L'Etape du Tour - 8st July 2018
Race Reporters: James & Luca
If after I move away from France, someone were to ask me “what things will you take away with you?” my response would be – appreciation of good bread and cheese, the importance of a decent lunch break and a passion for road cycling. Over the last few years living in Paris, I’ve gone from someone who’d never cycled in lycra or clipless pedals, to one who loves nothing more than a long all-day summer ride, with as much elevation as possible. For anyone like that, the idea of putting yourself in the place of a grand tour professional cyclist becomes irresistible – and taking part in l’étape du tour makes this become a reality. The event had been highly recommended to me for a couple of years, and this time I felt ready to put myself in for the challenge.
This year’s étape was stage 10 of the tour de France (https://www.letour.fr/en/stage-10); the first mountain stage on the tour, where the GC riders would really start to push for their place in the maillot jaune. A parcours of 169km between Annecy and le Grand-Bornand, with 3 category 1 climbs (Cols de la Croix Fry, de Romme & de la Colombiere) and 1 hors-categorie climb at Plateau des Glieres; a 7km stretch at an average gradient of 11%, finishing on a 1.5km gravel section – easy peasy! Well, the distance we knew would be no real problem, but a total of 4000m D+ climbing did, to be totally honest, have me slightly scared.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didi_Senft); for those few moments the ‘pro’ feeling was really tangible.
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