“I think it still counts,” says Peter Kennaugh. He may not have done it via the mythical 21 hairpin bends, but he is still officially part of the Alpe d’Huez winner’s club, and no one can take that away from him.
“It wasn’t all the way up it, but I’ll still take it. You’re finishing up Alpe d’Huez so, yeah, I’ll take it,” the Manxman says as we jog his memory of a hot June day back in 2017.
Kennaugh, now a director with XDS Astana, then riding for Team Sky, raised his arms aloft atop one of cycling’s most iconic mountains, winning the queen stage of that year’s Critérium du Dauphiné in what was one of the most memorable moments of his career.
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What all this has to do with the present day is that today the Tour de France is heading up Alpe d’Huez via the same route on which Kennaugh soared nine years ago. A day after a summit finish via the traditional ascent, the Tour is heading up via the lesser-known back road, which heads over the Col de Sarenne, before dropping down and then back up the last 4km of the usual hike to the Alpe d’Huez ski resort.
The Sarenne features very rarely in professional cycling. Given the legend surrounding the traditional ascent, and given the protected status of the local wildlife, there have been precious few visits over the years. The Tour de France went down it in 2013, while that day in the 2017 Dauphiné remains the last time a pro bike race has gone over it.
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“It was special,” Kennaugh says with a smile as he tries to remember the details. “Yeah, it was one of the best moments of my career.”
It all happened on stage 7 of the 2017 Dauphiné, a 165-kilometre journey from Aoste that started out with a couple of tough climbs in the opening 60km, perfect for a breakaway to form ahead of a long stretch in the valley and then the final haul up towards and over the hors-catégorie Col de Sarenne.
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“I just remember there being no control at the start,” Kennaugh says. “There was a group of about 15 riders already away, and I jumped across on one of the climbs, from the bunch.”
Kennaugh doesn’t remember most of the names alongside him in that breakaway, but there was one who he’d never forget: “Swifty. Best mates for years. Raced against each other since we were eight or nine years old.”
Ben Swift, to use his full name, was not actually at Team Sky at that time, instead riding the first of a two-season switch to UAE Team Emirates that never really worked out.
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The two of them ended up going away as a duo on the Sarenne, and cresting it together.
“We started Sarenne and I think at this point the stage win was already coming from the breakaway, so you just spend the first couple of kilometres sussing out the rest of the break, who’s looking good, and planning how you’re going ride it,” says Kennaugh.
“So I can’t remember ever pushing on too much on the Col de Sarenne; I always remember following. And I think I might have done one attack towards the top when the break had dwindled a bit, and then I just remember Swifty coming across. People know him as more of a sprinter, but I’ve raced with him all my life and he was just on one of his really good climbing days, basically.
“We worked well together to the top of the climb, and it was really special actually, going over the top of there together.”
Kennaugh and Swift share an embrace atop Alpe d’Huez (Image credit: Getty Images)
Not that they necessarily saw it that way in the moment itself.
“The friendship was definitely set aside, let’s put it that way, for the last 10 kilometres,” Kennaugh says with a grin.
“We said almost nothing to each other. We’ve raced against each other and trained with each other and lived with each other throughout our careers, so you know what’s going through the other’s mind. You almost know exactly what they’re going to do, tactically.
“The first nationals I won, in 2014, we were away together then as well, and that was a sprint finish into Abergavenny, and he’d beaten me a million times in training. We barely said a word to each other, and it was the same again on the Sarenne.”
As soon as they crested the Col de Sarenne, however, the silent truce was called off.
“You have this sort of plateau section over the top, which is quite open and barren, and then the descent starts. He did try and attack me a few times on the descent in and out of the hairpins, but that was it really.
“As soon as we got off there and started the last 4k up to Alpe d’Huez, I just attacked him straight away basically. Although I didn’t drop him on the Sarenne, I was quietly confident. Even if we’d come to the line together, it wouldn’t have been a typical sprint, and then the last bit is only 4km, but it’s still 4km at about 8%.”
13 seconds after Kennaugh had raised his arms, Swift rolled in.
“After the finish line, big hug. I think we both enjoyed the moment for each other. I mean, friends don’t really come into it when it’s a racing situation, but then yeah, big hug after the finish and happy days.”
Alpe d’Huez will always be one of the highlights of Pete Kennaugh’s career, but it nevertheless fed into one of the lowlights: his omission from Team Sky’s 2017 Tour de France squad.
Kennaugh had been bounced around between races and training camps in the run-in to that Dauphiné, but he felt a stage win in the Dauphiné at Alpe d’Huez would surely seal his spot for the Tour. Not so. Despite supporting Chris Froome to victory in 2013 and 2015, he was left out for a second year in a row, and a third in total.
“That happened a couple of times; it was like that with Sky,” Kennaugh says.
“In 2014, again going back to that Nationals, I was flying that year, won the Nationals, didn’t get selected for the Tour, won Austria, and had a really good end to the season. And it was the same in 2017, obviously, with that stage when I felt like I rode quite well on the Dauphiné and I didn’t get selected for the Tour.
“Cycling’s gone even more like that now, but it was already like that, I think, with Sky… unless you were super consistent from January through to the Tour, they saw it as you could be unreliable, I guess. But so that’s just how it was.
In light of that, it feels worth asking Kennaugh if him getting in the breakaway and going for the stage win was ever part of the team’s plan for the day, particularly with a certain Chris Froome fighting for the yellow jersey behind.
Kennaugh alongside Froome during the Vuelta in 2016 (Image credit: Getty Images)
“It was never discussed. I just went. I just saw the opportunity and went in it. That’s all I can remember,” he says.
“I mean, if you win, then there’s never going to be problems. And anyway, you’re in the break on a day like that, you can then drop back and help the leader. That happened quite a lot as well. I had to give up a stage win in the Vuelta to drop back and help Froome. And then also my win in the Dauphiné on stage 1 in 2015 – that was never planned either, that was just a spur-of-the-moment, spontaneous attack.”
With that day sufficiently in the rearview mirror, Kennaugh can speak openly about all this, but there’s also the small matter of him now being on the other side of the fence, sitting in the director’s chair and setting out the plans for each Tour stage with XDS Astana.
“You can plan and advise the riders as much as possible, but I never try to be too strict on what the plan is for the race because we’re just sat in the car at the end of the day,” he responds, his racing attitude unchanged.
“I always say it to them as well: ‘You’re the ones who are on the bikes in the race, so if you feel like something’s right, and it isn’t part of the plan, you’ve also got to listen to your gut and go with your instincts’.”
If they do, they might join Kennaugh in the Alpe d’Huez winners’ club – via the Col de Sarenne, but it still counts.
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