Stage 8 of the Tour de France will go down as one for the ages. Not only because Gallic duo Julian Alaphilippe and Thibaut Pinot shot French cycling into life with a swashbuckling attack 12km from the finish but thanks to Thomas de Gendt producing a masterclass in how to win from a breakaway.
The Belgian breakaway connoisseur was the first rider to attack on the stage, carving out a gap with fellow break regulars Ben King (Dimension Data), Niki Terpstra (Total Direct Energie) and Alessandro De Marchi (CCC Team).
Throughout the day, he systematically whittled away his rivals, first dropping Terpstra and King before then popping De Marchi less than 15km from the finish.
While Alaphilippe and Pinot did their best to catch up in the closing kilometres, De Gendt had measured his day's efforts to perfection to ensure he was never caught and so was able to take a second career Tour stage victory.
To anybody watching, it was clearly an epic performance but thanks to De Gendt being an avid Strava user, we can get an even clearer look at just how excellent his performance was.
Being away in the break for a full 200km led to De Gendt producing some eye-wateringly high numbers throughout the whole day.
Riding for 5 hours 14 minutes, the Belgian logged an average speed of 39kmh and average cadence of 87rpm which translated to an average power of 311w for the entire day despite the 3,874m of elevation and seven categorised climbs.
When converted into average weighted power, De Gendt sustained 343w which considering his 69kg body weight translates to 4.97w/kg for the entire stage.
Within that, De Gendt had to produce multiple sustained efforts to firstly help establish the break's lead but then also drop his temporary allies and hold off a charging Pinot and Alaphilippe.
De Gendt was vital in helping to establish the four-rider break's gap in the opening kilometres. To do so, the Lotto-Soudal rider clocked an average of 422w for 10 minutes to push ahead of the peloton.
Within that were 30 second surges of over 700w and 10 seconds at 1,000w, a mighty effort to make so early into a long stage.
Later in the day, De Gendt really began to increase the pressure, noticeably on a segment called the 'Cote des Avergues', 140km into the stage.
A 3.9km test at 8%, De Gendt tapped out 405w which was enough to put fellow break riders Terpstra and King in trouble and secure the Belgian a Strava KOM, too.
On the day's final categorised climb, the Cote de la Jaillere, De Gendt pushed on to drop De Marchi and also create a buffer to ensure his memorable win.
In doing so, the 32-year-old turned the screw with a five-minute effort of 457w on the climb with a maximum surge of 877w. In an incredibly measured push, De Gendt barely dropped below 400w for the entire climb which was clearly enough to shell De Marchi.
It was not enough to earn De Gendt the Strava KOM, however. Those honours were taken by Pinot, who used the climb as a launchpad to escape the peloton and take seconds back on his General Classification rivals.
The Groupama-FDJ rider covered the 1.72km segment of 'Rue du Sapey' in 4 minutes 19 seconds with an average power of 457w and speed of 24kmh, seeing him better De Gendt's time by 23 seconds.
Regardless of Pinot's explosive efforts, it was not enough to catch De Gendt as he crossed the St Etienne finish line as the winner of one of the Tour's greatest stages in modern memory and one of the most impressive breakaway victories in history.