THE ROUTE
FINAL ALPINE TEST
Stage 20 starts in the mountain
town of Albertville, famous for
hosting the 1992 Winter Olympics.
THE
STING
IN THE
TAIL
he 2019 Tour’s
passage through
the Alps ends on
Saturday 27 July
in Val Thorens on the third
summit finish above
2 000m – unprecedented in
the race’s history. It comes
at the end of a 33.4km
climb averaging 5.5% that
T
will transport the peloton to
Europe’s highest ski resort
for just the second time.
On 20 July 1994, the 17th
stage that started in Bourg-
d’Oisans confirmed the
strength of Piotr Ugrumov,
who once again unsettled
Miguel Indurain in the
mountains, although without
Colombian Nelson Rodríguez won
the stage into Val Thorens in 1994.
86 | TO U R
D E F R A NC E 2019
threatening the Spaniard’s
hold on the yellow jersey.
The stage victory went
to Colombian Nelson
Rodríguez, who completed
the whole climb up to ‘Val
Tho’ on the wheel of the
Latvian rider without offering
a single pull.
That day, though, the fans
got behind Marco Pantani.
After crashing at the foot of
the Col du Glandon, where
he damaged a knee and
bloodied his nose, the Italian
considered abandoning
before regaining his fight.
He spent half an hour
battling his way back
up to the peloton, then
attacked the yellow jersey
group, first on the Col de
la Madeleine and then on
the final climb towards
Val Thorens. Although he
didn’t win the stage, he did
drop Luc Leblanc to secure
third place on the Champs-
Élysées podium. Armand de
Las Cuevas was the other
big loser on this never-
ending climb. He was unable
to breathe he admitted at
the finish, which saw him
lose 20 minutes and fourth
place on GC. He didn’t start
the next day.
This year, riders will
tackle the climb at the end
of a 130km stage starting
in Albertville. After only
20km, they’ll be faced with
the beautiful Cormet de
Roselend, which serves up a
19.9km climb at an average
6% gradient. “The descent
will then take them down
to Bourg-Saint-Maurice,”
says race director Thierry
Gouvenou. “But rather than
taking the main road with
its false flat down towards
Moûtiers, we’ll take a parallel
and narrower road that will
pass through Notre-Dame-
des-Prés, before starting the
final 33.4km climb. This is
not the most difficult of this
Tour de France, but nothing
is easy at the end of the third
week. Bodies will be tired,
legs will be hurting.”
It’s entirely possible that
the interminable climb to
Val Thorens, at the end of a
day featuring a cumulative
vertical gain of 4 450m, will
dash the hopes of some. ●
The final hurdle in the ‘Tour of high mountains’ is the very long climb to Europe’s
highest ski resort, Val Thorens. It could well provide a GC upset… BY GILLES LE ROC’H