In praise of… The 22nd bend
It’s one of the great mysteries of cycling: why does the 22nd bend of Alpe d’huez never get a mention?
t’s a hairpin just like the other 21 bends that comprise the climb up Alpe d’huez, and like the others it has a numbered sign to commemorate the name of a rider and the years he ascended the mountain.
But in this case the number is a ‘0’ and the rider’s name – Bas Mulder – is one few people will have heard of. Yet on the first Thursday of June each year since 2011, around 5,000 cyclists have honoured his name by riding up and down the Alpe as many times as they can in a day to raise funds for a Dutch cancer charity.
Alpe d’huez first came to prominence as a ski resort back in the 1930s and the road up to it was purpose-built to service its hotels, restaurants and other businesses. It’s a solid piece of engineering too, with regular, constant gradients and wide hairpins that are actually the flattest sections of the climb to make it easier for trucks and coaches to get up and down the mountain.
To mark the announcement that the Alpe would host the bobsleigh event of the 1968 Grenoble Winter Olympics, the local council erected numbered signs at each hairpin, starting with number 1 at the first bend on the outskirts of the resort and ending with number 21 at the bottom.
It was only in 1976 that the mountain started to forge its reputation as the epic battleground for Tour de France supremacy it is today – and it happened almost by accident. Tour director Félix Lévitan needed a replacement finish after a planned stage to Grenoble fell through and local journalist Roger-louis Lachat suggested a return visit to Alpe d’huez, which had hosted the Tour’s first summit finish back in 1952 but had subsequently been ignored.
It was the start of an enduring relationship that has seen a stage finish there 27 times since (including twice in 1979) and the phrase ‘the 21 bends of the Alpe’ embedded in cycling folklore. In 1995, the names of every Alpe stage winner and their years of triumph were added to the numbered signs on the bends.
It’s just a shame that after passing the last of these 21 bends, riders still have at least two more hairpins – plus a final 90-degree left hander – to negotiate before crossing the finish line at the foot of the ski-lifts on Avenue du Rif Nel.
The first time I rode up the Alpe, I’d been counting the bends down through gritted teeth, half expecting flashing lights and dancing cheerleaders as I finally churned the pedals past the sign numbered ‘1’.
Instead, the road continued upwards past bars and hotels before eventually swinging sharply to the left. Through sweat-streaked sunglasses I made out the blur of a sign numbered ‘0’ and the name of a rider I’d never seen before.
The road continued rising and, after yet another hairpin, I was convinced I was lost. I stopped to ask for directions and was told