La Toussuire - stage 19
La Toussuire - stage 19
While it’s a popular ski resort, La Toussuire has only hosted the Tour on two previous occasions, but the race returns this year for the conclusion of stage 19. The last time a stage finished here in 2012, it was a young Pierre Rolland who soloed to victory at the top of the 17.5km climb.
Rolland had already taken a win in the 2011 Tour as well as the white jersey and his second stage victory looked like proof that France had found its next stage racing superstar – although it’s also worth pointing out that a 22-year-old Thibaut Pinot had won stage eight of that year’s Tour, so expectation levels in France were arguably at their highest level since the mid-90s.
However, there was another storyline afoot on the climb that day involving Team Sky, their leader Bradley Wiggins (you might remember him) and a certain Chris Froome, his domestique deluxe. The peloton had fractured on the climb, with reigning champion Cadel Evans losing a lot of time, and leaving Wiggins (wearing yellow) with only Froome to guide him to safety up the climb. The duo were chasing a group comprising a couple of particularly dangerous riders: Vincenzo Nibali (the Liquigas edition) and Belgian Jurgen Van Den Broeck of Lotto-Belisol as well as Pinot and Astana’s Janez Brajkovič, all four of which were high up on the general classification.
But just over 4km from the top of the climb and just after making contact with the group, Froome attacked, flying off the front of the group with only Pinot capable of matching his pace. The story of why that happened differs depending on whether you listen to Wiggins, Froome, either of their respective wives or anyone else involved with Sky, but the fact remains that it’s one of the stranger incidents in recent Tour memory involving a leader and a member of his own team. Watch the fun and games start from about 35:18 minutes in the video above.
Fast forward to 2015 and La Toussuire, which averages 6.1 per cent, comes at the end of a 138km stage which also includes the Col du Chaussy, Col du Glandon (and the short extension to the top of the Col de la Croix de Fer) and Col du Mollard. It was also the stage which 16,000 amateurs took on for last week’s Etape du Tour sportive.