Straight-Up Racing

One by one they will take off, 160 riders. Ahead of them will be 9.6 miles of continual climbing through 21 hairpin turns.

There will be nearly a million people lining the road, which will have been painted bright orange in honor of the Dutch; or black, red and yellow, the colors of the German flag; or blue, white and red for the French. The fans will be behind barriers for the last two miles, so until then, people will be darting onto the road to wave a flag in a cyclist’s face, snap a picture or yell in a rider’s ears.

What happens Wednesday is the most anticipated stage of a Tour de France in years. Or maybe ever.

The infamous climb up L’Alpe d’Huez for the first time has been turned from a long and grueling ride that ends in a huge climb to just a huge climb. It has been made an individual time trial, a one-on-one test of man against mountain.

“I believe the Tour will be decided on Wednesday,” said Chris Carmichael, Lance Armstrong’s trainer. It was the sentiment of Armstrong when the 2004 Tour route was announced. “The Tour will be decided on L’Alpe,” Armstrong predicted last fall.

Frankie Andreu, a former Tour rider, says that what will happen Wednesday is perhaps the most difficult time trial ever.

“First of all,” Andreu said, “you’re going uphill. It’s a fine line you’re on when you do a mountain climb between going too slowly and going too fast. The big danger is, you blow up.

“If you blow up on a flat time trial you can have time to recover. If you blow up on the mountain you could start going backwards.”

This is only the third climbing time trial in 15 years, and Armstrong was the winner in one of the others, two years ago on another mountain in the Alps.

But there is something mystical about L’Alpe d’Huez. It has become a legendary route. There is a signpost for each of the 21 angular switchbacks, a way for the cyclists to keep track of their painstaking progress.

And that’s when the climb was part of a full day of riding and when a leader such as Armstrong had the help of teammates for encouragement, for setting tempo, for keeping track of what others were doing.

Bob Roll, a former Tour de France rider and member of the U.S. Cycling Hall of Fame, thinks the biggest danger Wednesday will come from the encroaching crowds with their painted faces and alcohol-fueled enthusiasm.

“To me,” Roll said, “the big danger will be if you go out too fast and get carried away in the midst of all the hoopla and screaming fans in the first few switchbacks. You have the chance of blowing up, blowing up sky high. That would be my No. 1 concern. The most disciplined athletes will do the best.”

And how does it feel, riding with all your effort while the fans reach out and touch you? “You feel like you’re carrying Quasimodo ringing the bells at Notre Dame on your back,” he said. “You feel like your teeth will fall out, that your eyes will bleed.”

Going into today’s first Alps stage Armstrong stands in second place, 22 seconds behind France’s Thomas Voeckler. Although Andreu thinks Armstrong could take over the yellow jersey today, Andreu thinks Armstrong will be content to keep Voeckler and Italian Ivan Basso, who is third, 1:17 behind Armstrong, in his sights.

“I think Lance would be happy to ride with Thomas and finish with him and let Thomas keep the yellow one more day,” Andreu said. “Lance would be fine with having Voeckler do all the stuff that comes with the yellow jersey” today.

Wednesday will be different.

Carmichael said the Texan is excited about Wednesday’s stage.

“It’s an uphill opportunity to take a huge chunk of time. Or to lose a huge chunk of time,” Carmichael said. “It gives a good climber who is a good time trialer an opportunity to make a tremendous impact on the race. This time trial suits Lance.”

Carmichael disputes the notion that became accepted in October when the Tour stages were announced that this L’Alpe d’Huez time trial was an anti-Lance measure. The conventional thinking was that a 32-year-old, deep into the final stretches of a 2,100-mile odyssey, might have a hard time making that climb alone.

“No way, Lance was excited,” Carmichael said. “He looks at this as an opportunity, a huge opportunity.”

This huge opportunity is also a huge danger, said Paul Sherwen, a seven-time participant in the Tour and an Outdoor Life Network commentator. Sherwen has been up L’Alpe d’Huez on his bike. “The difficult thing is that you’ve got to try hard just to get up the mountain,” Sherwen said. “If you try too hard, you go into asphyxiation. You get into oxygen deficit. The first 500 meters are straight up, and you have no chance to warm up. So you’d better be prepared when you get on that bike Wednesday.

“That’s an advantage to Armstrong.”

Armstrong is legendary for his meticulous studying of each stage, for his need to ride, over and over, the most important stages. But Armstrong wasn’t the only one doing serious study of this most important stage.

Sherwen said an OLN television crew had gone to L’Alpe d’Huez in March to tape background shots.

The crew happened on Germany’s Jan Ullrich, the man thought most likely to keep Armstrong from winning his record-setting sixth consecutive title. “He told them ‘No film, no film,’ ” Sherwen said. “He didn’t want anyone to know he was studying the climb.”

Ullrich, the 1997 winner and five-time runner-up, is more than six minutes behind Armstrong now, after finishing only 61 seconds behind Armstrong in last year’s tight Tour.

“I think the Tour may be over Wednesday,” Carmichael said. “That wouldn’t surprise me,” Andreu said.

It wouldn’t shock Roll either. Roll went on training rides with Armstrong when the Texan was finishing his treatments for cancer seven years ago. He’s watched closely as Armstrong has embraced the experience of his near-fatal illness and recovered to become perhaps the most famous cyclist ever.

In 1999, the first year Armstrong won the Tour, Roll said, “Lance was an unknown entity. He didn’t know if he could go well for three weeks. Even when he got the yellow jersey in Sestriere, Lance didn’t know if he could keep it.

“Now we’re almost six years down the road, tons of water under the bridge. I get the sense now, if Lance puts on an attack, nobody would be able to respond to it. Up until now, Lance has depended on the strength of his team and on the collapse of his rivals. A whole new crop of young guys is coming up. But once you’re on the radar, in the way of Lance’s desire to win the Tour, you have a gigantic target on your back. Lance will hunt you down like a whimpering cur.

“The execution of his physical and mental skills on a world level has been a beautiful and majestic thing to watch.”

All those skills will be showcased Wednesday. The fearsome focus, the unbending will, the controlled aggression, the years of unending training, it will all be needed during 9.6 miles of uphill cycling.