2014 L'Etape du California

Ride a Stage of the Tour of California

It's called L'Etape du California, that ride where cyclists take on one complete stage of the Amgen Tour of California. This year the event will take place on Sunday, April 6, 2014. A maximum of 1500 cyclists will complete the 80-mile route of Stage 8 of the 2014 Tour of California in the city of Thousand Oaks.

The start and finish line is in Westlake Village, riders will climb the famed Rock Store climb on Mulholland Drive four times. This is a timed event with recorded results and bragging rights. This is also a good hard day in the saddle for the remaining 1,499 riders who will not win the 2014 Etape du California.

With it's good location and Sunday ride time - this event should attract plenty of riders. This year's Stage 8 (the same stage of the Etape) is very similar to Stage 8 of 2010 Tour of California. Ryder Hesjedal of Canada won the stage that day in 2010. This year you could be the one.

Route: 20+ mile circuit route, 4 loops, 80-miles total.

Start/finish line on Townsgate Road/Village Glen in Thousand Oaks (really it is Westlake Village), heading south to Agoura Hills, starting the ride along Mulholland Hwy past the Rock Store at the foot of the climb, followed by a very technical descent back to Westlake Village. Repeat three more times. 8,800ft total elevation gain. 

Getting to the Etape:

If you fly in for the event, consider both LAX and Burbank airports for arrival. Burbank is actually an easy location to get in and out of quickly, and only a 40-minute drive to Westlake Village (in light traffic). It'll take you that long just to walk through LAX. Westlake and Thousand Oaks are nice pleasant suburban locations with chain hotels and strip malls filled with shops, restaurants and coffee shops. Parking is easy with street parking and some limited for use parking lots. 

If you need a hotel, the host hotel Hyatt Westlake Plaza, has $139 rooms available through March 10th only. My parents live nearby in Camarillo, Calfornia, but I will miss this great ride this year. I will be the for the 2014 Amgen Tour of California however.

Facts 

Official website: letapeducalifornia.com
Cost: $90 from February 2 through March 28, $110 from March 29 through day-of-even. You can pay $255-275 for VIP if you desire "preferred placement" in the roll out and a free photo of yoruself. Or you can go cheap and try to pass 987 people through out the course of the race (ride). 
Register is open: sign up now
Support: nutritional and mechanical on course. 
Prizes: every rider receives a medal (!) and a tshirt. Plus you will be included in the KOM timed climbing competition (whether you like it or not). Jersey are an extra $90, Champion Systems may no longer sponsor a pro cycling team, but they still make jerseys.

History of L'Etape du California:

2006 - first year of the Tour of California
2011 - first year of the Etape - Claremont to Mt. Baldy L'Etape du California 2011
2012 - Ontario to Mt Baldy L'Etape du California is back for 2012
2013 - Mt Diablo (there were two Etapes in 2013)
2013 - Escondido
2014 - Westlake Village

L'Etape du California is modeled after L'Etape du Tour,. A major event run in France annually to allow citizens to ride one complete stage of the Tour de France. The tradition is a marvelous one, because nothing is better than getting out and riding on the route yourself and then watching the pros do it (much faster).

Etapes are very much like gran fondos (both are timed citizen rides), only L'Etape du California and L'Etape du Tour are run in conjunction with a pro stage race, allowing the amateur to test his/her time against the pros. The word etape means stage in the French language. So you will be riding The Stage of California.

The peloton roars through on Townsgate Road at the 2010 Tour of California in Westlake Village.  Photo by Kenny Rakestraw for Pedal Dancer®

This year the riders who challenge themselves on the 2014 L'Etape du Tour will have to wait until May 18th to watch the pros do the same on the final stage of the 2014 Amgen Tour of California.

Route map of 2014 Etape du California (Stage 8) click to enlarge

Profile map of 2014 Etape du California

Volunteer if you are interested in helping. Photographs of all cyclists will be available after the event at: Finisher Pix. I will be writing much more about the Tour of California in coming weeks. I love this stage race. TOUR OF CALIFORNIA.

