An eyewitness cycling history of Alpe d'Huez

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A bicycling journalist-photographer I met online through my work at Biking Bis recently interviewed French cycling historian Jean-Paul Vespini.

Vespini has covered 19 Tours de France for the Euro cycling pubs Le Cycle and Cyclisme International. He's witnessed first-hand more Tour de France history than many of us have seen televised or have even read about.

Matt Wood's fascinating interview with Vespini is posted at the PezCycling News website. It's primarily about his new book, “The Tour is Won on the Alpe: Alpe d'Huez and the Classic Battles of the Tour de France.”

The history of Alpe d'Huez is really told in the athletes who raced there. Vespini goes on at length in the interview about Lance Armstrong, Bernard Hinault, Richard Virenque, Eddy Merckx and the tragic Marco Pantani, among others.

He also tells a story about one cyclist he never saw race on Alpe d'Huez but wishes he had, the Italian Fausto Coppi.

Vespini concludes the interview talking about Riccardo Ricco, the Italian climbing specialist who idolizes Pantani and appears to be caught in the same web of doping.

 

Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/09/05/an-eyewitness-cycling-history-of-alpe-dhuez/

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