If you look closely at this pack of riders in the Tour de France, you'll see
some of the best cyclists in the world. They're here in the back.
They're keeping up but also resting while their teammates in the front do most of the work.
It's a technique called drafting and it's what helps them survive the
three-week race around France. But drafting only really makes a difference
on these parts of the route: the long flat and hilly stages. Eventually these
riders reach stages where they won't be able to rely on others. They have to rely
on their own strength and endurance to win the race. That happens here on the
climbs. They're the most brutal and exciting parts of the race and they're
what makes the Tour de France the most famous bike ride in the world...
The Tour de France began as a desperate ploy to sell more copies of the sports
newspaper, L'Auto. The paper was struggling, so 1903 its editor, Henri Desgranges
organized a 19 day, 2,400 kilometer bike race around the country.
It went on to become such a success that L'Auto made it an annual event. Year after
year they added new routes to make the tour more challenging and also more
interesting for people to follow. By 1908, L'Auto's sales had more than doubled. Then
in 1910, one of Desgranges' writers, Alphonse Steines, suggested adding a new
twist to the route: the Tourmalet. It was a brutal 19 kilometer uphill climb
ascending 1400 meters to the summit. To see if this was even possible
Steines jumped in his car to make the climb. He drove up, but his car got stuck
in the snow at the top, he suffered from hypothermia and nearly
died. But nonetheless he sent a telegram saying: Tourmalet crossed. Very good road.
perfectly passable. So the Tourmalet made its debut in the 1910 Tour. French
cyclist Octave Lapize was the first to make the climb successfully. But he had
to walk up some parts and famously called officials assassins when he
reached the summit. But he went on to win the whole tour and his statue was placed
at the top of the Tourmalet. Since then, climbs became a staple of the Tour de
France. This year the route is made up of 21 stages over 23 days. It features 30
major climbs; seven of them are in the tour's most difficult category.
Including the Tourmalet, which is part of the event for the 86th time. More than
any other climb in the Tour's history. These climbs are where the tour is
ultimately won or lost. These are the long, flat, and hilly stages that are
usually about 200 kilometers long. Here cyclists ride together in a
formation, called a peloton. It allows cyclists to save energy by sitting
behind another rider or drafting. At high speeds, riders use most of their energy
to pedal against wind resistance. But when a rider stays close behind another,
they're sheltered from much of that. So, pedaling becomes much easier and they
can keep up with the front riders. The way to measure this is to look at how
much power a cyclist generates. Here at the front of the peloton, a Tour de
France rider will generate at least 300 watts of power. I jumped on a bike to see
what that feels like and just two kilometers holding 300 watts was really
really hard. By comparison when a rider is behind the lead in the peloton, they
only need to generate about 240 watts to move at the same speed. Holding 240 watts
for two kilometers felt remarkably easier. So even though these two might
finish a 200 kilometer flat stage at the same time, one is going to be way less
tired than the other. That's why you see some of the tour's best riders here in
the back. They're drafting up their teammates whose job it is to do the hard
work now so that the team's best cyclist is rested for the most difficult part;
the mountains. Where they'll have to be on their own.
When the peloton starts pedaling uphill, it slows down. At this stage the race is
less about fighting wind resistance and more about gravity, which affects all
riders the same way in the peloton. So, now every rider in the front and the
back needs to generate an extraordinary amount of power to keep up pace. In 2010
for instance, Danish cyclist Chris Anker Sorensen made it to the front of the
pack on the Tourmalet climb. "Look at the face on Chris Anker Sorenesen. Dishing out the
pain at the front end. As the lead, he dictated the pace of the whole group.
This chart shows his power output on the final climb. He averaged 415 watts for
more than 11 minutes. "...face of Chris Anker Sorensen now, really dishing out the pain.
And around here he peaked at an incredible 590 watts. "magnificent riding by
Chris Anker Sorenson, but how long can he keep this up? "Now look at American cyclist
Chris Horner. Even though he was several positions behind Sorenson, his power
output was almost the same. The faster Sorenson climbed, the harder it was for
the rest of the peloton to keep up. And so the formation started to break up as
weaker riders fell behind. This is the moment in the race when the tour's best
riders switch from drafting to relying on their own strength to get ahead.
Andy Schleck has finally attacked and Alberto Contador has gone with him.
The race is breaking up behind them like two of the best riders here:
Luxembourgian Andy Schleck and Spaniard Alberto Contador, who were coasting in the back
of the peloton during the long flat stages. But here they are halfway up the
Tourmalet, breaking away for the win. each likely generating well over 400 watts
for the final eight kilometers. Contador in the yellow jersey, was the overall
Tour de France leader but only by eight seconds. In second place was Schleck, who
would try and lose him on this climb.
"Andy Schleck is riding like a man possessed"
It was neck-and-neck to the very top...
It's Schleck on the right. Contador! Schleck wins! Contador takes second!
Schleck edged Contador by a hair at the top of the Tourmalet to win the stage. But since
he didn't lose him, Contador kept his overall lead and went
on to win the Tour de France. This kind of drama is only possible in the
mountains and this year's route makes climbs particularly important.
This year's Tour is being called the highest in history because of how many climbs
there are over the course of three weeks. Just one day features seven climbs. Even
after more than two weeks in the race, riders climb to 2,770 meters
above sea level where the thin air makes climbing even harder.
That's what makes the Tour de France the most grueling and
prestigious race in this sport. The winner isn't simply the strongest rider
but the one who endures the most pain and ultimately has what it takes to
conquer the mountains.