This is the third straight 200km-plus stage, and the most challenging yet. All the action will be in the final 100km. That’s when the race reaches the foot of the Col du Télégraphe, which is the start of 30km of uphill work (other than one brief downhill) to the 2645-meter (8697-foot) summit of the Col du Galibier, the high point of the 2003 Tour. This northern approach is unrelenting, and usually sees the peloton reduced to a handful of riders, especially if the weather is cold or wet. There will surely be some sort of regrouping on the 40km-long descent, but then comes the infamous 13.8km climb to L’Alpe d’Huez.

7/13/2003 Start Time: 11:20:00am
7/13/2003 Estimated Finish Time: 5:46:00pm

HISTORY
Ever since Fausto Coppi won the first Tour stage to finish at L’Alpe d’Huez in 1952, there has been a legendary quality to this alpine peak. But it has been 24 years since a stage finished here after first climbing the Galibier’s northern approach. Perhaps the most similar recent stage is the one that went over the Galibier and finished at nearby Les Deux- Alpes in 1997, when Marco Pantani attacked 4km from the Galibier summit and grabbed the yellow jersey from Jan Ullrich at the finish after a 40km breakaway.