The Puy de Dôme – Return of a Tour Legend

What will the reintroduction of an iconic mountain bring to the 2023 Tour de France?

Over the course of the 120 years that the Tour has wound its way around France, certain roads have become mythical, the site of legendary exploits and battles between riders. Alpe d’Huez, first used in 1952, is top of the list, with Fausto Coppi, Bernard Hinault, Marco Pantani and most recently Ineos Grenadiers’ Tom Pidcock winning on its fabled hairpin bends. Then there’s the Col du Galibier also in the Alps, Mont Ventoux in Provence, preferably climbed from Bédoin, the Champs Élysées in Paris and of course the Col du Tourmalet in the Pyrenees, which the riders will already have climbed in this first week of the 2023 Tour.

But classic climbs can also fall out of favour. And that’s exactly what happened to the Puy de Dôme, a 1464m-tall extinct volcano with a single road to the top: in the past it produced some outstanding racing, but it hasn’t featured in the Tour since 1988… until now! Stage 9 on Sunday 9 July sees the race return to the slopes of the Puy, and its summit finish is sure to be compelling viewing.

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Towering over the city of Clermont-Ferrand, the Puy de Dôme is the largest of the volcanic peaks in the Chaine des Puys range in the Massif Central, France’s forgotten mountains. The first ascent by bike was in 1892 when Fernand Ladoux of the Véloce Club Auvergnat spent four-and-a-half hours climbing the Chemin des Muletiers (which is now a trail run) and two-and-a-half getting down again. A longer roadway was later opened up, flanked by a railway to take tourists to the observation point at the top, in 1906, and it’s this road that is the essence of the climb. While the official Tour stats record the Puy de Dôme as 13.3km at 7.7% gradient, all the way from the town below, these final four kilometres that spiral to the summit average a knee-trembling 11%, with ramps up to 16%.

The Puy’s Tour debut came in 1952, and Fausto Coppi was the first rider up, winning the stage just as he did that year at Alpe d’Huez. Then in 1964 it starred in one of the most famous Tour confrontations of all time, between the smooth, stylish Jacques Anquetil and rough-hewn Raymond Poulidor. Jacques had won four Tours already and was in the yellow jersey; Poulidor, the Tour’s eternal nearly man, was 56 seconds behind him in the General Classification and was the better climber. Belying his aloof public image, Anquetil got fully involved in the fight as, elbow-to-elbow, each tried to best the other up the Puy, leaning and pushing for the advantage. It was Anquetil who eventually cracked. So cooked was he that Poulidor put 42 seconds into him in the final few hundred metres of the ribbon road up the mountain – but did not finally manage to beat him overall.

In the 1969 Tour, the Puy took centre stage again when an unknown rider called Pierre Matignon, who at that point had the dubious honour of being the lanterne rouge – the last rider in the overall standings – won on the summit after a long solo breakaway, beating the young prodigy Eddy Merckx. Merckx, racing in his first Tour, would win the yellow jersey, green (sprint) jersey, polka-dot (king of the mountains) jersey, and the ‘combination’ jersey, as well as the prize for the most aggressive rider that year. But he was pipped to the post on the Puy by a nobody, and he was furious!

Since then, climbers such as Lucien Van Impe and Joop Zoetemelk have won atop the Puy. Eddy Merckx was punched by a spectator on its slopes in 1975, an injury that contributed to his losing the yellow jersey to his rival Bernard Thévenet two days later. And in 1986, Greg LeMond beat Bernard Hinault up the Puy by almost a minute, putting the last nail in the coffin of his teammate’s hopes of beating him in Paris.

However, 1988 was the Puy’s final appearance. Why was this? Installing the increasing amount of logistical gear (TV trucks, etc) in the restricted space at the finish line was undoubtedly one factor. But Tour organisers also faced a routing problem: with the Alps and the Pyrenees so fundamental to the shape of the race, with stages getting shorter and with the need to visit northern and western regions, taking a detour into France’s inaccessible mountain interior became increasingly unworkable.

Finally, in 2012 a new tourist railway was installed, halving the size of the service road up the Puy, and all the car parks on top were rewilded. Recreational cyclists, who had previously been restricted to one Saturday every month, now were only allowed up once a year, and, at that time, the Tour organisers decreed it impossible that the race would ever again visit the summit.

But never say never. Somehow, the organisers have made it work, and – though spectators will almost certainly be banned – these steep slopes will once again host a Tour stage finale.

If you’re lucky enough to be visiting the region and want to ride your bike, then Stage 9 showcases many good options, including the Col de la Croix Saint Robert and the Col de Guéry, where French national champion Valentin Madouas holds the KOM. But perhaps the region’s most beautiful climb is the 1,589m Puy Mary, also known as the Pas de Peyrol. The last time the Tour visited here, in 2020, it ascended the longest of the three roads to the top, and UAE Team Emirates’ Tadej Pogačar took the KOM. Many will be looking to him or his yellow jersey rival Jonas Vingegaard of Team Jumbo-Visma to shine on Sunday’s stage. Keep an eye also on local hero Romain Bardet of Team DSM-Firmenich, who took the opportunity to practice on the recent open day; and home fans might also be rooting for Team Cofidis’s Victor Lafay, who has shown he has great climbing legs and won Stage 2.

Whoever wins this Sunday, every single viewer will be hoping for a battle royale and a new page of Tour history to be written.