The Tour de France riders set off Thursday at 1:20 p.m. for the 12th stage which will take them to one of the mythical summits of the event at Alpe d’Huez, via Galibier and Croix-de-Fer.
The day after Dane Jonas Vingegaard took over at the Col du Granon, this second stage at very high altitude promises to do further damage to the peloton, with three new passes classified out of category.
For the French riders, very visible on Wednesday but empty-handed since the start, this is an opportunity to shine on July 14, a national holiday. Recent history offers reason to believe it: three of the last four Tour stage winners in Alpe d’Huez are French: Pierre Rolland in 2011, Christophe Riblon in 2013 and Thibaut Pinot in 2015 won before the success of Briton Geraint Thomas in 2018 when he last arrived in the Oisans resort.
After the start given in Briançon, the riders will successively climb the Galibier and the Croix-de-Fer on Thursday before arriving at Alpe d’Huez (scheduled for 6:08 p.m. on an average calculated at an average speed of 34 km/h) for a trilogy that marked the history of the Grande Boucle.
The Galibier, the highest point of this edition at an altitude of 2,642 meters is climbed for the second time in two days (23 km at 5.1%), but by the Lautaret step on its southern slope, less steep than the north face traveled by the peloton on Wednesday. The long descent to the Maurienne then precedes the interminable Croix-de-Fer (29 km at 5.2%), another major ascent, followed by an endless descent to the Romanche valley.
There still remains the final piece of bravery, the 13.8 km climb to Alpe d’Huez, at an average gradient of 8.1% along the 21 numbered bends which lead to the finish.
