Ed’s Letter
Spoke too soon. In last month’s Ed’s Letter I got all excited about the lifting of travel restrictions, just to discover that the only places on the ‘green list’ were the likes of Brunei and the Falkland Islands. Tempting as it is to plan a riding holiday on a windswept rock in the southern Atlantic just as it enters its coldest winter months, I have decided instead to get excited about something else: the impending Tour de France, which I confidently predict will be the greatest edition… ever.
It has all the best elements of last year – two mega-teams in Ineos and Jumbo-visma slugging it out like a cycling version of Godzilla vs King Kong
– with the added twist of an in-form Tadej Pogačar returning to defend his title with a beefed-up UAE Team Emirates to make it a three-way race.
Except that it won’t be a simple case of three teams smashing everyone else into the ground, because if we learnt anything from this year’s Giro d’italia, it’s that every team – every rider – has a chance of winning in this new era of unpredictable racing. The Giro was a cavalcade of minor teams and unheard-of riders sticking two fingers up to the accepted narrative of Grand Tours. Stage after stage, the breakaway defied the peloton; nonWorldtour teams snatched stage victories from the established giants; unheralded (and occasionally unpronounceable) riders crossed the line with their hands in the air. It all points to this year’s Tour having more against-the-odds stories to tell than a bumper edition of Grimms’ Fairy Tales.
What it won’t have, however, is Alpe d’huez. The Tour’s most famous climb has been left out of the race for the third year in a row – the longest period the Tour organisers have ignored it since 1976. And this issue, in celebration of that decision, we have decided to ignore Alpe d’huez as well.
Instead, we bring you a collection of wonderful climbs that surround and caress the Alpe without actually ascending it. I hope it inspires you to get out there and ride them. Unless, of course, you’ve already booked a cycling holiday in the Falklands.