A Swiss cycling legend has won here: After 35 years of absence, sparks are flying again on the Tour volcano

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It is the calm before the storm at the Puy de Dôme. For 35 years, the birds circled undisturbed above the extinct volcano in the Massif Central in the heart of France, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Soon they will be agitated. The Tour de France returns on Sunday. On the mountain that was the scene of legendary touring stories.

The climb is tough and special. In the last four kilometers, the gradient never falls below 11.5 percent. The road to the top circles around the entire mountain, which sticks out of the landscape like a cone. It goes steadily uphill, there are no hairpin bends like with the Alpe d’Huez.

Since a rack railway has been built and the road is only three meters wide, spectators are not allowed on the last four kilometers due to space. It was completely different in 1986, when Erich Mächler (62) rode to victory in front of thousands of spectators in the penultimate descent of the Puy de Dôme.

When a joke became reality

Erich Mächler is a Swiss cycling legend. A year after his victory on the Puy de Dôme, he became the first Swiss to win the classic Milan-Sanremo and rode the Maillot Jaune in the Tour de France for a week. For Blick, he looks back on his victory in the Puy-de-Dôme. Actually, the stage started badly for him.

“I was at the back of the field, got broken and then fell behind,” Mächler recalls the difficult start. But he managed to get up again. When an escape group managed to break free, the situation calmed down. Mächler has time to joke. To Acacio da Silva (62, Por), who is riding with him in the field, he says with a laugh: “If you want to finish second today, you have to stay on my bike.”

Mächler’s team leader finds it less funny. He gets mad at the runaways driving away and orders them to catch up again. Mächler, who has recovered a bit by now, approaches again. From the foot of the Puy de Dôme, which towers in front of the riders, it is then a knockout race.

Mächler won the Puy de Dôme solo

A few kilometers before the finish, Mächler also shakes off his last competitor, Ludo Peeters (69, Belgium). “From that moment on I believed in victory. When you lose the last opponent, the feeling changes. Then it’s no longer pain, but you get wings.” Mächler is 34 seconds ahead of his only Tour stage victory in ten participations.

The current drivers no longer know the Puy de Dôme, not even the French. David Gaudu (26), leader of the FDJ team and therefore of Stefan Küng, recently told France 24: “The climb is new to me. When I last arrived here, I wasn’t even born yet.”

The legendary duel between Anquetil and Poulidor

Access to cyclists was later restricted and then completely closed. For this year’s tour, the road was only open to participants for one day, reports France 24.

It is therefore the cycling legends of the last century who wrote the stories on the Puy de Dôme. For example in 1964, when the two Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil (1934-1987) and Raymond Poulidor (1936-2019) delivered a duel for the history books. Anquetil, who lags behind but wins the Tour de France shortly afterwards, later admits that he was on the verge of collapse.

And then there is the story of Eddy Merckx (78, Bel), eleven years later in 1975. The “cannibal” dominated in recent years and won the tour five times in six years. Then, while climbing the Puy de Dôme, he receives a punch in the ribs, where the liver is located, from a mad spectator. He never recovers, loses his superiority and the tour to Bernard Thévenet (75, Fri).

Vingegaard and Pogacar alone in front? Quite possible

Who will follow in the footsteps of legends? On their first return to the Puy de Dôme after 35 years, will the two rivals Jonas Vingegaard (26, Dä) and Tadej Pogacar (24, Sln) make their way from handlebar to handlebar as Anquetil and Poulidor once did?

Romain Bardet, leader of the DSM team, is from the region and says in the official tour preview: “The climb is different from the one we usually ride. I wouldn’t be surprised if the future Tour winner asserts himself on top of the Puy de Dôme.”

Erich Mächler is someone who will follow closely. The Swiss Puy-de-Dôme hero says: “I’ll definitely be in front of the TV on Sunday.”

Source : Blick