a collection of shots from the stage uploaded to his Instagram<\/a>. \u201cThe crowd atop the Col du Haag was a rolling, beautiful, multi-coloured sea rippling across, up, down, and over the mountainside spread about the better half of 360 degrees. It was full. Overflowing.<\/p>\n\u201cIt was without question the biggest collection of humans I\u2019ve seen at a bike race. It was stunning. When we rounded the corner out of the trees and into the grassy stadium itself, it made everything fall away. It was just awe. Wonder.\u201d<\/p>\n
First of all, thank you, Jered, for expressing what I am finding so difficult after over an hour spent not only driving up Alpe d\u2019Huez on race day, but down it too. Secondly, it was not just us in the media, but the riders themselves. \u201cI have never seen crowds like this,\u201d said Tadej Poga\u010dar, who had ridden Alpe d\u2019Huez before, on the 2022 Tour.<\/p>\n
Alpe d\u2019Huez is a carnival, or as one colleague put it, \u201cpure debauchery\u201d. The Markstein was still feverish, but less of a stag do. It felt more bucolic – bags were full of picnics, and for most this was the culmination of a ride or a hike in the countryside. It felt like there were many more bikes. And it certainly felt more family-friendly.<\/p>\n
And I\u2019d say that the atmosphere was a more natural, organic one, too. Poga\u010dar skipped away yet again, but Paul Seixas, the great French hope, set about chasing down and then dropping Jonas Vingegaard. It was an electric moment, one of those where the Tour simply comes alive and throbs with meaning and possibility.<\/p>\n
What I\u2019m trying to say is that the atmosphere was beating more in tune and in time with the race. On Alpe d\u2019Huez, the race itself feels more incidental to the party.<\/p>\n
But maybe I\u2019m just getting old, and maybe there\u2019s a place for both tastes. I\u2019m going on a stag-do in September, and I\u2019m going to the darts in December. But if you ask me if I want to spend a summer\u2019s day watching the Tour de France, I\u2019ll be heading to the Markstein every time.<\/p>\n
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