Your First L’Étape du Tour: What Nobody Tells You (PDF Guide)

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You’ve entered the Étape, or you’re thinking about it. Now the questions start. Where do I stay? What gearing do I need? What happens if I miss the time cut? This 14-page guide answers the questions the official website doesn’t, written by someone who lived at the foot of Alpe d’Huez for twelve years and has guided over a thousand cyclists in France. Instant PDF download.

 

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Description

Every year around 16,000 riders line up for the Étape du Tour. A good number of them make mistakes that have nothing to do with fitness. Wrong gearing. Accommodation booked too late. No plan for getting back from the finish. A nutrition strategy invented at the second feed station.

This guide exists so you don’t become one of them.

It follows your event in the order you’ll live it. Entry and registration. Travel and accommodation. The expo and the day before. Race morning and the start pens. Pacing, eating and the first-climb trap. How to read a mountain you’ve never ridden. The time cut, the broom wagon, and what actually happens if you don’t make it. The finish, and the 48 hours after.

The Étape changes location every year, so this guide is deliberately evergreen. Nothing in it goes out of date when the route changes. Whether your edition is in the Alps, the Pyrenees or anywhere else, everything here applies.

What you get:

A 14-page PDF, designed to read on screen or print at home. A pre-race checklist. The rules most first-timers don’t know they’re breaking. The mistakes I’ve watched people make for nearly two decades, and how to avoid every one of them.

Instant download after purchase. Questions about your specific event? One-to-one planning calls are available separately.

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