VeloNews recently included the Etape du California on their Bucket List: 17 must-do rides and races in North America.

I have just one final word - compact

You can do it!

You've got the right stuff

I can see you now, wondering, planning, scheming which events and what equipment you will ride in 2013. I am calling 2013 the year of doing it yourself. So what if our heroes have fallen, so what if they too are now seen as mere mortals. We, the collective and rapidly growing mass of amateur cyclists are building momentum.

This sport of cycling is growing

More and more people are taking to the bicycle, and age is not a deterrent. I recently popped up the website for the grand-daddy of them all - the Death Ride in California, a brutal 129 miles (270km), 15,000ft (4,572m) climb over 5 mountain passes near the border of Nevada and California. There is an interesting statistics page on their website; did you know that of 2,902 riders in 2012, 81.2% were men, 18.8% were women. The oldest rider was 87-years old, the youngest 12. Six percent of rider were from out of state or out of the county. Riders from Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Korea and Switzerland traveled to California to participate in the ride. Only 66% of those who started the ride, finished the ride (only 45% of the women finish). That is one hard event ride! But most interesting - look at the spread of age groups of the finishers:

5 PASS FINISHERS BY AGE GROUP:
12-21: 27 finishers
22-31: 178 finishers
32-41: 392 finishers
42-51: 728 finishers
52-61: 517 finishers
62-71: 95 finishers
72-81: 3 finishers

You is kind, you is smart, you is important

No wonder we are the dream target market for bike equipment and cycling apparel companies. There is a reason why the bike service industry is willing to sponsor and pay those professional cyclists and teams - because they want our attention! Maybe they should turn their efforts to supporting more local events and races. Not just the cycling fan, but the amatuer cyclist holds the buying dollar in this sport. The number of amatuer racers and the number of casual cyclists continues to grow. Think about how many more people you see out cycling than you did 10 years ago.

Event rides are not a piece of cake

Don't discount how difficult some of these amateur event rides can be. The slew of increasing Gran Fondos are timed citizen rides with a winner, but even non-timed events can result in a cyclist being on the road for 5-9 hours in a day. Some events run for several days in a row at this level of effort and mileage.

You are not your average water cooler kind of guy

Chances are most of your family and friends realize you are a bit different. We Cyclists find our motivation in the challenge, the adventure, the preparation, the determination, but mostly in the feeling that cycling is a means to get us in, and keep us in, incredibly good shape. We find our reward in feeling like kids again, in improved health, and in being part of a community of fellow cycling enthusiasts.

Cycling is our hobby, not our bread and butter

For each one of you who feel like you are hot stuff in your local area races, remember that there are towns all over this country, all over this world, where cyclists spin the pedals daily achieving and meeting their goals. You are a fish in a magnificent sea of cyclists. This effort is going on daily around the globe.

For each one of you planning your first 40-mile event ride, know that waiting for you is an incredible feeling of accomplishment at the finish line. Plus a squadron of cyclists who will be riding next to you, supporting and sharing your enthusiasm. Nothing feels better than sharing a passion or hobby with others, especially when cycling brings people from such varied backgrounds together on two wheels. You are guaranteed to meet amazing people on a bike.

No effort is too small, no effort too great

I learned a lesson in 2012, some of the most interesting people I met in 2012, I met during my local bike rides or on event rides or at the pro races. They were not pro riders (with the exception of the always fascinating Ted King) or race directors or team managers, they were passionate common cyclists who loved riding a bike. I also learned that most of what I need I already have, most of what I want is in my own back yard. Following my pattern of every other year to Europe, this is my year to stay on home soil.

I have had fun penciling in some rides on my calendar and planning registration. I am thinking about traveling in Colorado, California, Utah, and Oregon this year, plus personally tackling the entire route of the USA Pro Challenge on a bicycle over several weekends. Why not?

