It's getting ready. Robi Kolar and his mate Ante stand in the late evening sun high up on the pass road to the Col du Granondip their paint rollers into a bucket of white paint and meticulously paint letters on the tarmac. Slowly, they become the words "Moho", "Luka", "Pogi" - the short forms of the names of Slovenian professional cyclists Matej Mohorič, Luka Mezgec, Tadej Pogačar. Afterwards, the two Slovenians from near Celje set to work on a painted cheering up Primož Roglič: "He is the best", says Robi. And they don't forget the rather inconspicuous helper Jan Tratnik in the street painting either. All five Slovenian professional cyclists at this Tour de France get their attention.
Meeting place for the sportiest fans of the Tour de France
There are still 48 hours until the Fight around Yellow jersey of the Tour de France was to culminate. But the Slovenian fans had to be early if they didn't want to lug their bucket of paint up the mountain on foot: Those who wanted to Professional cyclists If you wanted to cheer directly on the mountain road, you had to come up on foot or by bike - nature conservation, as the departmental administration justified the Motor vehicle ban. This is how the 2413 metres high Granon is a meeting point for the sportiest cycling fans. Not everyone knows what the climb demands of them, for many it is just a stopover on the way to Alpe d'Huezthe stage finish one day later.
And it's the same with the Slovenian fans. "Is the mountain steeper than Alpe d'Huez?" they ask a cyclist who has just come back from the Granon Pass comes down. It is. It's 11.3 kilometres with 9.2 per cent average gradient uphill, with peaks of 15 per cent - steeper than the Galibier (6.9 per cent from the north) or Alpe d'Huezwhere it 13.8 kilometres with 8.1 per cent uphill. "It's reminiscent of a climb in the Pyrenees: steep, rough tarmac," says the German professional cyclist Maximilian Schachmann about the Granon, "a beautiful but extremely difficult mountain."
And anyone who had looked at the history books of the Tour de France would have known that the Granon an executioner for the contenders for overall victory. He has already proven that, but that was a long time ago. 1986 took here Greg LeMond his team mate Bernard Hinault took the yellow jersey, distanced him clearly - on the way to the first Tour victory by an American.
That's a real collapse!
The decision at the Tour de France approaches
And once again this year, the fans who Granon climbed up under their own steam, on the day of the Stage 11 the Tour de France Eyewitnesses to a sporting upheaval. The rattling voice from the loudspeakers along the route announces in French: "That's a real collapse!" There are groups of Slovenian fans everywhere, who are now silent and looking wide-eyed at the small displays on their smartphones, on which the live broadcast is running - showing what is happening a few kilometres downhill. Their favourites, of all people, are weakening. A year ago Tadej Pogačar dominated the Tour de France almost at will, and the question of a rival who could beat him seemed rather rhetorical.
But when Jonas Vingegaard five kilometres before the finish line and sprints uphill, the 23-year-old Slovenian is unable to follow for the first time in the Tour. He stays in the saddle, fights and appears to be at the limit of his strength. One competitor after the other passes him - and the fans can soon see in the strained faces and heavy pedalling of the world's best professional cyclists what the most difficult stage of the Tour de France of the year - so far - is all about. 151 kilometres with more than 4000 metres altitude - has done: First storms Vingegaard past the stone huts of the mountain infantry barracks just below the top of the pass, followed by Nairo Quintana, Romain Bardet, Geraint Thomas - all individually.
Almost three minutes the fans and observers wait at the top of the pass road for the man who fights his way through the spectators with his yellow jersey wide open and a stomping kick: Pogačar. And the Slovenian fans will have to wait even longer for their second favourite at this Tour de France. Primož RogličTour runner-up in 2020, had dedicated himself entirely to the service of his team-mate on this day. Vingegaard and put all his energy into the stage early on and in return let his own ambitions in the overall standings ride.
Pre-glow on the Galibier
On the Galibier, long before the expected Showdown on Granonthe two leaders of the Jumbo-Visma teams alternately attacked Pogačar with a series of mountain sprints after isolating the Tour de France yellow jersey wearer from his helpers. Initially without visible success. Fans on the Granon They are said to have discovered a crucial item, it is later said: There was a catering bag from the UAE Team Emirates racing team, which Pogačar thrown away - reportedly still almost completely full.
"Yes, I didn't have enough in the tank", admitted "Pogi" when asked and also admitted that the tactical dilemma of his rivals in black and yellow had ultimately worn him down. "I reacted to many attacks on the Galibier, I used up a lot of energy there", he emphasised. He had to complete ten uphill sprints in the pursuit - while his two challengers shared the sprints, he recalls.
