Etape Australia review: is it worth it? (Unrehearsed Ambivalence)

In this Etape Australia review, I'll answer the question “Should I do Etape Australia?”

It’s a fair question, and one I’ll answer with ruthless honesty as always.

(OK, to be technically accurate, this is a pre-review of the event.

Etape Australia carries the imprimatur of the ASO and the heavy weight L’Etape du Tour. That, however, doesn’t mean you ought to automatically do it.

Etape Australia is not going to be like L’Etape du Tour, and here’s why.

Before we start, I’ll caveat this post by saying I was initially super excited about Etape Australia. Whilst the route is underwhelming, the pricing eyebrow-raising, timing less than optimal and location curious, if I was of a mind, I’d do it.

(I don’t think I’ll be extended a complimentary media pass after this and my previous post.)

Etape Australia review video

Value for Money

First and foremost, let’s look at value for money which is also known as Return on Investment (“ROI”).

Whilst ROI is a little nebulous, I measure ROI by balancing cost of entry, length of race and other ancillaries, such as:

• Cost of entry and inclusions
• Whether it’s on closed roads: less important in France with their motorists but important in Australia with our lunatic motorists;
• Atmosphere/buzz;
• The course: difficulty of ride, length and climbing.

Etape Australia entry cost and inclusions

Firstly, cost of entry for the Race is $345 ($295 early bird).

Entry for L’Etape du Tour—in France, on an as-raced Tour de France stage—is €100 for 2016 (i.e. $150AUD at 1AUD=0.66EU April 6 2016).

Sure, for Aussies, there’s no overseas travel costs, but the costs to travel and hire cars, plus fuel and accommodation, are not trivial. Accommodation especially, in Australia, is a non-trivial consideration.

Plus, you can’t really compare Etape Australia to L’Etape du Tour.

Spending AUD$1000-$1500 on a few days doing Etape Australia provides, I think, a much poorer ROI than spending $5k on 2-4 weeks in France doing Etape and seeing Le Tour de France (possibly squeezing La Marmotte in).

And if you’re coming from overseas; I personally believe it’s not worth your consideration unless you’re already going to be here. That is, I personally wouldn’t come to Australia just for Etape Australia, unless you were going to fit it in with a bigger Australian holiday.

And for $300, you can do Peaks Challenge Gold Coast, Tasmania or Falls Creek. You completely avoid the driving problem for Gold Coast and Tassie—Falls still requires a big drive from Sydney and 4.5 hours from Melbourne—and in all 3, you get a much, much harder course.

Yes, Etape offers some cool inclusions, but most sportives like Peaks Challenge, BUPA Challenge (Tour Down Under) and Around the Bay all offer sweet inclusions and free stuff.

An interesting aspect to entries is team entries: the fastest team (of 9) gets 9 entries to L’Etape du Tour 2017. Allez! Team sizes of 9 are very large though. I wonder how many people are going to be able to convince 9 friends to get time off and commit to the cost that close to Christmas?

Closed roads

Etape Australia is on closed roads, which I think significantly adds to its appeal.

Having done gran fondos in Australia on open roads, you can be subjected to typical Australian motorist behaviour such as having projectiles thrown at you or abuse hurled at you.

Atmosphere and Buzz

L’Etape du Tour typically pulls between 7000 and 13000 entrants.

You read that right.

And the Ronde Van Vlaanderan (Tour of Flanders) sportive had a rather fantastical and eye watering 16,000 entrants.

Etape Australia, I think, will do well to get 1500-2000 people.

I might be wrong about this, but it’s based on experience.

For example, the recent Peaks Gold Coast had about 1200 people, and it was located right near an international airport (Gold Coast) and at a time of year offering escape from the freezing southern winter.

And a 1500-strong field is not anywhere like a big, big Etape field.

Nevertheless, with all the pageantry and carnival atmosphere, it will still be a buzz.

It’s really hard to describe the buzz of an Etape, so perhaps you could read my reports from 2009 (Ventoux), 2010 (Marie-Blanque, Soulor, Tourmalet) and 2011 (Telegraphe, Galibier and D’Huez) for an idea.

Etape Australia: The Courses

Etape Australia offers two options: a 157km Race (hard) option and a 126km Ride (medium) option.

Firstly, it’s a bit weird that there are 2 options: Etape du Tour has only 1 option.

Secondly, why is the medium option only 30km shorter? Sure, it omits Col de Kosciusko (note: Kosciuszko is NOT a Col. The correct terminology is probably Alpe de Kosciuszko), but Kosciuszko is only a 1000m ascent. If finishing is a concern, make it meaningfully shorter.

Anyway, that aside, the route is interesting, and will offer spectacular scenery.

However, it’s hardly challenging.

