Fears of chaos on L'Alpe d'Huez as crowds pack Alpine climb for Tour de France showdown

Fears of chaos on stage 19 of the Tour de France up L'Alpe d'Huez are growing after social media videos showed fans packed along the Alpine climb, partying into the night and slowing official vehicles and even police on the road.

A video by Le Dauphiné Libéré and other people trying to reach L'Alpe d'Huez captured the atmosphere on the climb on Thursday, with groups of fans, perhaps drunk and excited for the Tour, singing and dancing on the road. Fireworks were set off, and the noise of the partying and police sirens could be heard miles away from the L'Alpe d'Huez ski resort above.

On Friday morning some team trucks had to drive up to L'Alpe d'Huez, as did other race vehicles. Thousands of people rode the climb early in the morning but French police soon forced all cyclists to walk, as is often the rule on major Tour climbs.

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"C'est la folie – It's crazy," one fan told Le Dauphiné Libéré, as his friends danced in the road.

Baptiste Veistroffer of Lotto-Intermarché will race on L'Alpe d'Huez for the first time and told L'Equipe he is expecting "something crazy."

L'Alpe d'Huez is considered a natural stadium for cycling, with fans from around the world travelling to see the race and ride the climb. A million people reportedly packed L'Alpe d'Huez when Lance Armstrong won a time trial on the climb. Similar numbers are possible for the two final mountain stages of the 2026 Tour.

"It's like a long tunnel that lasts 13km; there's constant noise. It’s what makes it special, more so than anywhere else. I really feel like I’m in a stadium," Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet (Groupama-FDJ United) said.

The Tour de France returns to L'Alpe d'Huez for the first time since 2022 for a rare back-to-back stages to the ski resort. Friday's stage climbs the legendary 21 hairpins to the finish, while Saturday's stage starts in Bourg d'Oisans, includes the Col du Galibier and then returns to L'Alpe d'Huez via the Col de Sarenne and the back road to the ski resort.

Tadej Pogačar will defend his yellow jersey and try to set up a fifth Tour victory, but illness has struck his UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad and so may offer his rivals an opportunity to attack him on L'Alpe d'Huez. If Pogačar is healthy, he will surely want to win on L'Alpe d'Huez and could even beat Marco Pantani's long-standing record for the climb.

British fans have created the Beefeater bend and began partying on Thursday night. Their motto is "There are no strangers on Beefeater Bend; only friends who haven’t yet met," but they also call for fans to respect the race and the riders.

The Dutch corner is at hairpin seven of the 21 and is often a key point in the race and the party atmosphere, with Dutch fans playing loud music and often spraying passing cars with water and other liquids. However, there are reports that police have put barriers along the Dutch corner, sparking a call on social media to move to the Danish corner "so we can have the crazy spectator tunnel."

There appear to be longer sections of barriers, with other parts roped off. It remains to be seen if fans will respect these limits or try to crowd the road as the riders pass. Danish and Dutch police have also been invited to help control crowds and deal with any incidents.

Police closed the road early on Thursday afternoon, with reports of a 20km traffic jam on the valley road. L'Equipe spoke to several fans from around the world who revealed they secured spots on the climb for their tents and camper vans as early as Monday and Tuesday.

Fears of chaos on L'Alpe d'Huez have sparked concern amongst the riders, who perhaps remember when Vincenzo Nibali crashed in the 2018 Tour de France after a spectator's camera strap caught his handlebars.

"It's going to be incredible, but most of all, I hope I don't crash on the climb because I think there will be a lot of spectators," Seixas told L'Equipe and other media.

"We've seen that it's quite dangerous. I just hope everything goes well. After that, it's my legs that will decide."

Remco Evenepoel will race up Alpe d’Huez for the first time in his career and is riding for a place on the final podium.

"I’m looking forward to discovering it, but it can also be frightening when you see how narrow it sometimes gets,” Evenepoel told Sporza.

"Sometimes the fans can influence a stage. You might want to react to an attack, but you can't move forward because you are blocked in. We will see how extreme it gets."

Hundreds of police are expected to try to control fans, but riders and teams are concerned about safety. Most cycling fans respect the riders, but there is a growing hooligan element amongst the fans.

"I can only hope that the fans behave themselves along the side of the road. Because it is becoming more and more of a problem," Visma-Lease a Bike team manager Richard Plugge told In de Leiderstrui, suggesting that charging fans to access climbs could improve race safety.

"Right now, there are also quite a few people standing along the road who think it’s carnival, who are guzzling beer all day and at some point don’t know what they are doing anymore. That is really going to become a problem."

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