Even if you strip away all of the fanfare and crowds of race day, the street up Alpe d’Huez appears to echo with tales of a few of the most memorable battles in biking historical past, and on Sunday, August 18, 2024, the Tour de France Femmes will ship one other distinct chapter.
The ascent with its 21 well-known bends the place so many thrilling battles of the lads’s Tour de France have taken place, is dotted with signposts counting all the way down to the highest. They present greater than a marker of the ever-increasing altitude, additionally paying homage to the winners of the phases that performed out on the slopes of 13.8km climb within the Alps. The names which have earned themselves a spot on these bend markers because the climb first appeared within the Tour de France in 1952 – turning into the primary mountain high end of the race – embrace Fausto Coppi, Bernard Hinault, Marco Pantani, Thibaut Pinot, Geraint Thomas and, most not too long ago, Tom Pidcock. The query now could be who would be the first rider from the Tour de France Femmes to be added to that record.
The inclusion of the Alpe d’Huez definitely provides one other layer to the constructing mystique of the most recent incarnation of the ladies’s race, the Tour de France Femmes. It comes after the occasion included the unrelenting Col du Tourmalet in 2023 – the place Demi Vollering rode away to assert the dramatic queen stage and the yellow jersey –and the mixed problem of gravel and gradient on the La Super Planche des Belles Filles in 2022, gained by the now retired Annemiek van Vleuten.
Still, it isn’t the primary time the Alpe d’Huez has featured within the ladies’s race for yellow. The climb that winds its means up from Bourg d’Oisans was, over the many years, included in numerous incarnations of the ladies’s occasion, from the official Women’s Tour de France, which ran via from 1984 to 1989 to the Tour Cycliste Féminin and the Grande Boucle Féminine Internationale, which final ran in 2009.
The particulars of these battles of previous on the fabled mountain could not have drawn intense worldwide consideration, although, with the highlight, the Tour de France Femmes has turned on the game that may change in 2024.
The location
The map of the 2024 Tour de France Femmes (Image credit score: ASO)
In the primary version of the Tour de France Femmes in 2022, the race ventured to the Vosges for its key climbing phases, then it was into the Pyrenees and up the Col du Tourmalet in 2023. The 2024 Tour de France Femmes route will take the race to the Alps for the primary time, however it’s a considerably uncommon path to get there.
The 946km eight-stage and seven-day race from August 12-18 will work its means from a Rotterdam begin, then via Belgium earlier than reaching France on stage 5 and heading towards back-to-back summit finishes for the ultimate two phases.
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The first mountain day comes on stage 7, which is a 167km stage with 3,100m of climbing that ends on high of Le Grand-Bornand, after which the ultimate end line of the race comes on stage 8 atop Alpe d’Huez.
The climb
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The Alpe d’Huez, when considered in isolation, will not be one of the crucial formidable climbs within the race historical past. After all, it would not have the gravel sections or steep pitches of as much as 20% of La Super Planche des Belles Filles and falls in need of the 17km size of the Col du Tourmalet. However, there’s all the time been a lot extra to the ascent than simply 13.8km at a median gradient of 8.1%.
The historical past of the climb is heightened by the dramatic sequence of hairpins, raucous crowds and, importantly, the drama and ascents which have already unfolded earlier within the stage.
Before stage 8 finishes on the 21 hairpin bends, the 150km route with 3,900m of altitude acquire will drop down from Le Grand-Bornand to traverse the Col de Tamié (9.5km at 4%) earlier than the 30km mark has even been hit.
Then, there’s a comparatively flat stretch for greater than 40 kilometres earlier than the race reaches the Col du Glandon (19.7km at 7.2%) and the very best level of the day at 1,924m close to the 100km mark of the stage. After rolling via Bourg d’Oisans, nestled within the valley, it’s then onto the crowning climb, the place the yellow jersey of the Tour de France Femmes will decide on the shoulders of the third winner of the race.
