The Tour de France is usually described through climbs, speed, crashes, and legs that somehow keep turning after hundreds of miles. But a new study points to a quieter battle happening after each stage, when elite cyclists try to recover enough to do it all again the next day.
Researchers found that eight elite male cyclists generally slept within the recommended range during the 2020 race, averaging 8 hours and 11 minutes across the monitoring period. Still, their sleep quality dropped during the race, stress rose before it, and the hardest riding was linked with shorter and poorer sleep.
A rare look inside the race
The work was led by Josh Fitton of the Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, with Bastien Lechat, Amy C. Reynolds, Danny J. Eckert, and colleagues. They studied cyclists from a UCI world-tour team across nearly six weeks before, during, and after the Tour de France.
The data came from Garmin wristwatches, daily phone-based check-ins, and on-bike power meters. In simple terms, the researchers tracked how riders slept, how they felt, and how hard they performed while moving through one of the most demanding events in sport.
Sleep was long, but not always good
On paper, the riders did better than many people might expect. Their sleep fell between seven and nine hours on 77 percent of all nights, and on 83 percent of race nights. That lines up with the National Sleep Foundation’s recommendation that most adults get seven to nine hours of sleep per night.
But hours in bed are not the whole story. During the Tour de France, self-reported sleep quality fell by about eight points on a 100-point scale compared with the pre-race period. Anyone who has woken up after “enough” sleep and still felt drained knows the difference.
The race shifted their body clock
The cyclists also went to sleep later and woke up later during the race. Compared with the days before the Tour, sleep onset was delayed by about 31 minutes and wake time by about 47 minutes.
That may not sound dramatic, but in elite sport small changes can matter. Meals, team meetings, travel between hotels, race-day nerves, and recovery routines all compete for the same evening hours.
Harder riding, worse sleep
One of the most striking findings involved the Performance Index, a score that reflects how often riders reach high power compared with their own peak output. During the race, higher performance scores were linked with less sleep and lower sleep quality.
Fitton put it plainly in the university release, saying that “riders pushing the hardest” tended to sleep less and report lower sleep quality. That does not prove hard riding caused worse sleep, but the pattern is hard to ignore.
Stress arrived before the start
The pressure did not wait for the first stage. During the 11 days before the race, the cyclists’ self-reported stress rose each day, while their sleep and wake times also drifted later.
That makes sense in a very human way. Before a major event, even the best athletes are not machines. They are preparing, thinking, adjusting, and probably replaying the road ahead long before the race begins.
Fatigue and soreness built up
During the Tour, riders reported more fatigue and more muscular soreness as the days went on. After the race ended, both measures declined day by day during the recovery period.
This is where the study feels especially grounded. The Tour de France is not one hard workout. It is weeks of repeated strain, often across stages longer than 93 miles, with recovery squeezed into whatever time remains.
Why sleep matters so much
Sleep helps the body repair tissue, support immune function, regulate mood, and keep motivation steady. For endurance athletes, that last part matters a lot because holding effort for hours is not just physical.
The study’s authors note that poor or inadequate sleep can make the same effort feel harder. In practical terms, a rider may still push the pedals, but the mental cost of doing so can rise.
What earlier research showed
A 2024 study in Sports Medicine – Open also followed professional cyclists during the Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes. It found that male cyclists averaged about 7.2 hours of sleep during the race, while female cyclists averaged about 7.5 hours, with recovery markers affected after harder stages.
The new study adds another layer by connecting sleep with daily feelings such as fatigue, soreness, mood, stress, and perceived performance. That is useful because athletes do not race as heart-rate charts. They race as people.
What teams may learn
For teams, the message is not simply “sleep more.” Riders already face a packed routine after every stage, from food and massage to media duties and bus transfers.
The better question is how to protect sleep quality when the schedule is brutal. That could mean smarter timing for caffeine, quieter hotel routines, earlier planning meetings, better light exposure, and fewer small delays that push bedtime back.
Limits of the study
The findings should be read with some caution. The study involved only eight male cyclists from one team, and consumer smartwatches can overestimate sleep duration compared with laboratory sleep testing.
The researchers also did not have full data on caffeine, alcohol, medications, injuries, or sleep disorders. So the study shows strong real-world patterns, but it cannot prove exactly what caused what.
A small study with a big lesson
Even with those limits, the work offers a rare look inside elite cycling during a grand tour. It suggests that riders can get a decent amount of sleep, yet still struggle with the quality and timing of that sleep when performance demands climb.
At the end of the day, the Tour de France is not won only on the road. Some of the race is fought in hotel rooms, in recovery routines, and in the thin line between sleeping enough and truly recovering.
The study was published in Physiological Reports.
