Ride Every Stage: the MC Tour de France Challenge

The pros race 21 stages across three weeks. This July, we're asking you to do the same, in your own way, from your own roads (or your own pain cave).

From Saturday 4 July to Sunday 26 July, take on the Ride Every Stage Challenge. The rule is simple, and it's the same one the peloton lives by: every race day, you ride. One continuous hour, indoors or out, road or trainer. No banking big weekends, no skipping the quiet days. Just turn up and put the hour in, day after day.

Life happens, so you get one joker: a single day you can miss and stay in the game. Use it on a sick day, a work trip, whatever you need. Two missed days, though, and your run is over, same as a rider climbing off the bike.

Make it to Paris and you've completed the challenge, and every finisher earns a free coffee at MC Cyclery to toast it. The big prizes go to the strongest: the three finishers who rack up the most total kilometres over the three weeks each win a free MC Classic general bike service. So it's about turning up, and about how far you can take it.

You get the same two rest days the pros do, Monday 13 July and Monday 20 July, and not a day more. Those are separate from your joker. Same as the race.

How it works

Your rides track automatically through the MC Velo app once you're connected with Intervals.icu, Wahoo or Hammerhead. Riding a Garmin or Zwift? Set up a free Intervals.icu account, link your Garmin or Zwift to it, and you're away. (Strava and direct Garmin connections aren't supported this time, the short version is their data rules don't allow it.) Ride your unbroken hour each day, the app logs it and counts your kilometres, and your total climbs with every stage. Manual entries don't count, it has to be a recorded ride.

Why we're doing it

We love July at MC. The early starts, the late nights watching the GC battle unfold, the quiet conspiracy of every cyclist in the country running on four hours' sleep. The Ride Every Stage Challenge is our way of bringing a bit of that to your own riding, and rewarding everyone who goes the distance with us.

Get involved

Register and connect in the MC Velo app before Stage 1 rolls out of Barcelona on Saturday 4 July. Get your account linked, set your alarm, and we'll see you on the road. Finish the challenge for your coffee, go furthest for a service, and have it all redeemed by the end of August.

21 stages. One hour a day. One joker. Two rest days, same as the pros. A coffee for every finisher and three free MC Classic services for the riders who go furthest. Allez.