Jean-Pascal Groux
Les amateurs bien entraînés peuvent réaliser leur rêve de concourir dans les mêmes conditions que les professionnels. Well trained amateurs can fulfil their dreams of competing on the same terms as professionals.
A FINE CHALLENGE ! TEXT : Claude Droussent | Spanning seven days between Geneva to Nice, a 730 kilometre crossing of the Alps and fifteen major cols and ascents: the first edition of the Haute Route will reawaken the spirit of cyclosportive events in August 2011.
“L
a Haute Route is an event for women and men, who need to set themselves a new challenge!” With the advent of this “cyclosportive” this coming August its Director, 50 year old Jean-François Alcan, former boss of the famous Etape du Tour for over fifteen years, makes no secret of the difficulty of his latest brainwave. Geneva-Nice by bicycle, over seven days, seven stages, 730 kilometres and fifteen great Alpine cols: the Haute Route is beyond the reach of just anybody. That’s the appeal. “However, we also want to offer a social event,” confirms Alcan. With a partners’ village and pasta party each evening in the most beautiful Alpine resorts, as well as the possibility of competing in teams… It won’t just be about pedalling hard across the slopes of the Colombière, the Galibier, the Izoard or the Bonette, whose very names are part of Alpine legend. Instead it will encapsulate the notion of taking part in an event where every aspect of it has been revamped and replenished.
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MOUNTAIN ADDICT #02
Manu Molle
LA HAUT E ROUTE
The Haute Route, “cyclo extreme”, was born from a conversation between Jean-François Alcan and Philippe Lesage, from the specialist website Velo 101, both of whom envisaged a new kind of “crossing of the Alps”. From that meeting Alcan had talks with Rémi Duchemin and Mark Turner, event organisers within the OC ThirdPole group in the universe of sailing and outdoor sports. THE ULTIMATE ADVENTURE Alcan and Duchemin thus created an event linking the two exceptional cities of Geneva and Nice “in the spirit of the Paris Dakar of the eighties, which took the competitors from Place de la Concorde, in Paris to the Pink Lake. It was an adventure, an inspiration…” The adventure element of the Haute Route lies in each person’s ability to link together seven consecutive days of cycling in the high mountains. “Yes, we wanted to create a new event, one that’s extreme,” says Jean-François Alcan again. “We know that the third day, where participants have to link together the Madeleine, the Télégraphe and the Galibier cols, three tough sections even for the professional cyclists, will be very difficult for example. However, we also offer a taste of the unexpected, such as the ascent of the Col du Granon the following day in the form of a time trial. It’s a seldom visited site and a formula which has never before been offered at the heart of a cyclosportive event.” Indeed the notion of “multi-stage cyclosportive” didn’t even exist previously. Alcan and Duchemin have invented the concept with the Haute Route. What finer challenge could there be this summer 2011?