On Sunday July 7th nearly 12,000 cyclists from around the world gathered in Annecy, France to ride a 130 kilometer stage to be featured in this years Tour de France. The course provides over 3,600 meters of climbing and the final Semnoz climb is 11km at 8.3% grade, the most challenging climb of the entire 2013 Tour de France.
The event also included a large lakeside exposition village which was opened Friday through Sunday for ride participants, families, and, cycling enthusiasts.
SRM, an Official Supporter of l"Etape du Tour, opened a booth for product display and fun, interactive "power" competitions for guests. Visitors were also able to test ride bikes setup with the SRM Training System and spin on the SRM Indoor trainer.
Three SRM employees took part in Sunday's ride, including the owner and founder of SRM, Uli Schoberer. The German engineer was surprised with Bib #30 by the ASO on the afternoon before the race putting him at the very front of the race to start with elites and race organizers. Uli had the honor of starting the 130km ride at 50kph!
Of the 13,500 cyclists register for l"Etape 11,475 arrived at the start line for the 7am depart. 10,624 riders completed the challenging ride earning l"Etape 2013 an 89.9% finish rate.
The Tour de France pro peloton will race this stage on Saturday July 20th before heading to Paris.
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