THE TERRAIN
The first uphill finish in the history of the Tour de France was l’Alpe d’Huez in 1952. The race started in Lausanne, Switzerland. Fausto Coppi won solo. L’Alpe d’Huez has become a regular and mythical climb on the course since the second visit in 1976. Mostly, the winners in the ski resort of the Oisans have been Dutch and Italian. But never before this year, the place has been so close to Paris. The remaining riders will climb through the famous twenty-one curves twenty-four hours prior to the grand finale on the Champs-Elysées. Tension will be increased by the format of the stage. Starting in Modane and going through the col de la Croix-de-Fer instead of the initially planned col du Galibier, it’s a short one: 110 kilometres only. It gives opportunities for attacks from far out but the last fourteen kilometers of climbing might as well be decisive for the spots on the final podium.
SPOTLIGHT ON… PINOT, BARDET, ROLLAND…
Stage 20 will be the last one in the mountains. French riders might not be the top favorites for the overall win but some of them are among the world’s best climbers. Even before the 2014 Tour de France in which Jean-Christophe Péraud, Thibaut Pinot and Romain Bardet rode at the front in the climbs, a young Frenchman outclassed Alberto Contador and Samuel Sanchez at l’Alpe d’Huez. That’s where Pierre Rolland claimed his first stage win at the Tour de France in 2011. He went on with second one at La Toussuire in 2012. He wore the polka dot jersey in 2013, only to lose it to Nairo Quintana on the second last day. In 2014, he focused on overall rankings again and finished fourth at the Giro d’Italia and eleventh at the Tour de France. Having won a major mountain stage at the Critérium du Dauphiné and the Tour de Suisse respectively last month, Bardet and Pinot are the two French climbers set to shine in the Alps but Rolland hasn’t said his last word and Warren Barguil hasn’t started campaigning yet. The Breton rider from Giant-Alpecin showed his climbing skills with two stage victories at his first participation to a Grand Tour, the Vuelta a España two years ago. He finished eighth overall in the Spanish event last year. He’s the new Frenchman to watch in the mountains.
THEY WILL NOT BE FAR BEHIND
L’Alpe d’Huez can as well give a relatively unknown rider the possibility to come out of shadow as it happened in 2013 with Christophe Riblon. Shall it be the last fight for the yellow jersey this time, the big four are expected to give it all: Alberto Contador, Chris Froome, Vincenzo Nibali and Nairo Quintana. None of them has put his name on one of the twenty-one curves yet, which is the mark of the stage winners, even though Contador won stage 6 of the 2010 Critérium du Dauphiné in l’Alpe d’Huez. Those guys are usually keen to win in prestigious locations even if it doesn’t change their position on GC. Last year, Nibali added a fourth stage win to his name at Hautacam even though it wasn’t necessary. Panache remains a well appreciated trademark. Other serious candidates for a stage win in l’Alpe d’Huez are Tejay van Garderen who lost to Riblon on the Tour’s last visit, last year’s King of the Mountains Rafal Majka, the 2012 Giro d’Italia winner Ryder Hesjedal and his team-mate Andrew Talansky who is the winner of the 2014 Critérium du Dauphiné, up and coming climbers Wilco Kelderman and Louis Meintjes.
