Embrun Valloire
The Alpine climbing starts in earnest, with two HC climbs, and three above 2,000m altitude for this year's queen stage
The Col d’Izoard and Col du Galibier are two of the Tour’s most storied climbs. The Galibier’s use in the race dates back to 1911, and it has appeared in the race more times than any other Alpine climb – 59 before this year. The Izoard is a little younger, but still appeared for the first time in 1922, and 34 times subsequently. So it’s a little surprising, given their proximity to each other, that they are doubling up in the same day for only the third time in Tour history for stage 18 of the 2019 race.
In 1973, race leader and eventual yellow jersey winner Luis Ocaña won the stage to Les Orres, which featured both climbs. In 2011, the summit finish on the Col du Galibier was preceded by the Izoard and was won by Andy Schleck in a long-range attack with 60km to go.
This is probably the hardest stage of the 2019 Tour, with three climbs all going above 2,000m at altitude. However, there are a few nuances which may have a chilling effect on the potential aggression from the riders. The Izoard is this year climbed by its hardest side, but the approach to the Col du Galibier via the Lautaret is prone to headwinds, as Schleck found when he won on these roads. The Galibier itself, which starts at the
top of the Lautaret, is a different story – these will be nine of the hardest kilometres of the entire Tour. The descent to the finish is sinuous and steep – gaps formed at the top should hold to Valloire, though with almost 20km of downhill, there is time for riders to make up some losses.
In 2017, the last time the Galibier featured in the Tour, the stage finished in Serre Chevalier rather than Valloire, though eventual winner Chris Froome remained unflustered and could not be moved from his position in yellow.
Every mountaineer knows that climbing Mount Everest is the easy part – it’s getting down again that is difficult. However, in cycling, the opposite is true. The riders who reach the top of the Galibier first have done the hard work. Could the Tour de France be won here?