Rapha's Online Etape Guide

Source: www.rapha.cc

The 2009 edition of the Etape du Tour is the most hotly anticipated to date. As every year, Rapha has done a full recce of the route, and the account of this is available at www.rapha.cc. If you are a regular kind of rider and would like a fuller picture of what to expect, there is information on the cultural background, details of all the sights and smells you will experience on this epic ride, and insights from the Rapha team. The recce is now live at: www.rapha.cc/the-elusive-prize.

To add to the online account, and after last year's sell-out event, Rapha and Cyclefit will be hosting an Etape evening in Central London on Thursday 25th June. Following recent trips to Ventoux and detailed reconnaissance of the route of this year's Etape du Tour, staff from Rapha and Cyclefit will present the route in full, with information on feed station locations, advice on tactics, gearing and hydration. If you want to be as well prepared as possible, this event is not to be missed.

To complete your preparation, Rapha's Sportive Pack of riding essentials, and an extract from Graeme Fife's book covering Mont Ventoux, are available from www.rapha.cc.

"There will always come that moment as you close with Ventoux, when you see the dominant, leprous, windswept summit of the Giant of Provence sprouting that sinister radio mast, thrust up out of the surrounding landscape, and shiver. Ride up there? you say to yourself." Graeme Fife, Great Road Climbs of the Pyrenees.