Tour teams wary of fan chaos on Alpe d'Huez
The 2026 Tour de France is set for a climactic finale on the Alpe d'Huez this weekend, starting with a traditional summit finish from Le Bourg d'Oisans on Friday's stage 19. The peloton will then return to the same finish, though not the whole climb, after a mammoth final mountain stage on Saturday.
Epic crowds are always to be expected on the infamous mountain, but this year more fans than ever have flocked to the mountainside, with many of them pitching up days, if not a whole week before. Such was the saturation of people that the ASO and local police closed the Alpe d'Huez to all vehicles attempting to access via the Bourg-d'Oisans south roundabout at 2pm on Thursday afternoon.
As pictures and videos emerge of the festive scenes on the mountain – including overnight – some in the peloton have expressed concern about safety and/or the fans' possible impact on the race, including Remco Evenepoel, who said on Thursday, "I look forward to discovering the climb, but it is also sometimes daunting when you see how narrow it sometimes is. On a popular climb like Alpe d'Huez, they would be better off hanging ropes from below and then barriers for the last five kilometers."
The expected chaos has also seen Richard Plugge resurface his past suggestion that big climbs like the Alpe d'Huez should be ticketed. The Visma-Lease a Bike boss told Het Laatste Nieuws, "I can only hope that the fans behave themselves a bit along the side of the road. Because it is becoming more and more of a problem ... Right now, there are also quite a few people standing here 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."
