OC Sport, organisers of the Haute Route multi-day sportive, have announced details of a new event in the Pyrenees.
The first Haute Route Pyrenees will take place on September 1-7 2013 and will take riders from Catalonia (Spain) to the Basque Coast (France), following an 800km route via 20 legendary Pyrenean cols and 20,000m of ascent.
The event will follow the same format as the Haute Route Alps, established in 2011 as the toughest and highest sportive in the world, with seven timed stages, including a midweek individual time trial.
“The Pyrenees offer an ideally suited profile for the Haute Route, with the exceptional beauty of the landscape and the authenticity of the valleys crossed,” said race director and course designer Jean-François Alcan, founder of the Etape du Tour.
“The highest cols of the Pyrenees will feature in the challenging course, including the mythical Tourmalet, and riders must be wary that these climbs are even steeper than the Alpine ones.”
OC Sport will announce the start and finish host cities, the course details and registration conditions in the coming weeks. Fifty entries will be reserved for participants who wish to take on the challenge of the Alps and the Pyrenees in the same year, with the Haute Route Pyrenees start in Catalonia one week after the Haute Route Alps finish in Nice.
Haute Route calendar
Haute Route Alps 2012 (second edition) – August 19-25 2012
Haute Route Alps 2013 (third edition) – August 18-24 2013
Haute Route Pyrenees 2013 (first edition) – September 1-7 2013
