Sporting heroes pave the way for future generations

The Col d’Izoard (pronounced d’eez-war) is one of the classic Tour de France (TdF) climbs that has gained a legendary status from the two-wheeled battles that have taken place on its slopes.

The 2017 TdF will visit the mountain again, for the 35th time. It will feature late in the event, on Stage 18, and with the day’s racing finishing on the summit at the Casse Déserte (a bizarre landscape of monolithic spires and exposed rocky slopes of scree), it could be a decisive moment in this year’s race.

The stage on that day will start in Briançon, just 20km from the finishing line and will take a circuitous route south to Barcelonnette, before tackling the Col de Vars and then the 15km ascent of the Col d’Izoard from Guillestre on slopes averaging at a gradient of 10%.

I have been over the Col on a number of occasions and I’m always struck by the contrast between the afforested northern approach and the surreal rock landscape of the southern side.

The café at the summit has a small cycling museum and on the descent south to Guillestre there is a memorial plaque to Fausto Coppi and Louison Bobet – two giants of Italian and French cycling respectively in the 1940s and 50s. Both men rode over the summit, alone: Coppi in 1949, wearing the Maillot Jaune (yellow jersey) of the race leader; and Bobet in 1953, when the road was still no more than a dirt track.

As Bobet, who also wearing yellow, descended south he passed the TdF race director at that time, Marcel Bidot. Next to him stood the Campionissimo (champion) Fausto Coppi who nodded his appreciation to Bobet.

It was a beautiful moment: the acknowledgment of one champion of another, and Bobet later remarked that leading the race, alone through that awesome wilderness, was the mark of a real Tour champion.

Twenty-two years later in 1975 another French champion, Bernard Thévenet, did the same thing. He had taken the yellow jersey from Eddy Merckx the day before and brushed off attacks by the Belgian before pulling away alone near the summit. He held on to the lead and was crowned the new TdF champion six days later in Paris.

As he rode into the lead over the summit of the Izoard he passed a woman who held a banner which read: “Merckx, the Bastille has fallen” – Merckx was cycling royalty and was aiming for his 6th Tour de France victory. He faced abuse from supporters at the roadside and a broken cheekbone from a crash on stage 17. But he continued to ride on into Paris, conscious that if he abandoned the race his teammates would forfeit their share of his prize money for coming in at second place.

Thévenet’s revolution had ended the reign of one of the greatest road racers the world had ever seen and ushered in the start of a new era of cycling.

Cycling in these mountain passes gives a little glimpse into the amazing effort that professional riders put in to race day after day. There aren’t many sports where it is possible to participate in the same stadiums as your sporting heroes but cycling is one of them and the Alps and the Col d’Izoard in particular provide the perfect arena to do so.