After all of your hard work it’ll come down to one day’s effort over the 142km route of this year’s Etape du Tour.
As we’ve covered previously, pacing yourself over the climbs, especially early on, is vitally important with more than 4000m of climbing to tackle.
Take advantage of any wider roads early on to move up through the peloton but don’t kill yourself doing so as with the first climb of the Col du Chaussy starting very early on you’ll soon have the opportunity to move up.
By the top of the first climb you will most likely have a little more room to breathe and enjoy the long descent. The first 7km of this descent is relatively simple before a final series of steep hairpin bends that will require your concentration, so use the easier top part of the descent to take on some food and relax a little.
After the descent you have almost 30km of valley roads, half of which heads North to Épierre before crossing the river and returning South to the second climb of the Col du Glandon/Col de la Croix de Fer.
If you can get into an appropriate group for your ability on this stretch you can save a lot of energy, but beware of getting excited and pushing too hard to stay with a group faster than your ability, with the majority of the ride and climbing still to go this could prove costly…
The Glandon/Croix de Fer itself is more than 22km and averages just less than a seven per cent gradient, but save some energy for the top as after a fairly steady first 10km, including a false flat to rest a little, the final 6km includes several steep hairpin bends including sections of over 12% gradient.
Unlike the Col du Chaussy, this descent is technical at the top before straightening out into a gradual three to five per cent descent into the 6km Col du Mollard.
With no sections of valley left you are now either climbing or descending so take advantage of the less technical periods to take on board plenty of food and drink.
Once you’ve cleared the final 15km descent off the Col du Mollard you’ve got the last 18km climb to La Toussuire in between you and the end of this year’s Etape. Averaging six per cent, and with a one-kilometre section of flat in the middle, between kilometres ten and 11, this isn’t the hardest climb of the day but you’ll have 120km and some serious climbing in your legs already so it will still be tough.
The first three kilometres are the steepest, up to nine per cent on average, with very little respite until you hit the hairpins with 14km to go to the summit.
These lead into the middle flat section before the final slopes and glory. It’s easy to forget this will still be an hour’s climbing for many, so now’s the time for that final (caffeinated maybe) gel and to dig in.
