentially one of the most important factors of all. This is because low fluctuations mean that the body functions with remarkable consistency, even under extreme stress. The body is less likely to lose its balance and remains predictable. In short: other riders are riding on a razor’s edge. Pogačar seems to be riding on a wider road.
When the going gets tough, Pogačar gets even better
The data on his stage wins is particularly revealing. On the days he won, Pogačar spent an average of 89 minutes in the high heart rate zones 4 and 5. His team-mates managed just 34 minutes on the same stages. This means that the Slovenian can sustain those intensities for significantly longer, whilst other riders are already well into the red zone.
The stress levels, which WHOOP refers to as ‘Strain’, also paint a similar picture. The toughest days of his tour were stages 2, 3, 6, 7, 10 and 20. On these days, he recorded values between 20.5 and 20.7 on the scale. Even the rest days, with Strain values of 11.6 and 10.2, seemed more like training sessions from the perspective of ordinary people. His highest recorded heart rate was 198 beats per minute on stage 10.
Four hours’ sleep? No problem
One scene perhaps illustrates better than any statistic why Pogačar is currently the benchmark. Following his victory on Stage 14, the day was marked by a night-time doping test extended. Instead of a restful night’s sleep, he managed just four hours. For many riders, that would be a physiological nightmare. Yet the next morning, Pogačar’s recovery rate was still shown to be 62 per cent. His HRV also remained elevated. Of course, no one can permanently replace sleep. Yet the data suggests that his body reacts with exceptional resilience even to short-term disruptions.
What amateur drivers can learn from this
The most fascinating finding of this analysis is not that Pogačar has a resting heart rate of 42 or an HRV of 121 milliseconds. Such figures are out of reach for most people anyway. What is far more interesting is something else: his strength appears to stem from three factors:
Firstly, he has an exceptional aerobic base. Secondly, he gets his body into peak condition with pinpoint accuracy. And thirdly, he maintains this level of fitness with remarkable consistency over weeks.
The data thus paints a picture that many coaches have been describing for years: great champions don’t win simply because of their peak performance figures. They win because they can deliver those peak performance figures exactly when they’re needed. Or to put it another way: many riders can ride as hard as Tadej Pogačar for a short period. The problem, from the others’ perspective, is simply that Pogačar can do it again the very next day. And then again the day after that.
Lukas Niebuhr
Editor