The Race option, over 157km, offers about 2200m of climbing. It might be more, but it’s not stated (anywhere), so I roughly added it up from the below climb profiles.

This rather short distance does not compare favourably to a typical Etape du Tour, with ascents often topping 4500m.

In fact, Peaks Gold Coast and Falls Creek are in the vicinity of 4200-4500m over 235-250km and are the same price.

So, I think the course is underwhelming.

Sure, Beloka has some tough stretches, but nothing extraordinary: 1km at 13.2% is not shocking.

And (the rather optimistically name “Col de”) Kosciuszko is much longer than most Aussies will be used to, but 22km at 4.4% (and a max of 7.4%) is a great tempo climb. Sure, it’s long, and will be fun, but with compacts, it won’t be hard.

Etape Australia Location

Although the Snowy Mountains are spectacular, the location has got me puzzled.

Driving from Melbourne to Jindy? That’ll be 7 hours with stops.
Sydney to Jindy? 5.5 hrs by road, then 1 hour into Cooma on the plane (then a hire car, or grab a shuttle).

And for visitors from Brisbane, Gold Coast, Adelaide, Tasmania, WA or overseas, you’ll need to fly into Melbourne or Sydney then hire a car and drive.

So where should/could this have been?

The Victorian Alps would have presented a much better challenge, but you still have the driving issue to get there.

Plus, it’d likely just be a Peaks Challenge Course. So, not really unique.

This should have been in the Gold Coast or Brisbane hinterland, or even in Adelaide.

There are lots of tough climbs in the Brisbane and Gold Coast hinterland, as well as Adelaide, with awesome domestic and international access into Brisbane, Gold Coast and Adelaide airports.

In order to do Etape Australia, I’d need to:

• Fly from Gold Coast to Melbourne or Sydney.
• Borrow a family member’s car or hire one.

That’s probably 5 days off (2-4 off work). Just before Christmas.

Not only do you have to convince the boss, but you have to decide whether it's worth using your leave for this event.

Obviously Australia doesn’t offer the same public transport infrastructure as, say, France. We don’t have high speed rail to key areas and we have less airports. But still, the Snowys are in the middle of nowhere, comparatively speaking.

Etape Australia accommodation

This might seem rather inconceivable to our French and Swiss readers, but Australian ski resorts are essentially ghost towns in summer.

We don't have a broad use of our ski resorts in summer for things like mountain biking. There are some exceptions, but it's not like Morzine or Alpe D'Huez with mountain biking and road cycling.

So, accommodation is potentially a real issue. Hopefully the organisers can convince accommodation owners (lots and lots of small businesses) to open up.

Timing

(I know I mentioned timing of the event above, but I thought I'd re-iterate its bizarre timing.)

As I mentioned here, the timing is puzzling.

It’s on Dec 3rd which is likely to be the Tour of Bright, unless the ToB moves.

So on that count, it’s going to count out any person who wants to ride the Tour of Bright.

For what it’s worth, if I had to choose between the ToB and Etape Australia, I’d choose Etape Australia unless I had a chance of winning a division at TOB.

Moreover, most people from Sydney and Melbourne are going to want 2-4 days off work.

And if you’re coming from Perth, Adelaide, Gold Coast or anywhere else, you’ll probably want a week off.

Given the proximity to Christmas, and a typical 2-4 week holiday, I think the timing is really poor. “Hey Boss, I’m taking a week off start of December, then two weeks later, two more weeks.”

I’m sure that will go down well for everyone.

Logistics

The start and finish are about 45km apart.

So if you’re staying at Perisher (the finish), you’ll have to get to the start, by riding downhill, and catching the included shuttle, which takes bikes, uphill to the start at Bullocks Flat. Or, you could just ride uphill to the start, adding 450m to the day.

There are shuttles from Jindabyne to the start and finish which is awesome.

If you manage to score accommodation at the start (Crackenback), then you'll have to ride back there from the finish.

One of the painful things about most Etapes du Tour, is the logistics, especially when the start and finish are so far apart. There’s never a shuttle for you and your bike, so you need team support.

So, on this score, the organisers have scored a major coup in making things easier for people.

Etape Australia Review: Summary

Etape Australia is an exciting addition to the Australian sportive calendar but I think it has some serious shortcomings.

Whilst it might not have intended to draw visitors from overseas, I don’t think the course offers enough of an attraction. Sure, Australia is bloody amazing, and is enough reason alone to visit, but it’s not like Etape du Tour+Le Tour + France in July as a drawcard.

For those who have the cash to spend, and for whom holidays and logistics issues aren’t a big deal, go for it! You’ll have an amazing day, no doubt.

But for those looking to spend their holidays and money in a judicious manner, I think Peaks Challenge or BUPA Challenge plus the Tour Down Under offer a much better Return on Investment.