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Tour de France in the Alps

Fedrico Bahamontes solo on the Galibier on the 19th stage of Tour de France 1954

Federico Bahamontes on the Galibier (Tour de France 1954)

Federico Bahamontes rode Tour de France for the very first time in 1954. He was picked for the Tour 1954 by Julián Berredero, the director of the Spanish team (and King of the Mountains 1936) in previous summer already. The real race for Bahamontes started in the Pyrenees.  On the 12th stage, which included Tourmalet, Aspin and Peyresourde, he arrived at the finish with Jean Malléjac and Gilbert Bauvin, who won the stage with 1 sec ahead of Bahamontes, and claimed the yellow jersey. Bahamontes was already active on the previous stage (including Aubisque), he collected enough mountain points to lead the KOM competition. IF YOU LIKE PELOTONTALES BLOG, PLEASE SUPPORT IT WITH A SMALL… Read More »Federico Bahamontes on the Galibier (Tour de France 1954)

Vintage image of cyclists on the top of the hill riding side by side hand in hand.

Bernard Hinault and Greg LeMond on the top of Alpe d’Huez (Tour de France 1986)

Thank you for being a devoted reader of PelotonTales. You are the reason why it’s worth spending so many hours to create new content and trying to improve this website. If you would show appreciation to my work, please consider supporting the blog with a small donation. Thank you! Alpe d’Huez witnessed plenty of legendary moments since its introduction to the Tour de France in 1952. One of them is the famous 18th stage in 1986,  when Bernard Hinault and Greg LeMond reached the top hand in hand. The team La Vie Claire had usually a very strong line-up at the Tour de France in the mid-1980s. Bernard Hinault was one of the cycling superstars,… Read More »Bernard Hinault and Greg LeMond on the top of Alpe d’Huez (Tour de France 1986)

Tour de France 1949

The 36th Tour de France was held between 20 June and 24 July 1949.  The route was divided into 21 stages and included 4808 km. This was the first time the race visited Spain (9th stage). They also took a trip to Belgium and Italy. The Tour de France in 1949 was one of the peaks of the great rivalry between the two Italian superlegends Gino Bartali and Fausto Coppi. Bartali won the Tour already twice (1938 and 1948). Coppi never rode the race before, but he triumphed at the Giro d’Italia that year (it was his third victory after 1940 and 1947) and wanted to win the Giro-Tour double which never happened in the… Read More »Tour de France 1949

Geraint Thomas wins the Alpe d'Huez stage while wearing yellow jersey at the Tour de France in 2018

Winning at Alpe d’Huez in yellow jersey

Although since its introduction to the Tour de France in 1952, Alpe d’Huez witnessed several pivotal moments of the race, especially regarding the fate of the yellow jersey and the overal victory, it happened only in 2018 for the very first time, that a current yellow jersey wearer cyclist won the stage on the top of the famous climb. Gerain Thomas (Team Sky) surprised many people, when he won the 11th stage and jumped to the first position in the general classification in 2018. If you rewatch the stage, you can see clearly, that the GC riders and their teams were focusing rather on Chris Froome. Evidently, everyone thought, that the attack by Thomas was… Read More »Winning at Alpe d’Huez in yellow jersey