The Tour de France is getting faster, and here’s why it won’t be slowing down soon

The Tour de France is getting faster. When you plot out the average speed of the winner over the course of the race, over the course of its history, that much is clear to see.

The past two editions of La Grande Boucle may have fallen short of Jonas Vingegaard’s record-setting, eye-watering winning average of 42.10 kilometres per hour in 2022, but in general the speeds have been trending upwards for more than a century.