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The L'Alpe d'Huez winners
[Source Wikipedia]
L'Alpe d'Huez is climbed regularly in the Tour de France. It was first included in the race in 1952 and has been a stage finish regularly since 1976.

The race was brought to the mountain by Élie Wermelinger, the chief commissaire or referee. He drove his Dyna-Panhard car between snow banks that lined the road in March 1952, invited by a consortium of businesses who had opened hotels at the summit. Their leader was Georges Rajon, who ran the Hotel Christina. The ski station there opened in 1936. Wermelinger reported to the organiser, Jacques Goddet, and the Tour signed a contract with the businessmen to include the Alpe. It cost them the modern equivalent of €3,250.

That first Alpe d'Huez stage was won by Fausto Coppi. Coppi attacked 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) from the summit to rid himself of the French rider Jean Robic. He turned the Alpe into an instant legend because this was the year that motorcycle television crews first came to the Tour. It was also the Tour's first mountain-top finish. The veteran reporter, Jacques Augendre, said:
     The Tourmalet, the Galibier and the Izoard were the mythical mountains of the race. These three cols were supplanted by the Alpe d'Huez. Why? Because it's the col of modernity. Coppi's victory in 1952 was the symbol of a golden age of cycling, that of champions [such as] Coppi, Bartali, Kubler, Koblet, Bobet. But only Coppi and Armstrong and Carlos Sastre have been able to take the maillot jaune on the Alpe and to keep it to Paris. That's not by chance. From the first edition, shown on live television, the Alpe d'Huez definitively transformed the way the Grande Boucle ran. No other stage has had such drama. With its 21 bends, its gradient and the number of spectators, it is a climb in the style of Hollywood.

Augendre neglected to mention Fignon, who, along with Coppi and Armstrong, took yellow on the Alpe without winning the stage in 1983, 1984, and 1989. He held it into Paris in 1983 and 1984 but in 1989 he lost it on the final stage to Paris, a time trial, to Greg LeMond to finish second by 8", the closest finish in tour history.

After Coppi, however, the Alpe was dropped until 1964, when it was included as a mid-stage climb, and then again until 1976, both times at Rajon's instigation.

The hairpin bends are named after the winners of stages. All hairpins had been named by the 22nd climb in 2001 so naming restarted at the bottom with Lance Armstrong's name added to Coppi's.

French journalist and L'Equipe sportswriter Jean-Paul Vespini wrote a book about Alpe d'Huez and its role in the Tour de France: The Tour Is Won on the Alpe: Alpe d'Huez and the Classic Battles of the Tour de France.

The winners of L'Alpe d'Huez:

  • 2018 : Geraint Thomas (GBR) (Kehre 13)

  • 2015 : Thibaut Pinot (FRA) (Kehre 14)

  • 2013 : Christophe Riblon (FRA) (Kehre 15)

  • 2011 : Pierre Rolland (FRA) (Kehre 16)

  • 2008 : Carlos Sastre (ESP) (Kehre 17)

  • 2006 : Fränk Schleck (LUX) (Kehre 18)

  • 2004 : Lance Armstrong (USA) (Bergzeitfahren) (Kehre 19)

  • 2003 : Iban Mayo (ESP) (Kehre 20)

  • 2001 : Lance Armstrong (USA) (Kehre 21)

  • 1999 : Giuseppe Guerini (ITA) (Kehre 1)

  • 1997 : Marco Pantani (ITA) (Kehre 2)

  • 1995 : Marco Pantani (ITA) (Kehre 3)

  • 1994 : Roberto Conti (ITA) (Kehre 4)

  • 1992 : Andrew Hampsten (USA) (Kehre 5)

  • 1991 : Gianni Bugno (ITA) (Kehre 6)

  • 1990 : Gianni Bugno (ITA) (Kehre 7)

  • 1989 : Gert-Jan Theunisse (NED) (Kehre 8)

  • 1988 : Stephen Rooks (NED) (Kehre 9)

  • 1987 : Federico Echave (ESP) (Kehre 10)

  • 1986 : Bernard Hinault (FRA) (Kehre 11)

  • 1984 : Luis Herrera (COL) (Kehre 12)

  • 1983 : Peter Winnen (NED) (Kehre 13)

  • 1982 : Beat Breu (SUI) (Kehre 14)

  • 1981 : Peter Winnen (NED) (Kehre 15)

  • 1979 : Joop Zoetemelk (NED) (Kehre 16)

  • 1979 : Joaquim Agostinho (POR) (Kehre 17)

  • 1978 : Hennie Kuiper (NED) (Kehre 18)

  • 1977 : Hennie Kuiper (NED) (Kehre 19)

  • 1976 : Joop Zoetemelk (NED) (Kehre 20)

  • 1952 : Fausto Coppi (ITA) (Kehre 21)

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