L'Étape du Tour 2026

The route

L'Étape du Tour is the most high-profile cyclosportive in the world. Held each July on the exact course of a professional Tour de France stage, with the same road closures, the same kilometre markers and sometimes the same conditions the world's best riders have experienced days before, it offers something no other event does: riding a Tour stage while it still feels like one. In 2026 the stage is Alpine, covering 170 km and 5,400 metres of climbing including the Col de la Croix de Fer and the finish at Alpe d'Huez. Riding L'Étape is the most direct way to understand what it feels like to be in the Tour.

The 2026 route links two of the most iconic Alpine climbs. The Col de la Croix de Fer (2,067 m) is approached from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne with 29 km of long, steady climbing. After the descent toward Bourg-d'Oisans comes the final ascent to Alpe d'Huez: 13.8 km at 8.1% average with 21 corners numbered in reverse, each one dedicated to a historical stage winner. These are the most famous 14 kilometres in mountain cycling and in L'Étape they are lined with thousands of spectators.

July in the Alps follows a predictable weather pattern: stable mornings, afternoon potential for thermal thunderstorms. L'Étape starts early precisely to get riders over the passes before afternoon cumulonimbus clouds develop. Wind on Alpine passes is typically crosswind or valley-oriented, with upvalley flow in the mornings and downvalley in the afternoons, without the gusting character of the Provençal Mistral. On Alpe d'Huez the wind tends to channel through the Romanche valley corridor: in summer with the slope heated by the sun, a tailwind component in the final kilometres of the climb is more common than not.

L'Étape offers two formats: the full distance of around 170 km and a shorter option of approximately 90 km covering only Alpe d'Huez. Places are allocated by international ballot and demand is enormous: some years see over 200,000 applications for 15,000 bibs. If you get a place, the organisation is among the best you will find: feed stations every 30 km, neutralised sections on the climbs, full medical support and a well-managed kit collection at the finish. Chamonix and Grenoble are the most practical base locations for this edition.

Variants and GPX

Past editions

Real Open-Meteo weather on each edition day.

How to register

Registration, price and rules are on the official website of the organization. Official march website →

More information

All marches in France
Keep reading about planning routes with wind