L’Alpe d’Huez has become a legendary mountain climb, with the men’s pro peloton having tackled the ascent in the Tour de France 33 times since 1952. The Tour de France Femmes will finish atop the classic climb on Sunday for the finale of the eight-stage women’s edition, and it will be more than a stage victory up for grabs.
What makes the climb in the heart of the French Alps the one everyone wants to win? All signs points to, well, an actual ‘sign’.
After ascending the 21 switchbacks that snake up 1,120 metres of elevation gain in 13.8km, with several sections at a sustained 13% gradient, and surviving the colossal throngs of fans lining the entire path, each winner gets his, and now her, name etched on a placard.
The Tour de France Femmes enters the mountains on stage 7 to Le Grand-Bornand, and the race will be decided on Sunday's final stage, which brings the riders up the 21 hairpins of Alpe d'Huez.
“I think the most beautiful thing is to climb it in the Tour de France as women, and people are waiting for it and will be on the side of the road cheering for us. It’s going to be a very special day,” French champion Audrey Cordon-Ragot told Cyclingnews.
The special signs at each bend are numbered in descending order, so No. 21 is the first passed at the bottom, where the road is also steepest. The markers indicate the elevation on the road and had been used decades before to alert snowploughs of their progress to the resort at the top in the winter. The No. 21 marker is emblazoned with the name of the first winner, Fausto Coppi.
Most recently Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) earned the distinction as a winner, doing so two years ago, and he shares a marker at turn No. 11 with Laurent Fignon, positioned just before the village of Huez. The final stage of the 1992 and 1993 editions of the Tour Cycliste Feminine concluded on Alpe d’Huez, but for most of the women in the pro peloton at this year’s Tour de France Femmes it is a new climb.
Newly-crowned Olympic road champion Kristen Faulkner experienced the 21 switchbacks as a recreational cyclist, and for her it was a clear sign to become a pro cyclist. This time up the mountain she in contention for a yellow jersey, sitting third on GC headed into stage 7.
“So when I was deciding whether to leave my job to become a professional cyclist full time, I took a cycling trip to Europe. That was 2019. I biked from Nice to Milan with a group on that trip, it was about 10 days. We went up [Alpe d’Huez] all together. And it was on that trip where I decided I wanted to do this for a living, really,” Faulkner shared with Cyclingnews.
“It was my first time ever cycling in Europe, doing all of those big climbs, the famous climbs. And I think it was the first time where I pictured myself racing in Europe, my first time picturing myself having a career in Europe. I'd always just thought that I would race in America and keep my job as a VC [venture capitalist]. And once I rode those climbs and I saw how spectacular they were, I think it really lit a spark inside me.”
The advantage of course goes to French riders, who haven’t to squeeze in any extra reconnaissance trips, or even had to make arrangements for holidays to see the mountains. Climbers like Juliette Labous (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL), fifth on GC after six stages, and Évita Muzic (FDJ-SUEZ), 11th on GC headed into the weekend, are eager for the challenge on race day.
"Now I live 40 minutes from Alpe d'Huez, so even more for me, it's really special to ride there,” Muzic told reporters in an online media conference in the week before the Tour de France Femmes.
She noted that the eighth and final stage wasn’t just about Alpe d'Huez on Sunday, but the hors categorie climb of Col du Glandon (8km at 8.8%) just 37 km before.
“I want to win on the top of Alpe d'Huez. But we'll see also [about] the legs. And I think there will be no surprise that the legs will talk, and I hope to be good there, for all the preparation I have done, but I have no really plan.
“Everyone spoke about Alpe d'Huez but maybe Glandon is harder than Alpe d'Huez and also it will be the last day of the Tour so everyone will be tired, so it feels so tense. So yeah, we will see.”
Labous has placed in the top 10 overall in the last two editions of the Tour and is one of the contenders to win on the final stage. She has previewed stage 7’s climb to Le Grand-Bornand, but it has been a while since she’s been to the ski resort above Huez.
"I'm looking forward to the mountains. We will see who has the best legs. I know Alpe d’Huez well. I've ridden it five times. Not recently but the last time was in 2018 when I did a training camp with my boyfriend before some races. When I was a junior, we used to go train there and rode it a lot,” Labous said.
Cordon-Ragot told Cyclingnews that the climbers battling for the GC probably won’t have the time or energy to soak in the experience of the Alpe d’Huez climb, but it would make a bigger impression on those who had done earlier work for their team leaders and would ride up the final kilometres to finish the Grand Tour.
“Already, last year Tourmalet was special, but I guess it’s going to be even more. I have a feeling it’s going to be a step above what happened last year. When you are a climber on GC you don’t enjoy it as much as we do in the gruppetto,” Cordon-Ragot said.
“I think for a French rider, it’s maybe less iconic, because when you are a French person and can go in the mountains every year it becomes less iconic. It’s not like you get used to it, but almost. I will have time to enjoy it, too, so I am looking forward to it.
