I can't remember the first time that I read about Jack Thompson, but he's been doing mega distance and endurance events that make an Everesting seem tame for a while (in fact, I recall he did 3 Everests over 3 days in 3 different countries at one point!). Jack popped up again at this year's Tour de France with a goal of riding the route solo and chasing down the peloton - a worthy and challenging goal which inevitably begged for comparison to the Alt Tour being attempted by Lachlan Morton.
I'm not here to find a winner. Frankly they are both super impressive (and completely mental) feats. I'm just here to provide you charts (and data).
The data used to compile these charts is from Jack's Strava account. Sourcing statements re the Tour de France data and Lachlan's data can be found in the related posts.
Data quality
At this stage, I'm not completely happy with the data. The distance that Jack refers to in his Instagram post from the Champs doesn't match with his published Strava data - I'm about 400km short. I've sent Jack a note to ask about the difference, because I'd like my charts to be accurate and complete. I'll update the charts and this note if/when I hear back.
The Amazing Chase
Distance comparison
This chart compares the published distance for each stage of the Tour de France (including zeroes for the rest days) with the daily kilometres recorded by Jack and Lachlan on Strava.
Climbing comparison
This chart compares the published elevation metres for each stage of the Tour de France (including zeroes for the rest days) with the daily metres recorded by Jack and Lachlan on Strava.
Ride time comparison
There is no clearer demonstration that the Alt Tour and the Amazing Chase were very different rides than to look at the daily ride times for each of them. I've used a mirrored bar chart here, because I don't think there is a direct comparison - it feels like the starting point for analysis should be to accept they are different outcomes that Jack and Lachlan pursued, and the chart allows to appreciate that difference, rather than to rigorously compare them.
Distance vs climbed scatter plot
This chart compares the climbing metres of each of the rides Jack logged with the distance travelled. Jack's Strava method was slightly different Lachlan's, in that he recorded multiple rides each day. For comparative purposes, I've accumulated the rides to show a daily total. The size of the circle is a ratio of vertical over distance to reflect average metres climbed per kilometre (larger circles being 'steeper').
Image credit: jackultracyclist.com
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