Historic venue for the L'Étape du Tour amateur race
This route was once used by the Tour-de-France-The day before, the American Greg Lemond had dethroned Bernard Hinault on the Col du Granon, taking the yellow jersey from the Frenchman.
On this day, Hinault attacked early, only team-mate Lemond was able to follow him up to Alpe d'Huez. The two finally rode hand in hand towards the finish, with Hinault crossing the line first and securing the day's victory. The photos of the scene have gone down in the cycling history books. In the end, Lemond became the first US-American to win the Tour de France in Paris, while Hinault missed out on his sixth overall victory and ended his career at the end of the season.
4700 metres in altitude, 167 kilometres at L'Étape du Tour
The organisers of the Tour de France chose this historic stage to stage the 30th edition of the Tour de France Everyman Race (L'Étape du Tour de France) over the same roads: a Herculean task for amateur cyclists, as the 167 kilometres between Briançon and Alpe d'Huez included around 4700 metres of climbing.
Despite the great challenge of the ride over the Lautaret, Galibier and Croix-de-Fer passes and to the finish in Alpe d'Huez, the total of 16,000 starting places were sold out within a day last October.
An Austrian wins the everyman race L'Étape du Tour
On the morning of 10 July 2022, the 14 starting blocks of the Everyman race stretched through the whole of Briancon before the participants from 70 nations were let loose on the closed mountain roads. After the tough test on the professional course, Stefan Kirchmair was the first to cross the finish line in Alpe d'Huez after 5:17:25 hours. The 33-year-old Austrian once tried to become a professional cyclist with Team Tirol and recently won the Ötztaler Cycle Marathon.
Like many others, the legendary route had lured him to the start in the French Alps. In the women's race, a Brazilian woman was the fastest over all the mountains in hot temperatures: Flavia Oliveira (6:31:58 hours). She said at the finish: "It was a really tough race. You have to constantly force yourself to go beyond your limits, especially on the last climb up to Alpe d'Huez."
Olympic champion Anna Kiesenhofer, who had originally planned to compete, cancelled at short notice. "It doesn't fit into my training plan after all," said the Austrian, explaining her decision not to start. The extremely high temperatures became a problem for the majority of the starters, especially as there was not enough water for everyone at the few refreshment points (including none on the climb to Alpe d'Huez), according to participants. Another drawback: after the stage, there is no bus transfer to the distant start location - the organisers only offer this option the day before or early in the morning before the start.
Even professionals are afraid
This year, the route of the amateur race will also be the queen stage of the Tour de France - the section of the day with the most metres of elevation gain: four days after the amateur cyclists, the professionals will compete on the same route on 14 July (Thursday) during the Stage 12 of this year's men's Tour de France.
"This will be one of the two key stages of this Tour," says French professional cyclist Romain Bardet - together with the section the day before on the Col du Granon. And his German team-mate at DSMJohn Degenkolb, says about the stage, which the amateur and professional riders will contest on the same course: "When I look at the fact that it goes straight up the Galibier after the start, it certainly won't be my favourite stage. I'm even a bit scared of the day."
Starting places for L'Étape du Tour coveted
The route on which the Tour for Everyone race will take place in 2023 is always announced at the Tour de France presentation in autumn. If you want to get a starting place, you have to be quick. Information can be found on the organiser's website.
Andreas Kublik
Editor
