Racing in the Alps like you’ve never seen it before

Racing in the Alps like you’ve never seen it before

With an illustrious list of champions and spectacular backdrops, the Tour of the Alps is a little gem in its pro-racing’s packed April calendar

mountains Places Tour of the Alps

It was a masterstroke of rebranding – one not seen in the sport since your local cycle club started calling its age-old reliability trial a gran fondo.

Suddenly, what was once the Tour of Trentino, a quiet region in the northeast of Italy, had in 2017 taken on a nominal claim to all the Alps.

In truth, the race’s territorial footprint had only expanded to a slightly larger portion of the mountain range than it had previously occupied. But now, in straddling its base across the Austrian border, a name change was necessary – and the geopolitically correct Tour of the Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino Euroregion wasn’t really going to cut it.

 

Immediately, in renaming, the Tour of the Alps had found new grandeur. But, first run in 1962, it has long been an important race. You only need to look down its illustrious list of past winners to recognise this event for what it is: a GC contenders warm-up for the Giro d’Italia – what the Critérium du Dauphiné is to the Tour de France.

For the last three years it has also been a proving ground for riders hoping to eventually supersede Chris Froome as leader at Team Sky. Based on how that’s turned out for 2015 victor Richie Porte and 2016 winner Mikael Landa, 2017 champ Geraint Thomas must be odds-on for some new kit next season. Curiously, Froome himself -who very much has something to prove- is entered for the 2018 race.

 

The big draw for the big riders at the Tour of the Alps, is indeed that big mountain range that now gives name to it. There are significant climbs to be tackled on every day on this year’s route – including a final fifth stage excursion to Innsbruck that tests out the tough route of the 2018 World Championships. The stages are relatively short, but there’s no junk mile sprint days or time trials.

Yet for all the ‘bigs’ in the last paragraph, the Tour of the Alps remains a remarkably low-key race. If one common observation jumps out in David Powell’s photos from the 2017 edition, it’s the almost total lack of crowds lining the roadside. Oh, and how the Alps look so different here.

 

Temporally, spatially and culturally we’re in a different place to the mountains we know best from the Tour de France. It’s hundreds of miles away. It’s springtime. It’s green. Snow is still plentiful on the vertiginous Dolomite outcrops and the rivers are raging with melt.

Step into a photo’s meadow and you can almost taste the fresh mountain air. In prim Tyrolian villages, there’s an echo of distant cowbells. Racing in the Alps has never looked so uncluttered and fresh.

David Powell’s Tour of the Alps images appeared in Rouleur 18.3

 

The post Racing in the Alps like you’ve never seen it before appeared first on The world's finest cycling magazine.

mountains Places Tour of the Alps

READ MORE

Portrait of Lukas Nerurkar

‘An altitude camp at the age of seven’ – Lukas Nerurkar on the power of doing things differently

The British rider had a unique upbringing, spending his early childhood in Ethiopia and learning from his marathon runner father – he tells Rouleur about...

Read more
Women's UAE Tour

Women’s UAE Tour 2025: Who will win the four-stage race in the Middle East?

The third edition of the Women's WorldTour race will begin on Thursday, February, 6 2025 

Read more
Rob Stannard

Robert Stannard: Lost, fined, and fighting for redemption

The Australian rider speaks to Rouleur about his turbulent past 18 months 

Read more
Wout van Aert says winning Flanders and Roubaix isn’t an obsession – but it is

Wout van Aert says winning Flanders and Roubaix isn’t an obsession – but it is

All eyes will be on the Belgian rider as he tries to finally win two of the biggest one-day races in the sport

Read more
Frank van den Broek: hobby DJ, part-time florist, and Tour de France star

Frank van den Broek: hobby DJ, part-time florist, and Tour de France star

Frank van den Broek hasn't had the most conventional rise to the top

Read more

READ RIDE REPEAT

JOIN ROULEUR TODAY

Get closer to the sport than ever before.

Enjoy a digital subscription to Rouleur for just £4 per month and get access to our award-winning magazines.

SUBSCRIBE