Etape 2026 - rip off of the Marmotte?

[nofuse22]

Just had a mail re the 2026 Etape route: Bourg D’Oisans to Alpe D’Huez

Apart from a few differences (croix de fer vs Glandon… if i remember correctly a very small difference), it’s pretty much the same route…

Thoughts?

I always liked the Marmotte because you started and finished in the same place compared to the Etape… maybe the Etape organisers are realising the same thing?

[oddman]

The étape organisers are limited by the choices offered by that year's Tour route so it's always going to be logistically more complex than the Marmotte.

I did étape in 2006 when it was Gap -> Alpe d'Huez. After completion descended the Alpe and stayed in the Hotel near the foot of the Alpe and rode back to Gap the following day.

For the start, we stayed in a gite near Gap and did a gear drop to our desination hotel the day before the étape (some crappy old clothes and trainers that I dropped in a bin after the overnight), Some of the party rolled down the road to Bourg and caught the train back to Gap. I joined the stronger guys and rode back to the gite. That was probably a harder day on the bike than the day before. Bibs and jersey were very crispy by time I'd finished. We got back several hours before the guys who took the train.

I've heard these days it's not easy to get an entry outside the organised trip so the planning/logisitics might be easier but will be much more expensive. For a DIY trip Bourg -> Alpe would be one of the easier trips to plan.

[Harpoon]

It's a monster day out with 5400m of climbing - I imagine that would crack a lot of riders. I did a 100 miler out into the Peak District and back last month. That was the first time I've been done over 3000m climbing in a ride. I'm stupid enough to have a crack at most things but I'm not sure I fancy 80% more climbing than that day.

[oddman]

Harpoon said:

It's a monster day out with 5400m of climbing - I imagine that would crack a lot of riders. I did a 100 miler out into the Peak District and back last month. That was the first time I've been done over 3000m climbing in a ride. I'm stupid enough to have a crack at most things but I'm not sure I fancy 80% more climbing than that day.

If you've not done any Alpine climbs, it's really difficult to compare with UK climbs. It would be ridiculous to say they are easier but the roads are well surfaced (they'll be refreshed for the tour)and engineered in general. Where possible the grades are even so it's much more possible to get into a rhythm. Descents are so long that, as long as you're comfortable and the conditions are OK, you get a lot more recovery on a descent than the 5 or 10 minutes of respite you get in the Peak.

The key to surviving a massive effort like that will be being able to stay ahead of the cut off whilst staying mostly in z2. A recent 3000m effort would be a excellent starting point for training - way ahead of where I was. My biggest days in prep (in the South Pennines and Peak) were solo 200km/3000m big loops over Holme Moss, Snake, Edale Valley back over Holme Moss averaging 25-27km/h, turning out 20km/h on étape day about 20 minutes ahead of the cut off on an parcours which was about 190km/4500m. Another 1000m is quite daunting. I think if you could manage a not too horrible 4000m day in training in the hottest weather we get in May, you'd make it.

ETA If you're into numbers I guess my w/kg would have been about very close to 4 when I did the étape. At a similar level of training (triathlon rather than pure endurance) 12 years later I was sub 3.5 for a 2.5 hour bike section on a half iron distance ride but this would be sub FTP. I think you'd have to be a very smart/economical rider with massive z2 capacity to get through with FTP less than 3 w/kg.

Edited by oddman on Friday 24th October 10:12

[Harpoon]

I did Ventoux about 10 years ago but I'm fitter now. Rode the Alpe in 2023, descended to Allemond and got about half way up the Glandon. Brother-in-law was digging himself a big hole though, so we bailed out back down to Bourg. Went out on my own the next day and did three smaller cols in the Chartreuse - Col du Granier, Col du Cucheron & Col de Porte. That was about 100km and 2600m climbing.

A big challenge for me would be the potential heat in July (obviously cooler the higher up you get). Riding in Provence a couple of days after Ventoux I had an absolute mare of day with dehydration, though it was very high 30s / low 40s that day. Drunk something like 6 litres that day but I was still shrivelled when I got back to our rental.

Still, no need to think about it too much as the ferry and AirBnb is already booked for Liege-Bastogne-Liege next year. Hopefully drier than We Ride Flanders in 2023. Trench foot was a bigger worry than hydration that day.

[oddman]

Heat acclimatisation and hydration/nutrition are something that has to be trained. It was 40 degrees when we went up the Alpe and there were terrible sights on the side of the road.

An extra dimension with the Galibier is altitude. The hour or so over 2000m is something we didn't have to deal with. If I was doing this I'd be considering booking a hotel at 2000m for a week before and some riding above that for acclimatisation.

I went out with the better riders from our etape group to Ventoux in 2016. No real plans but the Cinglé was in the back of our minds. We had a late start (due to concern about how cold it might be at the top) stopped for a leisurely pizza in Malaucène and another café stop in Sault. Lovely road up to Café Renard on the way back and as light was fading turned left and not right for the third summit. About 160km and 4000m. The whole day was comfortable apart from the section when the climb proper starts and my mates were making a point to each other and kindly dialled it back for me and the 2km of steep on the Malaucéne climb where I was the one in the best shape. It was solid type 1 fun apart from that. We did a shortish ride to see the Gorges du Nesques the following day and a circumnavigation of Ventoux the day after that.

I didn't train specifically for it. Just a summer preparing for an Olympic distance tri three weeks before. Longest ride was probably no more than 100km/1000m/25km/h.

Despite still being in pretty good shape, I don't think we'll be doing a 20th anniversary jolly. I think it's beyond my limits

[pete]

I did the Marmotte des Alpes back pre-Covid. The best advice I can give is to get into shape, and have the right gearing, so you can sit in zone 2 for an hour or more at a time on a 5-6% gradient. That will get you up most of the mountains, with occasional bursts into the red for the steeper pitches on the Galibier, bottom of the Alpe, etc. My FTP was probably around 250W when I rode it, albeit I only weigh 75kg or thereabouts. Even so, I spent too long in a 34x32 bottom gear with an inexorably rising heart rate, and not having enough time to stop for a rest if I was going to avoid the broom wagon.

I tried to do as many hills during training as living in the South East would allow, but realised early on in the real thing that I'd have been better training my body to be able to sit doing a steady time trial-like effort for hours on end. The hills in most of the UK just don't give you the same experience of climbing for a *really* long time as a purely aerobic effort. The other thing that caught me out was descending. I was, and still am, a crap descender on road, but it wasn't until the descent down from the Lautaret toward Bourg (after the Galibier) that I started to really enjoy it and make up time - apart from the tunnels, those were bloody terrifying at 80kph

[Mark83]

It's a beast of a stage. I'm out.

When I did Ventoux three times, that was 'only' 145km and 4500m of climbing.

We also planned to do that Etape/Marmotte route a few years ago but got dark when we got back to Bourg after the Croix de Fer, Glandon and Galibier, the sit down lunch in St JdM probably didn't help :lol: