Some say the Tour isn’t the Tour without the l’Alpe d’Huez, well Roubaix without cobbles would be a disaster, but the Tour can live without the l’Alpe. This year we do have l’Alpe, but no Galibier in the run-up to the twenty-one bends of hell. Ed Hood was there in 2013 and will be there again in 2015. Let’s remember his Tour’13 l’Alpe adventure.Tour de France 2013 Stage 18 Roadside: It’s become the stuff of legend and there’s nothing like witnessing the Tour de France from the roadside on the 21 switchbacks to Alp d’Huez. On this first day in the high Alps – PEZ was buried deep in a sea of orange…The roar from the French guys watching the TV in the back of the SUV tell us what most folks on this mountain wanted to hear. So sweet revenge for the men in the kit you either love or hate.Frenchman Christophe Riblon has finally given the home nation a victory and with an immaculate sense of timing; AG2R team mate and best French rider in le Tour, Jean-Christophe Peraud crashed out of the race in yesterday’s time trial.It was a case of fortune favouring the brave; Riblon passed us on his own on the first ascent of lAlpe, in pursuit of BMC’s Tejay van Garderen – the tall American bravely trying to make amends for the Swiss team’s hitherto disastrous Tour.The status quo was the same on the second ascent but French honour was at stake and Riblon...
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