Classic Climbs - Stealing the Show

The climb of La Toussuire in the French Alps will be tackled for the first time by the Tour de France on July 19. But in mid-June, the Dauphiné Libéré provided the peloton's stars with a dress rehearsal which bordered on being a matinee performance. Ellis Bacon took on the route that both races share.

Words: Ellis Bacon
Photography: Richard Lundberg

"It's entirely fitting that the town of La Chambre in the Maurienne region in the heart of the French Alps is quite a sleepy little place. And while we stock up on caffeine-based beverages in one of the cafés, and the local senior citizens look our Lycra up and down while sipping their glasses of white wine and lemonade, things are a little busier just a few kilometres further south in the regional capital.

There can be few towns that have hosted quite as much professional cycling action as Saint Jean de Maurienne will this year. The regional capital welcomed the sixth stage of the Dauphiné on June 10, with the race passing through the town twice that day en route to La Toussuire, and starting again there on the following day's stage to the finish of the race in Grenoble . And on July 19 and 20, the town will host the Tour over the same route, with the only difference being that the riders end their second day from Saint Jean de Maurienne at Morzine.

As we later saw, in almost every bar, shop or school, bicycle-shaped paper cut-outs, in the colours of the Tour's jerseys – yellow, green, white and red-and-white polka-dots – supplement posters and cycling-related special offers. That bicycle bunting extends to the town as a whole, stretched across the main square and the streets between lamp posts.

Should those same bar patrons of La Chambre wobble down the road on their own bikes to Saint Jean de Maurienne's market to pick up their local produce, they might well notice the impending arrival of the world's top riders. But, for now, they're happy to look on as we roll soberly out of town, sobered further, if possible, by the prospect ahead of the Col du Glandon, the Croix de Fer and the Col du Mollard, finishing with the unknown climb up to La Toussuire.

We join the route at Saint Etienne de Cuines, where the Tour stage's second intermediate sprint will take place. And it is here that the speed of Boonen, McEwen, Hushovd et al will quickly be slowed as the road ramps up and the climbers come to the fore once more for a 24km grind up to the top of the Glandon and on over the Croix de Fer.

Despite our early start, it's hot, and getting hotter, and there are few areas of shade, save for the first few kilometres up through the forest. As the climb twists upwards, we approach what is a not inconsiderable amount of snow still defying the sun.

With a couple of kilometres to go to the top of the Glandon, the road ramps up further to its maximum gradient of 15 per cent, but the rest of the climb, which joins on to the top couple of kilometres of the Croix de Fer, are relatively easy.

The scenery, like the altitude, is genuinely breathtaking, but little did we know, heading towards the La Toussuire unknown, that it was going to be the prettiest part of our day's ride.

Re-Tarmac-ing most of Maurienne appeared to be the priority – both in preparation for the Tour's arrival, no doubt (the Dauphiné's arrival was clearly slightly less heralded), but also because ice-affected roads often need it – and it provided us with some sticky moments. Between the descent from the Croix de Fer and the start of the Col du Mollard, at Saint Jean d'Arves, thick, black gloop almost halted our progress completely; other, in-need-of-work sections were treacherous, particularly on some of the descents, although still not as dangerous as the gravel left behind by some of the work lorries. Rabobank's Denis Menchov, who was busy winning on Mont Ventoux while we were riding this Classic Climb, found this out to his detriment on the descent of the Mollard just two days after us, where a crash put him out of the running for the Dauphiné's overall classification while he was in the yellow jersey group, dropping from second to sixth, losing more than five minutes, plus the skin from most of his right side, by the end of the day's stage.

That the Mollard has been classed as a second-category climb by the Tour organisation really doesn't do it justice. You know what they say about mad dogs and Englishmen – and riding up a stiff hill in the middle of the day with a seemingly rabid sheepdog easily keeping pace in the neighbouring field while looking for a gap in the fence through which to escape and savage us must have entertained the locals lunching in the shade no end.

Luckily, Maurienne farmers maintain their fences impeccably, and we took the impossibly twisty descent down to Saint Jean de Maurienne, where the route just touches the edge of the town before almost heading back on itself, and then on to the climb of La Toussuire. Look out for the sharp turn here, sharpened yet further by the huge penknife ‘statue' in the middle of the roundabout, advertising one of the local businesses.

