Sports Tours International has a handful of places - plus accommodation – available for this year’s Etape du Tour, taking place in the Alps on Sunday, July 19th 2015.

One of the UK's largest specialist sports travel companies, with 40 years’ experience under their belt, Sports Tours International can offer places in the Etape until this Sunday, 5 July, whilst the accommodation can be booked right up until the event itself in two weeks’ time.

Cyclosport readers making a new booking with Sports Tours International can benefit from a 15% discount by using the code ‘CYCET’ when booking.

Replicating stage 19 of the race, the Etape will cover 138km in the Alps from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to La Toussuire via Col de la Croix de Fer. The Etape du Tour will take place just five days before the professional peloton covers the same route.

Since its inaugural edition in 1993, the Etape du Tour has grown massively in popularity with cyclists all round the world. This year over 13,000 riders from 90 different countries took up the challenge.

The idea behind the event is to allow thousands of amateur cyclists to share the emblematic parcours of the month of July, as well as the beauty and toughness of the famous Tour de France mountain stages. Riders come to pursue the legend and simply finish the event. By comparing themselves to the professional peloton's champions, riders gain an understanding of just how tough the Tour really is. 

Cyclosport’s Nick Gregory rode to Etape du Tour in the Pyrenees last year, which included the climbs of the Tourmalet and Hautacam. You can read his review HERE.

For more information and to book visit www.sportstoursinternational.co.uk/cycling/etape-du-tour.