2013 Etape du Tour cut off times and technical route analysis

Every exam I've ever taken I've revised the same way. What topics come up most often? How many different ones are covered? What is each section worth to the overall mark?

Knowing everything about the reformation of the monasteries, for example, is no good if it's only coming up in 50% of papers and even then worth just 20% of the marks.  You need to know about the break with Rome too. And Wolsey's efforts to get Henry VIII a divorce. Otherwise no matter how good you are at Cranmer and Cromwell, you could still fail.

It's not about revising less, it's about making your revision count. To revise right you need to know the pass mark and what each section is worth.

But until now I've not known the pass mark is for the 2013 Etape.

How long do I have to get up Mont Revard? How long to reach the bottom of Annecy-Semnoz? How fast on the flats?

I do now. The 2013 Etape du tour cut-off times have just been released.

Of course, a lot depends on what pen you're put in at the start, but I've now got something to work with. An idea of how much time I have to finish [ideally] ahead of the broom wagon.

So this is how it looks* (minimum speeds to beat the broom wagon attached)

Format is: Distance, nature of road, speed needed, cut off time at the end of that stretch.

• Start: 08:30
• 12km - flat - 30kph - 09:00
• 5.4km at 5.8% Côte de Puget - 14kph - 09:23
• 1.5km downhill - 2kph- 09:45
• 3.6km at 6.2% Col de Leschaux - 24kph** - 09:54
• 9.5km rolling downhill overall - 10.3kph - 10:59
• 6km at 4% Côte de Aillons-le-Vieux - 12kph - 11:29
• 4.5km slightly downhill - ???
• 3.5km at 6.5% Col des Prés - 16kph (including descent)-  12:00
• 11.5km descent (technical) - 18kph - 12:39
• 16km at 5.4% Col du Mont-Revard - 7kph - 14:20
• 12km descent (fast) - 26kph - 14:48
• 23.5km basically flat (slightly downhill) - 11.5kph - 16:51
• 11km at 8.3% Montée finale du Semnoz - 9kph - 18:04
• Collapse exhausted (hopefully ahead of Broom Wagon)

*the route doesn't seem to quite match the cut-off time sheet, so there's a bit of fudging. It's close to right.

**including the previous descent makes that stretch 5.1km at 10.2kph at an average gradient I haven't worked out

I'll go through it in more detail, factoring drinks and food stops and attach a spreadsheet later on.

But initial thoughts are the start is quickish and you might need to be even quicker as the  climb to the top of Côte de Puget is also fairly rapid.

In fact, the first 22.5km (to the top of Col de Leschaux) is hard. Overall a 17kph average with 9km of climbing at an average of 6% in there.

After that, you should hopefully be banking time to get to the bottom of Annecy-Semnoz well ahead of 5pm.

Now, to train.