Yes, the sport of cycling is growing, read ...

• 2011 Update on U.S. Bicycling Levels and Trends 
• Olympics fever will help to make 2012 the year of the bike 
• Growing Cycling in America

Where are you going to ride in 2013?

2013 Colorado Bike Events and Races
You too can race the cobbles (and in 2013!)
2012 l'Étape du Tour Mondovelo (and in 2013!)
L'Etape du California is back for 2012 (and in 2013!)

The road does not always lead to a podium or to glory, but it does usually lead to satisfaction. 

The end of an exceptional ride !
Man that hurt, man that was great!!

2012 Etape du California results

Citizens rode a stage of the 2012 Tour of California

Last Saturday, April 28th, while Luis Leon Sanchez was busy taking a stage win at the Tour of Romandie, over 500 citizens in southern California rode their own stage race. It has now become tradition that the Amgen Tour of California offer the opportunity for citizens to ride a complete stage of the tour on closed road conditions. For every rider out there, if the day did not feel like a race, it certainly felt like a challenge.

The stage of the 2012 L'Etape du California takes riders to the top of Mt Baldy which is Stage 7 of this year's Tour of California. Remember last year when Matthew Busche (RadioShack) set a blistering pace up the mountain for his teammates Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner? Well the climb is steep and certainly worthy of a UCI 2.HC stage race mountain top finish. Most impressive was the top 20 finishers of Saturday's L'Etape du California - look at the age ranges in this lead group of riders. If anything should motivate an amateur to keep riding their bike, this top 20 results list for the 2012 L'Etape du California should do it.  

Please click to enlarge this image below - Wayne Stetina at age 58, uncle to Peter Stetina of ProTeam Garmin-Baracuda, former U.S. National Road Champion, and Vice President of the bicycle division of Shimano American, came in 4th! Rich Mull of Malibu, came in 12th at age 60! Dean Hall, age 21, came in 17th. Local Nate Whitman of Los Angeles won by 5 minutes, he is 36-years old. 533 citizen cyclists completed the challenge. Read more about the event and route: L'Etape du California is back for 2012. Watch the pros race Stage 7 of the Amgen Tour of California on Saturday, May 19, 2012.

Read the full 2012 l'Etape du California results list.

Read about the event and route: L'Etape du California is back for 2012.

If you missed this chance to ride a stage of the Amgen Tour of California, don't worry, you'll have another chance on Sunday, May 20th, as all citizens are invited to ride the final circuit loop of Stage 8 in Los Angeles. The distance is only 5-miles, everyone is invited to participate (who owns a bike), and it is FREE. Come join in the fun:

The 'Nissan Ride Before the Pros,' taking place in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday May 20, 2012 from 8-9:30 a.m., will allow cyclists of all levels to ride on a 5-mile, closed-circuit course that will be part of the 2012 Amgen Tour of California's eighth and final stage takingplace that same day. Free to participants of all experience levels, the 'Nissan Ride Before the Pros' will begin and end at the official finish line where the professional riders competing in the 2012 Amgen Tour of California will cross to complete the 42.6-mile stage they started in Beverly Hills on Rodeo Drive earlier in the day. Read more on the official Amgen Tour of California website: Nissan Ride Before the Pros.

Route of 2012 Nissan Ride Before the Pros

Bring the kids and family - the next Dave Zabriskie (who lives locally in Los Angeles) could be in the crowd, waiting to be inspired. Bring the Grandparents too - the next winner of L'Etape du California could be there too. 

If 5-miles is not enough, you could be one of the select few citizens who will be joining the Chris Carmichael "Going Pro" team and riding prior to the pros at every stage of the 2012 Amgen Tour of California. How this will work out logistically still baffles my mind, but you can read more about it here, (keep in mind it'll cost you $11,500): 2012 CTS Amgen Tour of California Race Experience. This same experience will be offered at the USA Pro Cycling Challenge in Colorado in August 2012.

