Winning on and off the road: Tour de France sweeps its 110th edition

The 2023 Tour de France has come to an end with Jonas Vingegaard‘s victory for the second consecutive year. In addition to the Dane’s uncontested triumph, the 110th edition of Tour de France will be remembered as one of the best in history from its start in the Basque Country to the toughness of the Col de la Loze.

In April before the Giro d’Italia, we reviewed some of the most relevant cycling data and insights. This time we’re focusing on the Tour de France from the point of view of social media, marketing, and sports sponsorship.

Tour de France’s growth

During the three weeks of the Tour, the participating teams interacted with their fans, connected with them, and made them a part of the race, while at the same time trying to optimize their marketing strategy to achieve the best possible figures on social media.

During the race, teams try to give the greatest possible visibility to their brands in an incomparable setting such as the Tour de France. Sponsorship activations do not only take place through television broadcasts, but also social accounts of the Tour, teams, cyclists, media, and fans.

These are the teams that gained the most new followers during the Tour de France based on relative growth.

Reviewing each network, TikTok is the platform where teams grew the most — 33.3% average increase. The Tour debutant, Uno-X Pro Cycling Team, not only leads the overall relative growth, but the team also saw a 28.3% increase on Instagram.

UAE Emirates achieved second place with Tadej Pogačar and third place with Adam Yates and saw its YouTube subscribers increase 68%.

The 2023 Tour de France beats 2022’s numbers

On a sporting level, there has been much praise for this year’s Tour de France.

Compared to the 2022, the Tour improved its figures both in terms of engagement and total views, as well as the average engagement per post.

Instagram generated the most engagements and video views for the Tour’s official channels. However, TikTok was the platform that grew the most, with an increase in followers of 128.6% compared to 15.2% on Instagram.

After three weeks of incredible scenery and much struggle and effort, cycling fans (and Blinkfire data) are already looking forward to the next big sporting event on the cycling calendar: La Vuelta.