The 24th edition of L’Étape du Tour will take place on July 16 and will follow the route of the eighteenth stage of the Tour de France which takes place four days later.
The stage will take the riders from Briançon to the Col d’Izoard and the entrants will also have to tackle the Col de Vars on the 178-kilometre route.
Mavic, who are one of the sponsors of Étape, have produced the video below of a reconnaissance of the route. Two of Mavic’s ambassadors – Mike Cotty and Nicolas Roux – outline their impressions of the route in the video .
Up to 15,000 cyclists are expected to take part with the Col d’Izoard providing a particularly difficult finish to the sportive. The iconic climb is 14.1 kilometres in length with an average gradient of 7.3%. It’s final 10 kilometres are a very difficult 95 though.
The other big climb of the day, the Col de Vars is 9.3 kilometres at an average of 7.4%.
Mark O’Riordan
Anthony Kenneally
Keith De La Cour