The Route
L'Etape du Tour is the world's most prestigious mass participation cycling event. There will be upwards of 8000 cyclists at the starting line in Pau, all looking to complete the entire route of Stage 10 of the 2008 Tour de France. It is to cycling, what the New York Marathon is to running. The organizers of the event ensure the roads will be closed to vehicular traffic as well as providing strategically placed food and rest stations. There will also be mechanical support along the route provided by Mavic. This ensures that everyone has a great time participating in L'Etape.
L'Etape in 2008 will be run on Sunday, the 6th of July 2008, over the 165 Kilometers from Pau to Hautacam. This is a true mixture of old and new, with the most classic of all French climbs and one of the more recent additions to the Tour.
For 2008, the organizers are bringing us way back to where it all began for the Tour de France in the high mountains. In 1910, the Luchon to Bayonne stage was added to the existing Tour route. This took the riders straight through the heart of the Pyrenees, on dirt trails, over of the Cols of the Peyresourde, Aspin, Aubisque, and over the roof of it all, the Col de Tourmalet, at 2115 meters. This gamble into unprecedented territory was a huge success and helped shape modern cycling into what it is today.
The climb into the ski area of Hautacam was first used in 1994 and has been climbed in the Tour only twice since then. Most memorably was the last time, in 2000, when Lance Armstrong put his mark on the peleton by blowing away both Marco Pantani and Jan Ullrich on his way to claimimg his second of seven Tour victories.
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