The Easter week of the Alps begins with reconnaissance that is hardly exclusive to a select few on the route that next Saturday will shape the 2026 Tour de France standings. With 16,000 amateur cyclists "racing," the Etape du Tour with 5,400 meters of elevation gain packed with mythical climbs, retraces exactly the race route from Bourg d'Oisans to Alpe d'Huez, on whose hairpin bends the first campers are already stationed, because a devoted fan always wants their front-row seat.

The extraordinary turnout for the cyclosportive, twinned with the Etape Series that has successfully arrived in Piedmont (a repeat scheduled for September in Mondovì), attests—if there were any doubt—to the power of two wheels practiced as a tourism engine, a recipe that the Alpe cooks like a Michelin-starred chef with seasoned expertise.

What emerges is a simple dish, even when the numbers are striking and the economic impact equally impressive: you write Tour, you mean engagement, whether it's those who yesterday already collected their race number, or the camper enthusiasts with decidedly non-climber silhou
ettes, without bikes in tow but equipped with televisions and provisions.

The roar of the Etape competitors facing the giant screen showing Pogacar's victory at the Markenstein sweeps away the jeers of recent days, but it would be wise not to get (too) caught up in the anxiety of anticipation for what will happen next weekend in the Hautes Alpes department, with an excursion into Savoy to approach the Galibier.

For the rest, it falls to Haute Savoie to take center stage with the best of hopes: the Plateau de Solaison indeed offers a unique chance for redemption (after a crash a month ago at the Tour Auvergne Rhone Alpes) for local favorite Paul Seixas, who may be from the Lyon area but was formed as a cyclist in Magland, less than thirty kilometers from the final climb of today's stage.

His grandparents' home is just a stone's throw from Sallanches, the venue for the elite World Championships race scheduled for next year. In short, on the unprecedented (for the Grand Boucle) balcony of Solaison and Tuesday in Evian-les-Bains, you'll already breathe the air of a world championship event, with a territory thrumming for Haute Savoie 2027. Between the French side of Mont Blanc and Lake Geneva, the connection with cycling is hardly sporadic—it's rather part of a strong and strategic departmental investment in cycle tourism.

The myth of Sallanches is there to do the rest, just over a year to go. But how can you push your thoughts so far ahead? Easy does it—it's always better to live in the present, even if those 16,000 on the Alpe...