The
Tour de France 2022 begins next weekend, being the most popular cycling event. This week novelty comes straight from the Tour's director, who is considering adding The Puy de Dôme to the Tour in the coming years.
The ascent in the Massif Central goes over an ancient volcano almost into the 1500 meters in altitude and hasn't been used since 1988 in the race, as the race convoy and infrastructure grew and the road could no longer handle it. Christian Prudhomme, Tour de France director, inspected the slopes this week ."The dream has become bigger today, There's a lot of emotion for us because it's a dream that we've had in our heads for years," he said, hinting at a return of the climb.
"This corresponds to our desire to give the mountains back to the champions, As we have shown in recent years by going to classified sites or sites that are difficult to access," Prudhomme told La-Montagne. The Massif Central is in most years present at the Tour, but rarely sees meaningful differences created within it's limits.
With 11.4Km at 8.1% average gradient from Royat, the climb would be classified as significantly hard and could see the mountain range once again emerge as a crucial part of the race.
