Strava launch Col du Glandon segment challenge for next weekend's L'Etape du Tour

Strava has teamed up with Tour de France organisers ASO to launch an official L’Etape du Tour Segment Challenge for next Sunday’s mass participation event.

Each rider who completes the 19.9km ascent of the Col du Glandon on the day will receive a special digital badge, and Strava has also created a dedicated leaderboard for the challenge.

So far, almost 4,000 ascents of the 1,930 metre pass have been logged on the ride-sharing network, and a pair of familiar names hold the respective King and Queen of the mountains titles – Laurens ten Dam, with a time of 58 minutes 48 seconds, and Emma Pooley, at 1 hour 14 minutes 53 seconds.

The average time it takes a male rider to complete the climb, according to Strava, is 1 hour 49 minutes 33 seconds, while for women it is 2 hours 3 minutes 9 seconds.

The Col du Glandon is the second of four big climbs on next week’s 142 kilometre route from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne – the others being the Col du Chaussy, the Col de la Croix de Fer, and the final climb to the finish at La Toussuire.

In May, Fdj.fr rider Thibaut Pinot, who has had a difficult opening week to his Tour de France, undertook a recce of the climb, which will feature in Stage 19 of the race a week on Friday.

The Frenchman currently sits fourth on the Strava segment leaderboard with a time of 1 hour 5 minutes 18 seconds.

He said: “At just under 20km, it's a very long climb that gets more and more difficult as you go on - you certainly need to pace yourself.

“The first part of the climb is fairly steady and then it kicks up from Saint Colomban des Villards, the last 5km where you can see the summit is particularly tough.

“Although the stage itself is fairly short, it’s pretty brutal as there are a lot of climbs one after another. Good nutrition and staying hydrated will be the key to getting through the stage,” he added.

There are also segments for the Col du Chaussy and the climb to La Toussuire, and anyone participating in L’Etape can also join Strava’s online community set up specifically for the event, while you can view and download the route here.
Some 15,000 cyclists took part in last year’s event, drawn from 93 different countries, with one in five participants coming from the UK.