L'Etape du California is back for 2012

Ontario to Mt Baldy, Saturday, April 28, 2012

L'Etape du California will again offer the chance for amateurs to complete a stage of the Tour of California in a closed course race setting. This year riders will tackle Stage 7 from Ontario to the mountain top of Mt Baldy. The citizens race is organized by Pacific Sports and approved by AEG, the organizers of the Amgen Tour of California. 

The details of the exact route will be out next year, but with the race (and yes, it is a timed event) starting in Ontario and finishing on Mt Baldy, should have a guesstimated route just over 100 miles and 10,000ft elevation gain. The city of Ontario is only 14 miles from the summit of Mt Baldy and 10 miles further south from Claremont, so again it is likely that the route will be similar to the 2011 route, winding back and forth along the foothills before the last final steep climb to the summit of Mt Baldy.
 
This was the L'Etape du California map from 2011, the route might be similar with added distance - (the city of Ontario is south of Claremont the start of last year's Etape). Read more about last year's L'Etape du California 2011

The 2012 Etape may be similar to the 2011 route, Ontario is South of Claremont

This is the map of Ontario, California in relation to Mt Baldy:

Southern California - L'Etape du California 2012, Ontario to Mt Baldy

The 2012 event will again have a cap of 2,500 riders. You may register on the official L'Etape du California website, or read more information on the race's home page. This is the second year for the event, thousands of riders suffered through the steep ascent to Mt Baldy last year (my brother was one of them) 

Read the post I did last year about L'Etape du California 2011 with pictures, maps and more. Or another post about L'Etape race day in 2011 L’Étape du California.

Stage 7 of the Amgen Tour of California will take place on Saturday, May 19. Read about the route of the 2012 Amgen Tour of California, scheduled for May 13-20, 2012, 2012 Tour of California route announced .

The tradition of the Etape is based on the long-running event L'Etape du Tour in France every year, allowing citizens to ride a choice of two complete stages of the Tour de France, in which over 10,000 riders from around the world participate. Read 2012 l'Étape du Tour Mondovelo.

Schedules - keep it simple

Team schedule for the day 

How to organize a professional cycling team at a race. Check this out - I thought this was interesting. This time schedule for the time trial stage was taped to the Team Sky bus at the Tour of California. This is how the day unfolds for a bike racer on race day. A well organized plan to get all the riders, drivers, bikes, team cars, trucks, and campers to the next hotel.

click to enlarge

If you look around at a stage start you'll notice all kinds of interesting things. We got a good laugh at this notice in the store of the local small town bookstore where Davis Phinney was scheduled for a book signing to promote his latest book (The Happiness of Pursuit). Taylor Phinney's mother, who obviously still schedules for him, said he could go too "if he's not too exhausted." Funny.

I then saw a man wearing this L' Etape du California tshirt that morning in Solvang, CA (my brother who completed the Etape was wearing the same shirt), so I said to the man with a smile, "nice shirt, did you die too?"   "I died very slowly," he said in all honesty.

My brother and sister-in-law were at the Start of the Criterium Dauphine this morning in Pontcharra, France. They said they have new pictures of the Tour Hag (Suz) with Basso, Matt Busche, Sanchez, Danny Pate, Juan Antonio Flescha, Brajkovic, Vino(-1 pt), Wiggo (+1 pt). And they were able to chat with DZ and Busche and Jani. Plus they took 100+ pictures for this blog. I can't wait to see them!

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L’Étape du California

Big turn out this morning for the citizen's race

With riders from "all over" lined up in waves in Claremont, California for the first ever Mt Baldy L'Etape du California 2011

Results from the 2011 L'Etape du California 1450 riders rode the event. There is someone with the name of Dave Zabriskie that came in 8th. hmm. He does live in Los Angeles, I guess he decided to pop on over.

Quote of the day: "I don't think I've seen more suffering" - my brother. "The best experience is that I kept going. It was tough."

