The Tour de France already has its duel: eThe Danish Jonas Vingegaard came down from the skies to the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar, who now promises revenge. The drums of war sound on the road and the Alped’Huez, goal of this Thursday’s stage.
Nairo Quintana was second, this Wednesday, in stage 11 of the Tour de France, disputed between Albertville and Col du Granon, of 151 kilometers, won by Jonas Vingegaard, new leader.
It was a tough day, but Quintana was once again the leading cyclist of the Tour, a race in which he had not been a figure since 2019, when he won the 208-kilometre stage between Embrun and Valloire, his last great feat.
The Battle at Alpe d’Huez
For Colombia the Alpe d’Huez brings several memories, moments of euphoria, days full of history. Lucho Herrera, in the 1984 Tour de France, gave an authority blow on the mythical mountain to leave Laurent Fignon, Bernard Hinault and Robert Millar on the road and take the victory.
A few years later, Nairo Quintana appeared to make the country vibrate again with his pedal strokes. This Thursday, the boyacense runner has a new appointment with this mount.
Nairo knows what it’s like to blow up the Alpe d’Huez. In the 2013 and 2015 editions of the Tour de France he faced it with great pride and in both years he provided a festival and deducted time from the British Chris Froome.
Tour 2013
Nairo reached the last week in sixth place overall, 5 minutes 54 seconds behind Chris Froome. He was fourth in the Alpe d’Huez stage and deducted Froome by one minute 6 seconds on that day.
Nairo attacked alongside Joaquim ‘Purito’ Rodríguez with 4 kilometers to go to crown the pass, while Froome could not resist that strong step and little by little he dropped from his rivals.
Tour 2015
In Alpe d’Huez of that edition he attacked and deducted Froome one minute 20 seconds to finish, again, as runner-up and one minute 12 seconds.
On that occasion, Nairo did not wait to start his attack. When the port was just touched, the boyacense cyclist launched an attack 12.4 km away. This Colombian rush was answered by the Sky team, commanded by Froome, but in which Vincenzo Nibali stayed.
Nairo charged again with 11.9 km to go to crown the Alpe d’Huez. All these movements of the Colombian served to select the group and remove gregarious from Froome. It was one attack after another that he tried until with 9 km to go he was able to open up a space.
At the end of the day, Frenchman Thibaut Pinot took the victory and Nairo was second. The boyacense deducted one minute 26 seconds from Froome.
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