Grand Tour

Link stages into a campaign and race for Tour Points.

Short tag: [Tour]

What it adds

Grand Tour is a campaign expansion for 3–21 consecutive stages. Teams earn Tour Points (TP) from stage podiums, classifications and optional rest-day outcomes. Exhaustion is managed between races, so early card choices affect later stages. The current 2024 English rulebook includes four new track tiles, specialist riders and special stages that can also be used in one-off races.

Setup changes

For a new Tour, give each player a Player Sheet and choose a Scorekeeper, who records cumulative results on the Tour Sheet. Set aside Time tokens and Jerseys. Select the number and order of stages using the Tour rules. The publisher recommends a seven-stage introductory Tour using stage cards 3, 4, 8, 11, 13, 18 and 19.

After each stage, record each rider’s finish time and collected sprint/mountain tokens. Keep the Energy decks, any retained Exhaustion and awarded jerseys for the next stage. On a later session, store each team’s materials together and resume from the prior Tour Sheet.

Playing a stage

Use the base race rules with campaign timing. When riders cross the finish, calculate their times with the Timing tile and keep the riders in the same pack on the same time. Riders still on the course receive one minute for each additional round required. Resolve exhaustion and remove finishers as the Tour rulebook specifies; unlike the single-race base finish, continue rounds until every rider has a time. Podium tokens are awarded to the first three finishers.

Between stages, return half of each rider’s Exhaustion cards to the supply, rounded down. Apply any rest-day procedure and jersey awards before the next stage. Check the player-count/order rules for ties and stage starts.

Between stages and rest days

During a stage, riders collect Major/Minor tokens when they enter or pass the marked space; if several pass together, award the highest token to the rider furthest ahead at round end. Tokens belong to riders. At stage end, return played Exhaustion cards immediately to the supply and set played Energy cards aside to return to their decks after the stage. Between stages, return half of each rider’s remaining Exhaustion cards, rounded down; return played Energy cards to the decks. Award Yellow, Green and Polka Dot Jerseys to the General, Sprint and Mountain leaders. A rider can wear one: priority is General, Sprint, Mountain; award a lower-priority jersey to the next eligible rider.

On an optional Rest Day, each classification leader earns 1 TP (a rider leading multiple classifications earns one for each). All riders except classification leaders discard half their remaining Exhaustion a second time. For a 21-stage Tour, the rules recommend rest days after stage 3, 9 or 10 and after stage 15 or 16; shorter Tours may include one after any stage.

Tour Points and classification

The number of places that score in each classification depends on Tour length; a two-player Tour uses the short-Tour column. Apply the current official table on page 7 of the 2024 Grand Tour rulebook. The team with the most total TP wins. Most recent stage finish order breaks a tie.

Module: new track tiles

The module adds a Wide Finish, one Sharp Corner and two Roundabouts. For every Tour and any 5–6 player single-stage race, replace the regular Finish tile with the Wide Finish. Its extra lanes beyond the line accommodate finishers.

The Sharp Corner has three marked single-lane spaces. If a rider is blocked and stops on one of its blue wavy-line spaces, it crashes. Apply the crash rules: no slipstream to or from a square containing a fallen rider; a fully fallen two-lane square blocks movement; stand a rider up next round and subtract 2 from its card value.

A Roundabout begins with three two-lane spaces, then splits into a three-space inner lane and a five-space outer lane. At the split, place a rider on the inner lane if possible; once in a split lane, it cannot change lanes until exiting. On the split, the rider nearest the exit moves first; resolve equal-distance riders inner lane first, alternating riders between lanes as prescribed by the rulebook. After split-lane riders move, move riders still on the two-lane section normally. Slipstreaming from the last two-lane square can feed both lanes; resolve inner first. A rider on a split lane cannot give or receive slipstream to/from the other split lane.

Module: specialist riders

Twelve Specialist Riders customize the two decks; choose one Specialist for each rider before a race or Tour. Reveal the twelve overview cards with their piles. With 2–3 players use one copy of each; with 4–6 players use two copies. Draft one Specialist per rider, then remove and add exactly the Energy cards shown on its overview. Keep chosen Specialists for the entire Tour.

Specialist powers include Strong Ascents (cap 6 or 7), Strong Descents (minimum 7, not in Supply Zones), Recovery (remove one recycled Exhaustion card), Relentless (no Exhaustion for that card), Nimble (finish to the right, even outside a full square), Baroudeur (split its drafting pack), and Chase (immediately take an open lane or one-space gap in specified conditions). Read the effect printed on the selected card; not every Specialist has every power.

Module: special stages

Five Stage cards require special procedures: #1 is a Team Time Trial (TTT), #10 an Individual Time Trial (ITT), and #5, #15 and #20 are Extended stages. TTT/ITT do not use Major or Minor tokens; all riders start in the front row. Ignore rival teams for movement, slipstream and Exhaustion. TTT riders may draft with their teammate and both riders receive the slower teammate’s time; award no more than one podium token per team. ITT riders cannot draft even with teammates and calculate each rider’s time separately; at each round’s end the highest card value played by a Rouleur and the highest by a Sprinteur each receive Exhaustion (ties also receive it).

An Extended stage adds four six-square tiles (24 spaces) and places the Refresh token near halfway, preferably on a Supply Zone. When a rider crosses the token, after the normal Energy phase they may return up to 24 points of Energy from their recycle pile to the top of their deck, then continue to movement. The token is used once by each rider.

The rulebook also gives route-design advice: build 3–21 stage Tours, use the Wide Finish in Tours, limit ascent/cobblestone sections, and use the prescribed token placement based on the longest ascent. For 5–6 players, Peloton is required and the 5–6 stage side is used.

Earlier print-and-play rules

The 2016 designer Grand Tour print-and-play rules in the BGG files are superseded by the current retail expansion. The old sheet adds Tour Points, a simple time grid, optional asymmetric rider traits and player agreements. Use those older traits only as a distinct variant; the retail Tour rules remain the current baseline.