The road rises sharply, too, going out of town, and we follow the D926 until it forks right to the pretty town of Fontcouverte la Toussuire. From there, however, things take a turn for the worse, both in terms of the road getting steeper and the architecture getting uglier. Plus, those roadworks reappear, complete with towering cranes, which appeared very much out of place among the snow-capped peaks surrounding us.

The ski resort town of Villarembert, with just a couple of kilometres to go until the summit, is no doubt a pleasant place to stay, both in summer and for the ski season, but a number of brown, 1970s-style high-rise towers do it no favours as we push on past.

Negotiating a road block – easily enough by bike, but requiring some off-roading antics from photographer Richard in the car – we are waved on across another smattering of fresh Tarmac and take a left onto the dead-end road up to La Toussuire. The small ski town seems devoid of residents, and we might not have sprinted to the imaginary finish line among the fluttering banners already in place to welcome the Dauphiné with our heads down if we had known that we'd only just miss getting decapitated by the load from a crane swinging across the road.

Our day is over, and we have unwittingly become part of a huge building site, complete with men in hard hats looking quizzically at us in our cycling helmets. No doubt the area will be ready for the Tour's arrival, and the 182km-long stage 16 will provide the peloton with a very tough test, which, from Bourg d'Oisans, will have already taken in the Col du Galibier before they arrive at Saint Jean de Maurienne and tackle the Croix de Fer, the Mollard and La Toussuire, and will no doubt be key in deciding who becomes Lance Armstrong's successor.

Mountain Focus

It will be the Tour de France's first visit to La Toussuire, when stage 16 takes what's left of the peloton 182km from Bourg d'Oisans on July 19 to the finish at the ski resort.

According to many, it will be one of, if not the , stage of the race, coming the day after another long Alpine stage, which finishes at Alpe d'Huez.

With June's Dauphiné Libéré following the same route from the Col du Galibier, you could do worse than put your money on Dauphiné stage winner Iban Mayo of Euskaltel, whose victory at La Toussuire thrust him back into the limelight after a couple of seasons in the wilderness. The Spaniard, who finished sixth in the Tour in 2003, and trounced Lance Armstrong in the time trial up Mont Ventoux in the 2004 Dauphiné only to spectacularly fall apart at that year's Tour, went clear with compatriots Oscar Sevilla (T-Mobile) and ProTour leader and Caisse d'Epargne star Alejandro Valverde at the top of the Croix de Fer, joining Valverde's team-mate David Arroyo, who had escaped on the Glandon alone.

Arriving at the final climb of La Toussuire together – 18.4km long, with an average grade of six per cent – first Arroyo, then Sevilla, with 10km to go, found the pace too hot. As Mayo turned the screw yet further, Valverde had to admit defeat with 5km left. Mayo won alone, by 1-21, with other Tour favourites such as Francisco Mancebo, George Hincapie and Floyd Landis well off the pace. Alexandre Vinokourov, perhaps with other things on his mind, finished 73rd, 27-53 down, while yellow jersey Levi Leipheimer (below right) kept himself in contention with fourth place, 1-37 behind Mayo, to win the overall Dauphiné title the following day.

Riders were quick to confirm that it had been a tough day in the saddle. With a gruppetto of 50 riders, it was also a tough day to make the time cut, with 14 riders falling off the pace and abandoning.

“I'm dead,” Crédit Agricole's Christophe Le Mevel said, having come home 8-34 down on Mayo in 22nd place. “It was a very difficult stage, having started very fast. It's clear that this is going to be a real key stage for the leaders of the Tour.”

“I was at the front all day,” second-placed Valverde said. “But I just couldn't follow the rhythm that Mayo set.”

With all of the 21 teams that will contest the Tour de France present, and many of the Tour favourites, including Leipheimer, Landis and Vinokourov, part of the squads, it was a true dry run for a month later. Will it be the same story with Mayo at the head of affairs on July 19? Or will notable Dauphiné absentees Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich steal the show…?