THE TOUR OF THE ALPS
High & Mighty
The Tour of the Alps has a long history but in recent years has become the warm-up race of choice for the Giro d’Italia. Procycling reports on the 2021 edition, which saw a dominant winner against a stunning Alpine backdrop
Writer Stephen Farrand /// Photography Tim de Waele/Getty
A BIKE RACE
IS
FAR MORE
THAN
JUST
A SIMPLE
SPORTING
EVENT.
Every race has a winner and losers and is decided by minutes and seconds, but they also offer us lessons in geography, sociology and local history.
Think of the way Gent-Wevelgem visits the battlefields and so remembers the victims of World War 1, how the Tour of Rwanda highlights the passion for cycling in Africa and offers its riders a launch pad to pro racing. The three grand tours tell the closely entwined history of cycling and of life in Italy, France and Spain.
The Tour of the Alps may be seen simply as a final preparation race before the Giro d’Italia. But that would be myopic. Yes, it is a vital test of form and ability before the Corsa Rosa, it reveals who is on track to be an overall contender and helps everyone prepare and get excited for what is to come in May. But the Tour of the Alps has its own history and raison d’etre. It has its own concentric and connecting circles of local, regional and international significance that make it unique and also make it a very successful race that deserves respect and appreciation.
Stage victories by Gianni Moscon and Austria’s Felix Großschartner in this year’s race were locally as important as Simon Yates’s impressive overall victory was to the global audience, and those looking for indications for the Giro d’Italia.
Großschartner was the first Austrian rider to ever win a stage and rides for Bora- Hansgrohe, who are based just over the Austrian border to the south of Munich. Internationally Moscon is seen as an unrepentent bad boy for his racist abuse of Kévin Réza and other misdemeanors, but in Italy and especially in the Trentino region and the Val di Non, where his family grow Melinda apples, he is widely supported.
Ending exactly two weeks before the start of the Giro, the Tour of the Alps works perfectly as a stepping stone to the Corsa Rosa but don’t dare suggest that to race director Maurizio Evangelista.