The biggest challenge you will face during the Etape du Tour will be the length and gradient of the climbs.

Getting your gearing right can make a huge difference on the day and, for the type of climbs you will encounter in the Alps, a compact chainset and wide-ranging cassette is recommended for all but the fittest riders. I would advise a compact chainset and cassette which gives you a bottom gear of around 34x27t, or a semi-compact which drops down to 36x28t. Even if you don’t feel you’ll need such a low gear it’s always good to have a bailout options for that worst case scenario.

Don’t leave it to the last minute to get your gearing sorted or you may be stuck with gears that at best don’t work perfectly or at worst simply don’t allow you to complete the climbs on the bike – you want to ride, not walk! Now is a good time to either book your bike in for a service to check that your bike is in roadworthy condition, or for the more mechanically-minded give your bike a good service yourself. The main things to check over are your tyres, brakes and gears. New tyres are much less likely to puncture and will also be grippier, enabling you to descend quickly and safely. Likewise, brake blocks can wear down quickly on an Alpine descent so new brake blocks and even cables will help when descending. You may need to fit a different cassette for the climbs but even if you already have low enough gears a new chain can make your drive chain more efficient, saving valuable energy for those climbs.

With the amount of climbing involved in this year’s Etape many people will look to reduce the weight of their bike in the fight against gravity. Lightweight components can help improve your climbing speed but ensure you are using reliable products and, again, it’s best to check these out in training. A lightweight carbon bottle cage will help to shave off the grams (and, more than likely, you’ve got more weight you can drop off elsewhere… on the rider) with little risk but for vital components such as brakes it’s best not to sacrifice function for a little lost weight.

Finally, let’s run through the essentials when it comes to descending technique. After all, if you’ve trained to climb quickly then you don’t want to lose that time on the other side