Tour de France stage open to public?

Conor20

I've heard from a few people that, at least a few years ago, one day about a week before the TdF starts, there's a stage which is open to the public to cycle and several thousand people do it.

Does anyone know if this still happens or if it's happening this year?

Conor.

Raam

Etape du Tour. It's on every year

E@gle.

yes its called l'etape du tour its usually a tough mountaing stage and it happens usually during a rest day of the tour. This year its mount ventoux.
google it

cyclopath2001

Not exactly open to all comers. There's a draw for the entry, limit is 2,500. Recommended procedure for non French/Swiss/Belgian nationals is to go through authorised travel agents:

http://www.letapedutour.com/2009/ETDT/presentation/us/inscriptions.htm

Diarmuid

cyclopath2001 wrote: »

Not exactly open to all comers. There's a draw for the entry, limit is 2,500.

limit is more like 8000 but it is a draw. Entry forms in Velo Magazine last week of Feb.

Freddy687

Non french residents can purchase a place on the Etape through one of the authorized travel operators.
http://www.letapedutour.com/2009/ETDT/presentation/us/inscriptions.htm

There are 2500 entries held for these operators. Finding an entry at this point will be very hard, also you have to be very fast as a medical cert must be sent back to the organisers, through the tour operator, by month's end.

The stages are always in the mountains and requires a very good level of fitness. I expect that this year's event will have a 10 hour time limit like last year. With waypoints that must be reached by certain times along the way also.
A good gauge of your fitness would be completing the Wicklow 200 in less than 8 hours.

RapidResults

Diarmuid wrote: »

limit is more like 8000 but it is a draw. Entry forms in Velo Magazine last week of Feb.

I saw the Etape finish in Pau some years ago, it got a lot of media coverage. Many celebrity riders.

Slightly OT, but the Argus Tour is on in Cape Town next March. They limit the entry to the first 35,000 :eek: and got that last November, a week after they opened. But, they'll still accept foreigners.

Even though it's just a 100km 'fun ride' around the Cape in 40c heat, you have to submit race results if you want to get a start anywhere near the front.

Quite a cultural difference compared with Ireland.

efb

lads it was mentioned on QI tonight,and just spotted topic here, one of the comedians did it! Mad!

rughdh

efb wrote: »

lads it was mentioned on QI tonight,and just spotted topic here, one of the comedians did it! Mad!

Yep. It was Hugh Dennis. He did the 2007 one in 11 hours 7 minutes. The time limit was 12 hours that year for the 200k stage in the Pyrenees.

Conor20

Thanks for the info lads. Looks like it's too late to plan it for this year. Maybe 2010.

Conor.

cantalach

RapidResults wrote: »

Slightly OT, but the Argus Tour is on in Cape Town next March. They limit the entry to the first 35,000 :eek: and got that last November, a week after they opened. But, they'll still accept foreigners.

Even though it's just a 100km 'fun ride' around the Cape in 40c heat, you have to submit race results if you want to get a start anywhere near the front.

A few of my cycling buddies in Perth were South African and had done the Argus several times. The limit to which you refer only applies to Africans (in the geographic rather than racial sense of the word). Non-Africans pay a much higher entry fee and there's no limit on numbers. You get preferential treatment at the start line in return though so it's not all bad.

Btw even if it's 40C in Cape Town it would be very unlikely to be anything close to that on the tougher parts of the course - the Southern Ocean sees to that. The biggest challenge posed by the weather is wind. You do have to watch out for the Cape baboons though!

The consensus from my SA buddies was that although the scenery and 'experience' were unsurpassed, it was an awful long way to go for something that wasn't actually at all challenging if you're a regular cyclist.

Diarmuid

FYI. The Velo Magazine with the entry to the Etape is out now. Here is a scan of the entry form. Get on to you friend in France if you want them to get one for you.