Tadej Pogačar is bracing himself for an 'insane' atmosphere on Alpe d’Huez at the Tour de France on Friday.
The mountain stages at this year’s Tour culminate with an Alpe d’Huez double header, and while Saturday’s stage 20 is the far tougher day of racing, it’s Friday’s stage 19 that takes the traditional route up the ski resort by way of the famous 21 hairpin bends.
As ever, fans have been setting up camp on the Alpe for several days already, with space at a premium on a mountain that never fails to produce a raucous atmosphere on race day.
Pogačar has ridden up Alpe d’Huez once in his career in 2022, when he was tussling with Jonas Vingegaard behind the breakaway, and he has strong memories of that day.
"It will be crazy. I’m kind of happy Urška [Žigart, his partner] is not coming up with my car like last time," Pogačar said in one of his yellow jersey press conferences this week.
"In 2022, I remember how dirty the car was because all the people are touching and shaking the cars. I’m kind of glad I don’t have my personal car up there this year.
"It’s going to be crazy. Also, this year we have the two stages together, the two most hard stages with a finish at Alpe d’Huez. I’m expecting it to be insane. On the Markstein [on stage 14], I’ve never seen crowds like this, but maybe I think Alpe d’Huez can be even more. It’s going to be fantastic. I hope nothing goes wrong. We’ll see. It’s going to be a great end of the Tour."
Heading to the Alpe?
Having raced behind breakaway winner Tom PIdcock in 2022, Pogačar would surely love to add a victory on one of the Tour’s most iconic climbs to his palmarès.
Asked where Alpe d’Huez ranked in his view of the Tour’s most iconic climbs, Pogačar put it in a bracket with two other famous names.
"Iconic climbs, apparently Alpe d’Huez has quite a lot of hype. But yeah, I think also Mont Ventoux is also quite iconic, I would say. One of those two must be the top of hype, no?
"And Tourmalet, I think also. Definitely these three are not the hardest climbs in France, but I guess the history makes them iconic. Also this year it will be iconic because we have two days together on Alpe d’Huez."
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