Alpe d’Huez and cycling is a passionate story. First arrival at altitude of the Tour de France in 1952, the ascent which consecrated the greatest has, little by little, become the most famous climb in the world, to the point for the station to be better known for its laces than for its ski slopes. A notoriety acquired thanks to the Tour to which 21 bends make it good with each time a fiery public on the 14km.
But sometimes the passion boils over, like in 2018 when Vincenzo Nibali falls and fractures a vertebra. The Grenoble Tour commentator Alexander Pasteurthe mayor of Alpe d’Huez Jean-Yves Noyrey and the boss of the Tour de France Christian Prudhomme evoke in the Grand Format of France Bleu Isère this unique, excessive and above all festive climb.
– Sebastien Nogier