Sorry for the double post today. Blame it on the ASO for announcing everything at once.

The Etape du Tour for 2014 will be in the Pyrenees once again (last time was a 200 km+ doozy…my fingers are still a little numb) and is going to be an exact replica of Stage 18 of the 2014 Tour de France. The route is 145 km long, which should attract a lot of riders since it’s under the magic ‘Century’ distance. The first 70 km look troublesome to me because of all that ‘flat’ – it should be furiously fast.

Then comes Tourmalet, which I climbed (but in the opposite direction) in the 2012 Etape du Tour, but have nearly no memory of. I was in a fog of both my own misery and, well, fog. It was just a horrible day in the mountains that day. I’m looking forward to giving it one more shot.

The stage finishes on top of Hautacam, which I know virtually nothing about, but I can tell from the profile that it looks a little steep.

Logistics are always a problem with the Etape du Tour, but this year the end is not too far from the start (around 70 km, or 1 hour, taking the autoroute). You can’t know how great that is till you try and work out the many hassles around ‘getting home’ yourself.

I am working on my wish list for 2014, but I think this one should be on it. Anyone care to join the fun?

Registrations start (and possibly finish) on November 12th.