2011 Etape du Tour

What have they done - in 2011 its all change - we picked this up from the Sunday Times 'Cycle Guy' blog by Richard Caseby...

Round about this time of the year Joe Cyclist is jumping around as though he’s got ants in his Lycra pants. And why? Well, the route of the Etape du Tour is announced and the scramble for places on the premier sportive of the year begins. Ready on your buzzers . . . and I hope you’ve got a stack of cash.

Only this year there are two étapes, each for around 10,000 riders. The first follows the route of the 2011 Tour de France, stage 19, and runs 68 miles from Modane to Alpe d’Huez on July 11, ascending Col Télégraphe (5,138ft), Galibier (8,678ft) and finishing after the 21 hairpins of Alpe d’Huez (6,102ft).

The second, on July 17, is a flatter (but still bumpy) route between Issoire and St-Flour in the Massif Central, ending after 129 miles.

For the first time, British riders will be able to buy entry-only online from November 16 at www.letapedutour.com. Previously, you’ve had to buy an entire holiday through a tour organiser such as sportstoursinternational.co.uk.

The first 3,000 entries will be sold for €75 (£66), the next 3,000 for €95, and if you’re still left empty-handed you can go through a tour group. An entry-only from a UK company will then cost about £200 — but don’t blame the tour companies. Amazingly, that’s what ASO, the French organiser, is charging them.

Can the golden cyclist lay any more eggs? Certainly, it seems.

I hear that Club Med is charging tour groups more than ¤500 for a room after the Alpe d’Huez finish. Sure, it has to open the ski hotel out of season, but even so. Nul points, Club Med. Anyway, I doubt they’ll get many takers since the étape route is so short most will have finished by 3pm and can book a hotel off the mountain for a fifth of the price.

Oddly, the 2011 mountain route is putting plenty of people off, not because it’s hard but because it looks much easier than in previous years. The last time the étape ended on Alpe d’Huez it took in the cols of Izoard and Lautaret and was 51 miles longer. A tough, hot bugger, as I remember it, and really quite unpleasant. And if you’re paying all that money you want to suffer properly, don’t you?

The other drawback is that the big mountain-top crowds won’t be there to shout and hurl water over you. They bag their pitches for the real Tour, which passes through a couple of days later, and cheer you as though you’re the real thing. Believe me, it really does help when you’re grinding out the last few hundred metres. This year the Tour comes 11 days later.

My guess is that many étape veterans will try for the Marmotte ride on July 2 instead, which takes in Glandon (6,312ft), Télégraphe and Alpe d’Huez over 108 miles. The 100-strong team of amateur riders from Sky who rode the étape last year may look to this one or even a gran fondo in Italy.

Etapes are getting busy — a few previous ascents have been so choked that people have had to dismount. You can see why ASO wants to clone the golden goose. Sportives make big money and there is no sign of their turbocharged popularity waning. A second, flatter route encourages new riders into the fold and is an alternative for the 30% of entrants who don’t make the cut on a mountain stage.

There’s more to come. I hear of outline plans for a championship-style challenge in which the top 10 riders of each étape category finish in a race on the Champs-Elysées. But not next year. Maybe 2012