In the pantheon of the Tour de France’s most storied climbs, Sunday’s stage finish at Le Puy de Dôme stands apart for one reason: for 35 years it looked set to remain lost permanently in the mists of Tour history, the climb that would never be repeated.
It became a staple question when interviewing the Tour de France director, Christian Prudhomme: would the race return to the extinct volcano in the Massif Central? Prudhomme would always give a version of the same answer. When he had begun work at the Tour owners, ASO, in 2004, taking the race back to the Puy had been top of the to-do list on his computer, and it would happen when local politics permitted.