On Granon were the consequences of this Hors d'Oeuvre to marvel at. "I was surprised. It's unusual for people to attack so early," admitted Schachmann as an eyewitness, who was overrun early on by the hellish pace of the favourites. "It's a different sport," said the German sprint helper Alexander Krieger (Team Alpecin-Deceuninck), after watching the TV summary of what had happened at the front of the race in the evening - and what the fans had experienced up close.
But it was only the first act of the early culmination of this Tour de France - which the route planners had already placed halfway through the Alps this time. Four of the five highest mountain passages of the Tour were packed into just over 24 hours. Curtain up for the second act, for which the scenery is being worked on a few kilometres further along another mountain road, from Svein Bergheim For example. Like almost every year, he parked his motorhome in bend five of the climb to Alpe d'Huez backwards into the meadow. On the Tour, everyone knows the 60-year-old Norwegian only as the "Viking". Despite the sweltering heat, he wears a white overall with countless Norwegian flags on it and a fur helmet with two horns.
Revenge in the party zone?
It will be a while before Vingegaard, Pogačar & Co on this day, but the atmosphere is already exuberant, just five kilometres below the stage finish in Alpe d'Huez. Bergheim keeps disappearing behind the camper and tipping fuel from a canister into a diesel generator. When the Granon is the mountain for the sporting fans of this Tour de France, then Alpe d'Huez the party zone, the destination for the party-loving part of the tour followers.
And the Viking is responsible for ensuring that the party is running, the music system has power - and that turn five is now Norwegian curve is mentioned - in the same breath as the Dutch curveTwo hairpin bends further down the valley: booming bass and well-known pop songs drive the lively atmosphere, it's like a disco. By now, the atmosphere is a matter of heritage, with father Svein providing the electricity and 18-year-old offspring Magnus DJing. The bike race is a minor matter here - it's all about the swinging, slurring and dancing. For hours on end, in the glowing July sun.
Showdown!
A few hundred metres downhill, in the very quiet centre of the mountain village Huezaround which the famous route of the Tour stage winds in wide loops up to the ski station Alpe d'Huez a dozen cycling fans from Germany, France and the rest of the world sit there and watch the cycling race, watching the British Olympic mountain bike champion Tom Pidcock with breakneck descents in which he broke the mark of 100 km/h breaks through, the fellow runaways over the passes Galibier and Croix-de-Fer legs. Then you push into the open, out to the edge of the village, to look the professional cyclists in the eye during the showdown.
Gaber from Slovenia, who has come to the Tour for the first time with his son, stands above the Norwegian bend. He is amazed at what is going on on a mountain road in France in July in the scorching heat. "It's crazy. I wouldn't have expected thisso many people, this entertainment. I would never have thought that there were so many cyclists in the world." In the veil of disco noise and plumes of alcohol, it remains uncertain how many of the tens of thousands of fans who have been cheering on every passing car since the morning and drumming on bonnets, car roofs and side windows are really here for the cycling - or simply for an event. big party through which, by chance, a Colourful peloton from Professional cyclists ploughs. But the madness is the programme here and creates a win-win situation. It is the mountain from which John Degenkolb says:
This is the only mountain that even non-mountain bikers enjoy climbing. The atmosphere carries you to the top.
Until exhaustion
But then things get serious - the gendarmes form a cordon that divides the sea of people: Tom Pidcock dashes through the Norwegian bend with a searching gaze - the 22-year-old Ineos professional rest to his greatest uphill success. "That was one of my best experiences - when you slalom through people! You can't experience that anywhere else! You can only do that in Alpe d'Huez, at the Tour de France!", he says at the finish. A good three minutes back, the yellow and white jerseys make their way through the colourful crowd: a few pedal strokes after the Norwegian bend Pogačar and again a little later.
Fighting the time limit at the Tour de France
But like a burdock hangs Vingegaard on his rear wheel. They reach the finish line together - but there is no revenge. A good half an hour later, the broom wagon makes its way and drives off. Fabio Jakobsen in front of him. The man who is the fastest on the flat is fighting against the time limit on this day.
The cheers for him are hardly quieter than those for the fastest. Everyone is celebrating here - everyone is celebrating here. The Viking and his son are sitting in their camping chairs, long since exhausted - they too have completed a Tour stage today. Everyone has given their all today - on the bike or on the roadside. The Tour entourage moves on. To the next party.
Andreas Kublik
Editor
