The life-size figure of Thibaut Pinot, the local hero, is harnessed to a tireless bicycle fixed to the ground. This Friday, July 8 is a day of celebration in Plancher-les-Mines. The peloton will tumble there to tackle, at the exit of the town, the first major mountainous difficulty of this Tour de France, the Planche des Belles-Filles (1). Seven kilometers of a steep ascent in the Vosges massif for a final arrival at 1,140 meters above sea level.
“It’s always an event”, rejoices Michel Galmiche, the mayor. Since its first foray in 2012, the Grande Boucle is on its sixth visit to its town, on which La Planche depends, a small winter sports resort which will also see the Women’s Tour end there on July 31. The city councilor still remembers the day when Yves Krattinger, president of the departmental council of Haute-Saône, spoke to him about his project: to convince the organizers of the biggest race in the world to make a detour by this end of valley hit by the de-industrialization. ” A challenge “, he recalls.
The place was already known to lovers of intense efforts. A cyclosportive event, the Three Balloons, had contributed to its notoriety. The Tour has accentuated it. “It’s a must”, slips Nicolas, arrived at the top with bike, luggage… and baguette. “We are in France, it’s normal”, laughs this man from Brussels on a cycling trip. Louis, a Fleming from Ghent, came to add this climb with a 24% portion to an already extensive collection. “It’s harder than the Ventoux”, he assures.
“As soon as the weather is nice, there are cyclists who go up”
Climbers can eat in the resort’s only bar-restaurant. “As soon as the weather is nice, there are cyclists who go up”, notes Adrien Mougin, the manager. According to his estimates, they represent a quarter of his turnover. Many of them have a Belgian or Dutch accent. “But there were already a lot of Belgians and Dutch before the first arrival of the Tour”, says a local regular. The event allowed them to go even higher, with the extension of the carriage route by 1 kilometer, towards the “Super Planche”.
This work, carried out in 2018, had rekindled the protest of environmental defenders, who had already risen in 2011 against the developments launched by the departmental council to bring professional runners to La Planche, near a natural area. protected. The various appeals were dismissed, but the grievances remain unchanged. “This makes additional artificialized surfaces and a influx of people on a fixed point, this is not a good example”, underlines Gérard Groubatch, president of France Nature Environnement in the neighboring Territory of Belfort.
The association manager also fears that a forest path will one day be transformed into a road to allow you to go down ” on the other side ” of this cul-de-sac. He also wonders about the “exact fallout” of the event in a sector where accommodation and shops are rare. Faced with criticism, Michel Galmiche castigates “ill-intentioned people”, which are not “raw”. «This town, without the arrival of cyclists, it would be dead, he believes. In the 1960s, there were 2,600 inhabitants. Now there are 980. Industrial decline has been accompanied by commercial decline. »
“The next day, when it’s empty, we’re a little blue”
The Bar du center has closed, the Renault garage is for sale and the Hôtel des Roches is no longer a hotel, but the elected official speaks of a “light tremor”of this German couple who bought a holiday home, of the convenience store which reopened two years ago… “We see people arriving who are not from the region, he continues. There are also a lot of cyclists, there is no denying that. » This clientele is variously appreciated. Adrien Mougin, who also holds a “real restaurant” 30 kilometers from La Planche, make no secret of it: “Me, cyclists, I don’t want them in my restaurant. It eats pasta, it does not reserve and it puts its bike anywhere. »
In the only bakery in Plancher-les-Mines, Danielle Sarre, she does not sulk these amateur peddlers, who come to buy her cold drinks or sandwiches. She kept a poster of the first passage of the Tour. “It still does us good, she declares. We are talked about positively. » On Friday, the trader expects to multiply her turnover “by ten”. “Each time, the main street is teeming with people, she says. The next day, when it’s empty, we’re a little insecure. »
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Pogacar, new yellow jersey
The last bumps were to eliminate the sprinters from the race for stage victory and benefit a breakaway. But the final seemed too easy for Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates team). The Slovenian only had to place a brief acceleration a few hectometres from the finish line to drop the group of favorites in the general classification and win in Longwy on the sixth stage, Thursday July 7th. With this first success on the 2022 edition, the double winner of the Tour recovers the yellow jersey of Wout van Aert who, after a breakaway of nearly 200 km, ended up absorbed by the peloton shortly before the finish.
