If you’ve been following our training series on RoadCyclingUK you should be well on your way towards your key summer sportive goals. Your training load is increasing, as is the intensity with the onset of better weather.

This article will focus on the specific demands of riding the Etape, or similar mountain sportives like the Maratona dles Dolomites and La Marmotte. As you’ll have gathered, there’s a fair bit of climbing involved so in this article we’ll look at what you can do here in the UK to train for those Alpine climbs in terms of technique and training, consider the nutritional challenge presented by riding in the mountains, and look at pacing, as well as how you can use some of the UK’s sportives for experience and as an intermediate goal before the big one.

We have previously covered building your endurance for a long day in the saddle and this time of year there are plenty of UK sportives that will let you test how far your fitness has come. The Etape itself may still seem a long way away but using events closer to home as a mini-goal on the way is a great way  to motivate your training, so take your preparation seriously and treat them as a dry run for the big day in July.

The Etape is 142km long so at the minimum you should be able to complete this distance on flatter UK roads now, and an organised sportive is a great way to do this. As July approached, preferably you’ll be aiming for a sportive lasting close to your goal time for the Etape, which will likely equate to closer to 180km or more on the flat to rolling we mostly have here in the UK, though obviously there are plenty of hilly events out there too.