Mapping the Mountains: A Custom Wood Map of L’Étape du Tour de France 2026
Some cycling routes are defined as much by the landscape as by the road itself. This custom wooden map of L’Étape du Tour de France 2026 is one of those pieces.
Created as a 40 × 50 cm (16 × 20 in) personalised cycling map, it records one rider’s remarkable day in the French Alps: 169.37 km, 5,305 m of elevation gain and more than nine hours of riding.
But for me, the feature that really makes this map special is the contour lines.
A Tour de France Route for Amateur Cyclists
L’Étape du Tour de France has given amateur cyclists the opportunity to experience the roads of the Tour since 1993. Riders tackle a mountain stage of the Tour de France on closed roads, bringing the scale and challenge of professional cycling routes to thousands of amateur riders.
The 2026 L’Étape du Tour de France, held on Sunday, 19 July, started in Bourg-d’Oisans and finished at Alpe d’Huez. The official course covered approximately 170 km with around 5,400 m of climbing, including the Col de la Croix de Fer, Col du Télégraphe, Col du Galibier and Col de Sarenne.
As a cyclist myself, I’m familiar with the Tour de France and some of its famous mountain routes, but seeing this particular ride translated into wood really brought home the scale of the challenge.
Making the Mountains Part of the Map
The base layer of the map is engraved with detailed topographic contour lines.
On some of my maps the contours provide subtle geographical texture. Here, they became one of the most important parts of the design.
The tightly packed lines beautifully reveal the steep valleys, ridges and mountain slopes surrounding the route. Rather than simply showing where the cyclist rode, they help show what the rider rode through.
With 5,305 metres of recorded elevation gain, this was an extraordinary ride. As a cyclist myself, I can appreciate the effort required to accumulate that much climbing, and I particularly like how the physical landscape of the map reinforces the statistics engraved beneath it.
Turning the GPX Route into Layered Wood
The rider’s GPX route forms a separate layer above the engraved topographic map, creating a strong physical line that can be followed around the course.
The start and finish are marked using small wooden location pins. For this map I also updated my pin design, adding a small engraved flag symbol to identify the beginning and end of the ride more clearly.
This is one of the details I enjoy about making maps from individual ride data. A GPX file isn’t simply used to create a generic representation of an event: it allows the finished artwork to preserve the route actually recorded by that cyclist.
169 Kilometres of Riding — and 5,305 Metres Upwards
Across the bottom of the map I added a separate wooden elevation profile.
The profile follows the rise and fall of the ride across more than 160 km, with engraved distance and elevation scales providing context. On a route like this, the elevation profile becomes almost a second map: instead of showing the journey from above, it shows the repeated climbing and descending experienced throughout the ride.
The rider’s own recorded statistics are engraved into the footer:
Distance 169.37 km · Time 9:19:31 · Elevation Gain 5,305 m · Average Speed 18.2 km/h
These details were confirmed as part of the design process before I made the final map. For custom pieces like this, I create a digital mock-up first so that the route, wording, statistics and overall composition can be checked before I start cutting and engraving the wood.
Watch the Finished L’Étape du Tour de France Map
What I like most about this finished piece is the relationship between the three ways the ride is recorded: the route shows where it went, the elevation profile shows the climbing, and the contour lines show the mountains that created it.
Together, they turn a set of ride statistics into a physical record of a remarkable day on some of the most celebrated cycling roads in France.
Create a Map of Your Own Ride
A custom cycling map doesn’t have to be from a famous event. I can create one from a sportive, race, cycling holiday, weekend ride, favourite climb or simply a route that means something to you.
Explore my custom cycling route maps, or request a free design mock-up of your own route before ordering.
