How much better are pro riders than the rest of us? It’s an age-old question, and there’s one event that offers the opportunity to lay out the harsh reality.
Each year, the Étape du Tour lets amateurs ride a complete mountain stage of the Tour de France a few days before the professionals, providing a unique chance to compare times and power data to assess the gulf between the best and the rest.
Earlier this year, Cyclist sent me to the Alps to ride the 2023 event – 157km (145km of it officially timed) from Annemasse to Morzine with 4,100m of climbing – and turn myself inside out in the name of science before submitting to the ritual humiliation of comparison to the world’s top riders.
Helping me to analyse the numbers and establish some lessons is coach Chris McNamara from trainSharp Cycle Coaching (trainsharp.co.uk). McNamara trains riders at every level, up to and including the WorldTour, and has also coached me for years, so he’s ideally placed to put all the data in context. As well as comparing myself to a couple of pros, we’ll also look at a couple of other amateurs to cover as broad a range of abilities as possible.
I love events like the Étape
