Belle Of The Ball

Stage six of the Tour de France features the brutal final climb of La Planche des Belles Filles, which this July adds a final kilometre of suffering on gravel.

- Steve Shrubsall

On July 12, 2012 the wiry frame of a cyclist emerged at the top of an impossibly steep incline, powered an ungainly path to the finishing line, and threw his hands in the air in victory. The cyclist’s name was Chris Froome, the summit was La Planche des Belles Filles, and both had just staked a claim to Grand Tour fame.

Froome is recovering from his terrible crash this month — a fifth Tour win on hold till 2020 — but back in 2012 he was playing the role of super domestique while supporting Sir Bradley Wiggins to Britain’s maiden Tour victory. The stage win was Froome’s first, a breakthrough ride from one of the finest climbers the sport has ever seen.

La Planche, making its debut, hasn’t been quite as prolific as the spindly Brit since then, but the drama that played out on these slopes — most notably on that final section of brutally precipitous tarmac — was enough to convince organisers of its worth, and both the 2014 and 2017 editions of the Tour featured ascents of the mountain.

This year, then, will be La Planche’s fourth appearance in eight years, a ratio that puts it on a par with some of the Alpine and Pyrenean big hitters which, over the decades, have become a part of the Tour de France furniture.

So what’s the attraction with this little mountain in the Vosges? Why does it have such a large Tour footprint in such a short space of time? At just shy of six kilometres, it’s hardly an Alpine grind, and with an average gradient of 8.9 per cent, yes, it’s a very challenging climb, but there’s tougher stuff out there.