The date for the 30th edition of the Étape du Tour de France has been reserved for 5th July 2020. One week after the professionals, amateur riders will follow the roads of the second stage on the Tour de France, over a distance of 177 km, starting and finishing in Nice.
Event organiser A.S.O notes that, in the history of the Étape du Tour de France, next year’s event is both the first loop stage and the first to be ridden along the coast. However, during the event, the 16,000 amateur cyclists expected will twice climb to more than 1,500 metres above sea level on the Col de la Colmiane and Col de Turini.
Bernard Thévenet will be an ambassador of the Étape du Tour de France and will attend the Grand Départ of the Tour de France 2020 in Nice.
Registration opens on 21st October at 16.00 on A.S.O’s time to event registration site.
When the Tour de France takes on a southern accent, mountainous stages can be found on the route right from the start. This will indeed be the case in 2020 with the Grand Départ in Nice taking advantage of the Southern Alps from as early as the second stage.
The loop-shaped route will be taken several days after the elite riders by the amateur cyclists who sign up for the Étape du Tour de France. Naturally, it is a challenge made for the climbers among the 16,000 participants expected, because over 177 kilometres of racing the course will gobble up a total upward gradient of 3,570m.
Following the start on the Promenade des Anglais, the participants will take-in the Gorges de la Mescla in the Tinée Valley, before tackling the climb up to the Col de la Colmiane, where Simon Yates was victorious on the 2018 edition of Paris-Nice.
Next they will ascend the Col de Turini, where Colombian Egan Bernal scored his first success on French roads in the following year’s race. To complete the festival of climbing, the route finishes with the ascent of the Col d’Eze, a landmark of the Race to the Sun, on top of which Eddy Merckx, Joop Zoetemelk and Sean Kelly sealed their victories in the 1970s and 80s.
The 2020 edition of the Étape du Tour will provide many riders with the opportunity to enjoy a stay on the French Riviera. A.S.O. adds that, while the keenest will have already been through the countryside around the city during the Paris-Nice Challenge (on 14th March 2020), which has been organised in the region since 2016, a much more ambitious format is on offer in July.
The base of the 2020 L’Étape du Tour will be located in the city centre, where the race village will take up residence for three days. The finish line will also be located in Nice.
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