The Haute Route concept is all about providing a professional-worthy experience for our riders. On the road, riders can expect regular feed stations, safety cars and escorts. Off the road we create personalised extra services including daily massages and hot meals after every stage. This experience is even considered down to the detailed routes of every event.
In 2023, the Haute Route Pyrenees and Haute Route Alps will both cover the same roads as the Tour de France!
Our riders will experience some of the same roads as the professional riders on a Grand Tour, crossing the same towns, climbing the same cols, and taking the same switchbacks!
Stage 5: The Unmissable Pau
Pau is the most visited city by the Tour after Paris and Bordeaux. A perfect location, right at the gateway to the Pyrenees, it is not surprising that Pau has been a stage town 75 times in 110 editions of the Tour de France. In 2023, Pau will also be the final finish of the Haute Route Pyrenees on July 8th, just three days after hosting the start of the 5th stage of the Tour.
The two routes will almost cross each other since our Haute Route riders will leave the Pyrenean massif by a challenging stage starting from Argelès Gazost and taking Col des Spandelles, Col du Soulor and finally the very atypical Col d'Aubisque, culminating at 1781 meters of altitude before returning to the plain until Pau. The peloton of the Grande Boucle will use the city of Pau as a gateway to attack the passes of the Franco-Hispanic massif towards Laruns.
Stage 6: The Mythical Tourmalet
It is also impossible to consider crossing the Pyrenees without passing through the mythical Col du Tourmalet and its 2115 meters of altitude for both the Haute Route and the Tour de France. Climbed for the first time in 1910 by the Grande Boucle, it has immediately written the legend of the Tour, which has already passed the summit 81 times.
In 2023, the Tourmalet will be the main course of the 4th stage of the Haute Route Pyrenees between the Col d'Aspin and the Hautacam climb. The third highest pass of the French Pyrenees will be climbed by Sainte Marie de Campans, its hardest side, the day after the 6th stage of the Tour.
Be careful on the climb, you may catch some of the Tour's sprinters who didn't manage to reach the top!
Stage 15 : Megève, The Heart of the Alps
We are now in the Alps and the road of the Tour and that of the Haute Route Alps will cross near Megève. The city of the great departure of the Haute Route Alps 2023, Megève will not host this year, neither the departure nor the arrival of the big loop but a simple passage during the 15th stage between Les Gets and St Gervais Mont-Blanc.
The riders of the Haute Route Alps will have the opportunity to share, from the Col des Aravis and on the last 30 kilometers of the first stage, the same roads that the pros of the Tour will have used a few weeks earlier.
Want to experience routes covered in the Grand Tour and premium services on and off the road? Register now for 2023 events:
- Haute Route Crans-Montana - 9th to 11th June 2023
- Haute Route Pyrenees - 4th to 8th July 2023
- Haute Route Alps - 20th to 26th August 2023
- Haute Route Dolomites - 29th August to 2nd September 2023
- Haute Route Ventoux - 6th to 8th October 2023
