Thoughts of the 2010 L'Etape

Rumors of upcoming Tour de France always pique my curiosity. I like the speculation and have a certain admiration for the amount of digging people do to try and determine the routes ahead of time. Plus, it is a good excuse for me to pull up maps and look at what is being proposed, particularly the mountain stages.

An interesting subplot, to me, is what stage is chosen for L’Etape du Tour. If I had not competed in the "race" before, I doubt that the L’Etape choice would interest me. But, having done the ’05 edition and ridden quite a few other passes in France, I am often familiar with the area chosen and tend to visualize the terrain, the towns and remember how I felt going over those same roads.

The L’Etape rumors took several different forms in the weeks before the recent announcement. First, I heard rumors of a stage from Revel to Luchon. I dismissed those rumors right away. The stage would have been too long for a Tour stage and didn’t have enough climbing in my opinion.

Then, the speculation was a stage from Luchon to the top of the Col d’Aubisque and also included the Peyresourde, Aspin, Tourmalet and Soulor. That had more than enough climbing but was a little short (~150km) for a L’Etape. That rumored stage then morphed into a finish in Pau. That made for a strong stage. The strikes against that being the L’Etape stage is the start in Luchon, a relatively small town. Also, it would have been inconvenient for the riders to get from the finish back to the start

Finally, in the final days before the announcement, rumors settled on a start in Pau and a finish atop the Tourmalet after climbing the Marie-Blanque and the Tourmalet/Soulor combo. The start and finish would be closer together for the competitors and Pau is plenty big enough to handle a start. It all made sense.

Unfortunately, that rumor was wrong. Very close, but still wrong. Instead of climbing the Aubisque, the course climbs the Soulor from the north. Personally, I like the Aubisque option but the Soulor makes sense. The Marie-Blanque and Aubisque were both used in the ’05 L’Etape so maybe they didn’t want such similar courses only four years apart

Approximately the first 50 km from Pau will be rolling to flat terrain before reaching the base of the Col de Marie-Blanque. Then the fun begins.

Riding the early slopes of the Col de Marie-Blanque

Coming from Pau, the Col de Marie-Blanque will begin with a left hand turn. The Marie-Blanque is not hard climb... to start. It is one of the worst types of climbs, in my view. It is concave. The grade is an easy 3-4% to start for 2km. Dont get lulled into a false sense of security, though. The next 3 km are a harder, but still manageable, 5-6% as it softens you up. Then, the mountain bites back. The next 4 km average a tough 11%. Any momentum you had goes away and you start to grind out each pedal stroke. There is no scenery to distract you. All you have are trees on either side of a somewhat narrow two lane road. As I recall, the road does not have many turns either. You are left pedaling upward, wanting to see the next km marker alongside the road.

This is a cheese making region and if you ride it on a normal day you are quite likely to see cows roaming the hillsides. In fact, at the top of the Marie-Blanque there is a sign saying that the road is the Route de Fromage (Route of Cheese)

Looking back down the climb of the Marie-Blanque

Looking east toward the start of the descent

Unlike the western ascent, the descent of the Marie-Blanque is rather twisty and wooded for the a few kilometers. Back in ’05, the road was a little uneven in places but I found it to be an enjoyable descent. The top of the eastern descent is gradual for several kilometers. It does get steeper for a short while before reaching the Plateau de Benou. This is a good sized plateau where we had one of our feed zones back in ’05. Given it’s location, I doubt it will be used as a feed zone next year.

After the plateau, the descent becomes much steeper than the first half with several hairpins and views of,first, the town of Bilheres and finally Bielle.

The town of Bilheres

The town of Bielle at the base of the Marie-Blanque


At the base of the climb when you will turn left on the route D934 and head north toward Louvie-Juzon, then east to the town of Asson and south again toward what is listed as the start of the Col du Soulor at Arthez d’Asson. Arthez may technically be the start of the Soulor because the road starts to go upward but you have about 10km of slight grades averaging about 2%.

My experience with the Soulor was as a descent to Asson. At the time, it seemed like a very long descent with a lot of small bends. Much longer than the 12km that makes up the heart of the climb. The road may have seemed longer because I had a bunch of people willing to take many more risks through all of the blind curves that never seemed to end.

Climbing up the Soulor will probably provide a much different experience. After reaching the town of Ferrieres, the real climbing begins. As I descended the road seemed rather steep. Looking at profiles of the mountain would seem to confirm that. Grades are consistently 7-9%. Those are not crushing percentages pretty comparable to Alpe d’Huez. It just doesn’t have the 10% grade at the very bottom like the Alpe. The Soulor should provide a good test.

If you are on a bad day, I would think you will start to realize it by the time you crest the Soulor. You will be two-thirds of the way through the race and have two good climbs in your legs. If you are starting to struggle at this point, going the even tougher Tourmalet is going to be very unpleasant.

The good news is twentry kilometers of descent to the town of Argeles-Gazost and another 20 km of basically flat road to Luz-Saint-Saveur for your legs to suddenly turn to the good. The Tourmalet is no lightweight. My only experience was climbing from the east and descending the route of L'Etape.


What I remember most of the descent were that it, too, was quite long at eighteen kilometers. Second, the pavement was very uneven near the top. To make things even more sketchy, the worst pavement was in the turns. This, of course, shouldn't be a problem when climbing the mountain up at a snail's pace. The last thing I remember is that the road was steepest at the top. That's not good news for the competitors. The final kilometer at ten and a half percent is a serious sting in the tail that will feel like five kilometers for more than a few riders that day.

The finish atop the Tourmalet is a worthy ending and should fill the finishers with a sense of accomplishment and many years of memories.