Next year's Etape du Tour has been confirmed for 4 July 2021, following the same route planned for this year's cancelled edition.
The route will replicate stage 2 of this year's Tour de France, with a start and finish in Nice on the Cote d'Azur.
All entrants to the 2020 edition will automatically have their entry transferred to 2021. A limited number of additional places may be be released if riders drop out; pre-registration for these is open now at www.letapedutourdefrance.com.
The date for L'Etape du Tour 2021 was confirmed last night at the official reveal of the 2021 Tour de France route.
With this year's Etape eventually cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic, the 2021 edition will as expected follow the route planned for 2020, rather than a stage of the 2021 Tour.
The 175km route is the first coastal edition of the Etape, and features climbs of the Col de La Colmiane, the Col de Turini and the Col d'Èze.
"The 30th edition of the Étape du Tour de France will take place on 4 July 2021 in Nice," confirms the Etape webste.
"The amateurs will cover 175kms and a little more than 3,600 m of positive altitude difference in the Nice backcountry on the same course that saw Julian Alaphilippe ride to victory on last August 30th.
"The valleys along the route were hit hard by storm Alex a few weeks ago and the roads have not yet been rebuilt. The beautiful villages of the Vesubia valley will show the scars of this disaster for many years to come. But in order for life to start again little by little, we have decided, together with the city of Nice, to use the original course meant for the Étape du Tour de France.
"If you registered for the 2020 edition, your entry remains a priority. If you cannot participate, we will reimburse you for the amount of your bib and the options you may have chosen. We will contact you at the beginning of the year (just before the official opening of registration) to find what you would like to do.
"If you are not registered but would like to ride on this fantastic course on July 4th, 2021, you can pre-register now to be informed if there are places available to participate."
When the news was first announced back in July, we had speculated that the organisers might decide to run two editions of the Etape du Tour in 2021. There is precedent for this, with "double Etapes" running in 2011 and 2012.
2013 saw ASO revert to a single Etape - allegedly because of costs incurred deploying buses and trucks to rescue the 40% of entrants who failed to complete the 2012 Etape from Pau to Bagneres-de-Luchon.
And following last night's announcement, it seems that organisers ASO have elected to stick with a single Etape in 2021.
For further details and to pre-register for 2021, visit www.letapedutourdefrance.com.
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