Read more about the race: L'Etape du California 2011 By Pedal Dancer

Photos:
Brightroom
Dave Flores Sports Photography
BicycleFriends.com 
L'Etape Facebook

Update 2014: 2014 L'Etape du California

L'Etape du California 2011

Citizens can ride a stage of the Tour

2014 News: 2014 L'Etape du California
2012 News: 2012 Tour of California route announced, ATOC dates: May 13-20, 2012. The 2012 L'Etape du California will be held April 28, 2012. Amateurs will race Stage 7, the exact route has not yet been published, but please read more at: L'Etape du California is back for 2012.
- - - -

Etapa, étape, stage, whatever your language, riding a complete stage of a Pro Tour race is a big deal. This year as part of the Amgen Tour of California, the above-average citizen cyclist can participate by riding one complete stage of the Tour of California. The citizens race, called L’Étape du California, is scheduled 14 days prior to the day the professional cyclists will race the same route. 

L’Étape du California is for "serious recreational cyclists," and will take place next Saturday, May 7, 2011.  Which stage will it be? Stage 7, from Claremont to Mt Baldy, Miles: 74.2 KM: 119.4. 

The ride is based on the same idea as the very successful L’Étape du Tour, held in France every year and organized by the organizers of the Tour de France. The original Etape attracts over 10,000 participants, this year two routes are being offered in France (L’Étape du Tour mondovelo Act I and L’Étape du Tour mondovelo Act II). 

Although the Tour of California is now 7 years old, this is the first year the organizers have provided cyclists the opportunity to ride a complete stage in California.

What is unique about riding in an Etape? Citizens may ride the exact same route that the professionals will ride on May 21st at the Amgen Tour of California, there will be a mass start at 7:00am, there will be KOM/QOM targets and prizes awarded, the roads are closed for rider safety (just as they are on the real race day), and cyclists wear timing chips. A meal and musical entertainment are provided after the ride. 

My brother is registered to ride L’Étape du California next Saturday. He has now completed 5 days of recon on the route, to train on and ride all sections in different segments. He has also completed the Etape du Tour in France, and admits this stage is tough and could result in a serious gap on race day for the pros. The section of the road from Baldy Village to the ski lifts climbs of over 2,000 vertical feet in just 4 miles. Total climbing is 11,610 ft in 76.2 (+2 for the Pros).

Stage 7 is a real stage, it is not easy, even at the lower number of miles. It is steep. I am excited for the Étape, and to watch the climb on ATOC race day. The profile map states 8.9% grade on the last climb to Mt Baldy, but there are 12-15% sections on the climb. My brother said he recorded a 2.8mph and a 17% reading one day he was on the climb. He took a picture of the 15% grade sign on the climb (below). 

There is a lot of open space in these hills above Los Angeles. Located in the San Gabriel Mountains, Mount Baldy (Mount San Antonio) is 10,068 ft (3,069 m) and the highest point in Los Angeles County. The mountain gets it's name from the lack of trees at the top (similar to Mont Ventoux!) and is a ski area (similar to Col du Tourmalet).

Registration for L’Étape du California is still open, the cost is $115. You get a medal upon finishing the race. The full Tour of California will be May 15-22, 2011. 

Some pictures from my brother's recent reci rides. He said, "I didn't take as many as I wanted to, but then again - I was dying":

Here is a Mt Baldy ride profile on STRAVA by Bruce Gustafson

Mt Baldy profile (but this does not follow the exact route of Stage 7)

The Mount Baldy climb is one of the most difficult in the LA Area with 4600 feet of

climbing in 13 miles. The last five miles are extremely steep with an average of over

8% and some 15% sections.

Post post 05/08/11:
Results from the 2011 L'Etape du California. There is someone with the name of Dave Zabriskie that came in 8th. hmm.
Photos:
Brightroom
Dave Flores Sports Photography
BicycleFriends.com 
L'Etape Facebook