Every year, L’Étape du Tour de France hosts the biggest amateur gran fondo in the world on one stage of the Tour de France—always including some of the hardest, most mythical climbs from the Tour. We want to bring all the energy, enthusiasm, and excitement of the world’s hardest amateur race to Zwift with the Virtual L’Étape du Tour de France!
There will be no registration or tracking for the Virtual L’Étape du Tour, just sign up for any of the group rides. During February, March, April, and July, we will have scheduled L’Étape Prologue Tuesdays through Thursdays and the gran fondo events that will challenge you Friday through Sunday, with events scheduled every other hour. Coffee Stop and late join will not be enabled for the prologue rides or the gran fondo events.
During the month of June, we will be featuring Col de la Couillole, the final climb of the IRL L’Étape du Tour de France, as the Climb of the Month! To learn more about the Climb Portal schedule, click here.
When you complete any of the weekend’s L’Étape du Tour de France gran fondo events, you will unlock the virtual Santini L’Étape du Tour de France official event kit! In addition to this amazing kit, complete one prologue ride and one gran fondo every month between February and April, and you will be entered for a chance to win a trip to participate in the L’Étape du Tour de France live. To learn more about the terms & conditions, click here.
Looking to learn more about the Virtual L’Étape du Tour, check out the event series page here or the FAQ here
Personally I was hoping for some of the longer stages to be mid-week (seems the prolog stages are pretty short), not just fri-sun, since I can’t ride on weekends (I’ve got the opposite schedule from most), but I’ll try to hit the Friday rides.
Yeah, for something that is tied to the “L’Etape Du Tour”, I’m surprised at how short everything is. The longest fondo ride is 70km… They had an opportunity to have this all lead up to a ride that was a challenge to work towards like L’Etap is, but the prologs are super short, and the Fondos are mid-distance, not really what most would consider a Fondo.
Also, when they have Col de la Couillole available in June it’s too bad they don’t have a stage that routes from France up that climb as part of one of the events - maybe call that the queen’s stage of this tour and make it a real Fondo length?
I don’t think I’ll do any of the short mid-week stages but will try to catch the fondo stages on Fridays where I can.
The rides are set up every 2 hours. Any chance they can be offset by an hour on alternate days? None of these rides are at a time I can do, and I’m sure I’m not the only one in this position.
Do I have to register somewhere else than just to these events and ride …sorry race them?
And is those 4 times 2 races all or what is that GC, grand champion?
I have ZwiftPower profile but do I have to something extra to fulfill eligibility for the grand price?
Update on Zwift Riders from James on this. He was not asked to include the Prologue stages into the GC. He is now checking whether they should be included.
Hi all,
i just did the prologue of the L’Etape and im wondering if there is no category differences at all (it seems like). if so, what would be the best way to keep in the “right” group in order to dont burn out too quick.
i started pushing with the first group to notice (quickly) that was way beyond my league, so i had to start for the upcoming peloton,… and the other one…hahah. till i mange to find a bunch of people to ride together.
thanks for any insight!
