Etape du Tour - How to ride a stage of the Tour de France

The Etape du Tour, or 'Etape' is an organised bike ride which takes place every year over the route of a mountain stage of the Tour de France. It is normally held several days before the professionals tackle the same route and is always one of the most demanding stages of the Tour de France. Entries are difficult to come by as the ride is very popular, so finding a good Etape Tour Package is important.

The Etape can be ridden as a race, or simply as a challenge to cover the mountainous route before the 'broom wagon' or 'voiture balai' sweeps up participants who are too slow. It allows enthusiastic amateur riders to pit their abilities over the same course as the pros and to see how it feels - except of course the pros do it in half the time and do it every day for three weeks!

Tempted?

The route for the forthcoming 2010 Tour  was announced on the 14th October, and at the same time the stage which will become the following summer's Etape was also announced. The 2010 Etape du Tour is a big Pyranneean stage starting in Pau, taking in several classic tour climbs and finishing at the summit of the Galibier.

For the 2009 Etape, as usual one of the classic stages of the Tour de France was chosen - Montélimar to Mont Ventoux. This took place on Monday 20th July 2009. The route covered 172km and finished at the summit of 'Mont Ventoux' the famous Giant of Provence. Mont Ventoux in itself is a great challenge climbing up to a height of 1912m above sea level with the upper slopes very exposed often being referred to as a lunascape due to its lack of vegetation. The pros climbed the mountain in just under an hour. The amateurs took anything up to four hours, some walking, and some being swept up by the broom wagon as lack of water, food and preparation took its toll on some.

For the 2010 Etape, you can find full details of the stage chosen, and the route details on the official Etape du Tour website

 Back in the 'good old days' things were relatively simple, and anyone could enter the event using the entry form in the French Velo magazine.  However, because the Etape is now so hugely oversubscribed things are no longer quite so simple.  Instead anyone who is not a French resident has to enter through an officially nominated tour company.

This means that you are limited to buying one of these companies' 'Etape packages', rather than having the complete freedom to do your own thing, and tie it up with other travel plans etc.

The good news is that there are a huge range of packages available. The bad news is that they can come at a price, so it pays to shop around. The Etape entry fee is officially only 35Euros - about £24, but the need to do it through a package means that this fee usually becomes closer to £100.  After that what you choose to pay for is up to you.  You can pay up to £1000 for a package which includes the works.

Some companies offer an 'entry only' package, which can give you back all the flexibility to make your own arrangements.  Check carefully, as some of these entry only products require riders to book a training weekend through the company first.

The following offer Etape packages of various sorts to suit most tastes.  They will also offer training weekends which can be good fun and a great way to make some new cycling mates if you are doing most of your training solo.

Sporting Tours

French Cycling Holidays

Cyclomundo

Velo Echappe

Sports Tours International