The Race

The next Tour de l’Ain will take place from 29 July to 1 August. A cycling event for all, the event gathers, during 4 days, nearly 600 participants, all categories included.

This year, the professional race, preceded by the Cadets race, will be organised over 3 stages, Thursday 29, Friday 30 and Saturday 31 July. The cyclosportive race will take place on Sunday 1st August in the Pays de Gex/Monts Jura area.

If the 2020 edition was exceptional in many respects and ended with a podium worthy of a Grand Tour – 1st Primoz ROGLIC, 2nd Egan BERNAL, 3rd Nairo QUINTANA – the Tour de l’Ain 2021 should mark a return to its fundamentals: a summer event, a post-Tour de France stage race that aims to reveal future talents and that also offers, to all the riders, an ideal preparation ground for the big world events at the end of the season, notably the Tour of Spain and the World Championships.

From a sporting point of view, historically, the Tour de l’Ain is a revelation: Thibaut PINOT, Romain BARDET, Julian ALAPHILIPPE, Warren BARGUIL, David GAUDU, the current leaders of French cycling all won their first professional victory there or revealed themselves on the event. This is no coincidence. One of the strengths of the Tour de l’Ain is its territory: a playground which, because of its geographical diversity, is so favourable to cycling, allows the creation of a stage race – alternating plains and mountains – which will allow the best riders to emerge at the end of a race which is often captivating and hard fought.

But beyond the professional competition, the raison d’être of the Tour de l’Ain is to address all cyclists: first of all the 15-16 year olds, who participate in club teams in the Tour de l’Ain Cadets, immersing them in the intensity of a stage race, which constitutes a formative discovery for all these young riders. Then the cyclosportifs, who will (re)discover on the Monts Jura, medium mountain courses, accessible to any trained cyclist, on roads and in beautiful landscapes, favourable to the practice of cyclo-sport.

The Tour de l’Ain is a festive and friendly event that plays a full part in the life and entertainment of the towns it passes through. This year, its partners will develop operations to promote the use of bicycles in daily life and their health benefits. These new actions show the importance of the commitment of the event’s partners in bringing the Tour de l’Ain to life: institutional partners, stage communities, economic partners, TV and media, volunteers from the organisation, cycling fans and the general public…without all the players in the region, the Tour de l’Ain could not exist fully, and we thank them all.