L'Étape du Tour

L'Étape du Tour is the world's largest cyclosportive and the ultimate bucket-list ride for any road cyclist: you ride a real stage of the Tour de France, on the same roads, with the same climbs, just weeks before the pros. The 170 km route through the French Alps includes over 4,500 m of climbing across some of the most legendary cols in cycling. This is not a race for the unprepared. The combination of distance, altitude and gradient demands months of structuréd training. You need a deep aerobic engine to sustain hours of climbing, the ability to pace yourself across multiple cols, and résilience to keep pushing when fatigue sets in on the final ascent. Your training plan should prioritize long climbing rides with progressive overload. Include sweet spot and threshold intervals on sustained gradients, back-to-back long days to build fatigue resistance, and altitude simulation if possible. Nutrition strategy for 6+ hours of effort is equally critical — practice fueling on training rides to dial in your race-day plan.