Inspirational Cycle Guide and Route Recon designed for indoor training.

The Ride Recon follows the 2014 L'Etape Route from Pau to Hautacam, 148km featuring Col du Tourmalet and Hautacam.

In 1910 Tour de France rider Octave Lapize publicly vented his anger at race officials yelling 'Vous fêtes des assassins!' (You are murderers!) as he passed the summit of the Col du Tourmalet for the very first time, and from that very day a mythical mountain in cycling was born. Now it’s your chance to turn up the volume and conquer the ‘terrible mountain’.

Mike Cotty and Cyclefilm have teamed up once again to guide you through the 2014 Etape from the picturesque start town of Pau, once described by a French poet as having ‘the world’s most beautiful view of the Earth’ no less, all the way to Hautacam ski station. Join Mike as he shares his advice on preparing yourself and your bike for a long day in the saddle before giving a detailed insight into what can be expected out on the road come July 20th.

148km in total with over 3,000 metres of vertical elevation can never be overlooked, especially when both mountains have a very different character - the Tourmalet is longer at 17.1km and with a more consistent gradient whilst Hautacam starts with a bark and keeps on biting all the way to the top with it’s ever changing pitches (up to 13%) across 13.6km. Are you ready to tackle the highest road pass in the Hautes-Pyrénées followed by its smaller, although arguably more cocky, little brother? To succeed you will need a combination of endurance, strength and power.
And you know what they say 'knowledge is power!'