The first stage is a ride of 100km. That is all fine, just a day to warm up a little for the week ahead, you would think...
Think again though, the day ends with a finish on the summit of the Alpe d'Huez!
The climb starts in the village called Le Bourg d'Oisans, and follows 21 officially numbered hairpins, numbered in descending order all the way to the top. Every hairpin has information boards with the names of one or more stage winners on the Alpe d'Huez. (The first winner is named in hairpin 21, the 2nd in hairpin 20 etc, the 22nd winner is mentioned back in hairpin 21 again). The toughest parts of the ascend are in between the hairpins. the steepest ones are just before La Garde, when entering Huez between hairpins 3 and 2, about 3km from the top.
The fastest ascend was achieved by Marco Pantani, it took him 47:35 minutes in 1997.
Let's make sure we let the riders know we think about them the day they are going up.
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