First, although, there are 21 hairpin bends to cope with. Though the cyclo-tourists could benefit from the numbered indicators with the lovable image of marmots and homage to previous winners, on race day they’re going to be misplaced within the crowds and all-encompassing effort the lead contenders will put into delivering the very best end potential on this planet’s largest bike race.
It’s no simple starting, with the primary two kilometres delivering gradients over 10% via the primary 5 bends. There is a gentle easing because the climb crosses the village of Le Garde with the gradient hovering from 9% to 7.5% via to the purpose the place there’s simply over 5km remaining.
A quick reprieve on the village with a kilometre at 6.5% quickly offers approach to one of many hardest sections of the climb at 11.5%. The remaining three kilometres, by way of gradient, are the simplest of the climb – with gradients of round 5% – however for a lot of, are more likely to be the toughest of the 946km occasion between the collected fatigue and peak of the stakes.
The stakes
Demi Vollering (SD Worx) claimed yellow in 2023, can she do it once more on Alpe d’Huez? (Image credit score: Getty Images)
Everything is up for grabs on Alpe d’Huez because it marks the ultimate climb on the ultimate stage of the 2024 Tour de France Femmes. There is each probability that clear gaps may have emerged on the powerful parcours of the penultimate day, with its Le Grand-Bornand summit end. Still, with a lot climbing packed into the final 150km of racing on Sunday, August 18, there shall be no probability for anybody to relaxation on their laurels till they cross the end line on the open expanses of the summit of Alpe d’Huez.
Not solely is the stage itself brutal, however with per week of racing already within the legs, plus the Paris Olympic Games simply earlier than, there is no such thing as a telling what havoc the collected fatigue may wreak. It shall be a real take a look at of stamina and climbing prowess.
A transparent favorite to as soon as once more declare yellow and end the race of in fashion atop Alpe d’Huez is the 2023 victor, Demi Vollering, who can be surrounded by a robust SD Worx-Protime squad, which this time will embrace the climbing energy of Niamh Fisher-Black. Vollering was triumphant on the Col du Tourmalet final yr, so including the crowning climb of the 2024 version would make it an ideal pairing. However lots shall be lining as much as attempt to declare the status of that first Tour de France Femmes Alpe d’Huez win.
They embrace Tourmalet runner-up Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) and her teammate Neve Bradbury, who gained this yr’s brutal stage ending on the summit of Blockhaus. Then there’s additionally Ashleigh Moolman Pasio (AG Insurance-Soudal) and for Lidl-Trek it could possibly be Elisa Longo Borghini who’s main the way in which though it’s maybe extra possible that the Giro d’Italia Women winner of 2024 could possibly be going all out in assist of the climbing energy of her teammate and compatriot Gaia Realini. However, the French climbers resembling Juliette Labous (dsm-firmenich PostNL) and shortly to be teammate Évita Muzic (FDJ-SUEZ) are certain to have the loudest wave of cheers following their journey up the mountain.
Muzic, in actual fact, has one of many strongest claims in the case of the long-lasting ending climb given her efficiency on La Laguna Negra at La Vuelta Femenina. She was the one rider who may persist with the wheel of an accelerating Vollering after which got here across the Dutch rider on the final 50 metres to assert the stage win. Add in that she little doubt is aware of the climb just like the again of her hand given its proximity to house.
“I used to be dreaming for Alpe d’Huez on the Tour de France,” stated the FDJ Suez rider who completed eighth total in 2022. “Now I stay 40 minutes from Alpe d’Huez, so much more for me, it is actually particular to journey there.”
“And yeah, for certain, in my dream, I wish to win on the highest of Alpe d’Huez however we’ll see additionally [about] the legs.”
It’s a climb the place the “legs will actually speak” however the quantity will shoot to yet one more degree altogether for whoever wins, as it is going to be their title that’s shouted throughout the historical past books.
