The Tour de France can no longer do without the Planche des Belles Filles. On Friday July 8, the 7th stage of the Tour will start from Tomblaine to go as far as La Planche. Since its integration into the Tour in 2012, the stage has made a name for itself in the world of cycling. At the origin of this ascent, there is in particular Yves Krattinger, the president of the departmental council of Haute-Saône, who has always wanted to make the Planche des Belles Filles a legendary stage of the Tour de France. Maintenance.
FBBM: Ten years ago exactly, on July 7, 2012, the Tour de France passed for the first time at the Planche des Belles Filles. What memories do you have of it?
Yves Krattinger: We remembered the big party that it was. A big big party for the inhabitants of our region, for the neighboring departments, but also for foreigners, for tourists… And then the champions had offered us an extraordinary spectacle. The first four of this famous 2012 stage have all won at least one Tour de France. So for us, it’s a wonderful memory.
Would you have believed in this fate if you had been told ten years ago?
Not like that no. I would never have believed in such a destiny for La Planche des Belles Filles. I wanted it on the board, with Christian Prudhomme, the boss of the tour. But at the time I would never have believed that. After 2012, the first hope was that the tour would come back a second time. Afterwards, we were very proactive players in inventing the super board. We brought our project to life and in the end we went much further than what we had envisaged.
All of Franche-Comté is proud of Thibaut Pinot. La Planche, does he know it by heart?
He knows it by heart. In any case certainly better than better than all of us. It would be absolutely wonderful if he won this stage of the Planche des Belles Filles. Now it’s not easy to win a stage like that, it’s not easy to be king in your kingdom. There will be big calibers who will be at the finish. We don’t know who will turn out for this stage.
Should we still see some favorites emerging on the Board?
La Planche is not the end of the general classification. But it’s true that she always puts forward the best.