L’Étape du Tour de France

Ride a Tour de France mountain stage on the roads the professionals use, with the traffic taken away. That is the idea behind L’Étape du Tour de France, an amateur cyclosportive organised by A.S.O. over one stage of the Tour each year. The 35th edition takes place on Sunday 11 July 2027, starting in Cluses (Haute-Savoie) and finishing at the high-altitude resort of Les Saisies (Savoie), in the French Alps. The organiser states that the route is fully closed to traffic, and riders are timed and ranked.

Routes and distances

The 2027 edition offers a single route, which the organiser presents as a mountain stage with five major climbs.

The route covers 154 km with 4,850 m of elevation gain. The Col de la Colombière (15.9 km at 7%) comes early, then the route crosses the Aravis range, passes through the Arly Valley and the Beaufortain region, and climbs the Col du Pré near Lake Roselend.

The last climb is the one that decides the day. Bisanne is listed by the organiser at 12.4 km with an average gradient of 8.3%, and it arrives when the legs have already done most of the work, before the finish at Les Saisies. The organiser gives no length or gradient for the Aravis crossing or the Col du Pré in the material we read, so we do not quote any here.

Practical notes: the organiser’s route page does not yet publish a start time, time limits, feed station locations or an official GPX file for 2027. Its regulations say that riders overtaken by the time vehicle are excluded from the classification, that crossroads are secured by the Gendarmerie and signallers, and that first-aid and mechanical assistance points are provided. A helmet, a water bottle and a puncture repair kit are listed as mandatory, together with front and rear lights; check the 2027 rules PDF for the exact wording.

Registration

General public registration opens on Monday 2 November 2026 at 2:00 p.m. French time (CET). Entry requires a valid French Cycling Federation licence, a medical certificate or a “Module Santé” certificate. Riders are placed in numbered starting areas based on, in order, their real-time ranking in earlier editions, their licence and category, their participation in a recognised cyclosportive, and the sporting objective declared at registration.

Completing a L’Étape Series cyclosportive can secure a bib through the L’Étape Reward programme. The pages we read do not publish the entry price or the exact number of places (the organiser says only “several thousand cyclists”), and bib collection details were not available to us.

Full details are on the official website.

Why ride it

You ride a real Tour de France stage course, on closed roads, in the same mountains the professionals cross. The profile is serious: 154 km, 4,850 m of climbing and five major climbs, with the Colombière and Bisanne both averaging 7% or more. The finish at altitude in Les Saisies gives the day a clear shape, building towards the final climb rather than ending in a valley.

Where to stay

Riders usually arrive the day before to collect their bib and sort their bike. The organiser’s pages we read do not recommend specific hotels, and none of our certified cycling-friendly hotels is currently within 40 km of the start in Cluses. Book early, as accommodation around a Tour stage fills quickly, and browse more cycling-friendly accommodation.