Last Updated: July 5, 2026
With the Grand Depart in Barcelona just a day away, Tour de France organisers already have a problem waiting three weeks down the road. The Col de Sarenne, the decisive climb of this year’s queen stage to Alpe d’Huez, has been hit by two separate mudslides in the space of a week.
Update: Weather has continued to disrupt the 2026 race — wildfires near Les Angles have now forced Stage 3 to run without spectators, with Stage 4 also under threat.
What Happened
As first reported by Cyclingnews on July 1, a severe June heat wave – with temperatures soaring as high as 43C across Western Europe – sparked violent thunderstorms around Alpe d’Huez. Heavy rain sent a mudslide across the road to the Col de Sarenne last week, and just days after crews had cleared the rocks and debris, a second slide struck the same road on Monday. Local weather service Meteo Oisans posted images of the aftermath on social media.
Road crews have more than two weeks to repair the damage before the race arrives, but severe thunderstorms remain in the forecast for the coming week, raising the possibility that stage 20 may need to be re-routed if the slides keep coming.
Why It Matters
Stage 20 on July 25 is the crown jewel of the 2026 Tour de France: 170.9 km with around 5,450 m of climbing over the Col de la Croix de Fer, the Telegraphe and the Galibier before the rarely raced Sarenne delivers the peloton to the second of back-to-back summit finishes atop Alpe d’Huez. The Sarenne’s south-eastern flank was resurfaced and widened specifically so this stage could exist – a climb that has essentially never been raced at this level before.
The climb was already controversial before the weather intervened: environmental groups protested its inclusion because the road skirts a nature reserve with a fragile alpine ecosystem. Two mudslides in a week will not quiet those objections.
There is also recent precedent for nature rewriting the Tour’s final week. In 2019, stage 19 was halted mid-race when hail and a landslide blocked the road to Val d’Isere while Egan Bernal – who would go on to win overall – was attacking on the Col de l’Iseran. The very next day’s stage was slashed to just 59 km after another landslide blocked the Cormet de Roselend.
Heat is the other side of the same coin. Tour technical director Thierry Gouvenou told L’Equipe this week that extreme weather is a growing concern for organisers after two difficult heat periods in May and June, while race director Christian Prudhomme cautioned that with 28,000 police, firefighters and gendarmes mobilised on fixed schedules, last-minute route changes are only possible in exceptional circumstances. The UCI’s extreme weather protocol, updated for heat with a colour-coded risk system, allows starts to be moved, racing to be neutralised, or stages cancelled outright at the highest risk level. Barcelona is forecast at a manageable 33C for the opening weekend, but temperatures could reach 37C or more by stage 9. France’s cycling federation already shortened the elite men’s national championship road race last weekend because of the heat.
What This Means For You
This story is not just about the pros. On July 19, a week before the peloton, thousands of amateur riders will tackle the exact same road in L’Etape du Tour de France. If you are one of them – or planning your own Alpe d’Huez pilgrimage this summer – keep an eye on official route updates and local road-status bulletins for the Sarenne in the days before you travel, and have a plan B climb in your back pocket.
The conditions that caused the slides matter for your own riding too. Riding big cols in a heat wave is a physiological challenge you can prepare for: our guide to heat acclimation for cyclists covers how to adapt in the two weeks before a hot event, and ice baths and cold-water recovery can help you back up consecutive mountain days. And if storms have passed through, treat every shaded descent as suspect: gravel, mud and rockfall linger on alpine roads long after the rain stops, especially on narrow, rough backroads like the Sarenne.
Key Takeaways
- Two mudslides hit the Col de Sarenne road within a week after storms triggered by a severe June heat wave.
- The Sarenne is the key climb of stage 20 on July 25, the queen stage finishing atop Alpe d’Huez for the second day running.
- Crews have two-plus weeks to clear the road, but more storms are forecast and a re-route remains possible.
- In 2019, landslides halted one Tour stage and cut the next to 59 km, so organisers have playbooks ready.
- L’Etape du Tour riders use the same road on July 19 – check road status before you travel and prepare for heat.
