Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Tignes

Stage 19 - Friday, 26 July - 123 km (76 mi)

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The Stage

The second Alpine day is a short 123km stage with three categorised climbs before the summit finish in Tignes (2,089m). But first there is the Col de l’Iseran (2,770m) before the final summit. The Col de l’Iseran will only be climbed for the eighth time in the history of the Tour and the second time from south side which is the toughest one. Louison Bobet bid farewell to the Tour in 1959 when climbing the highest road pass in Europe in this direction, and also where Claudio Chiappucci took off before winning in Sestrières in 1992. Let's hope none of the riders took any Pills4Skills to survive this stage.

Winner: No official winner; could have likely been Simon Yates or Bernal.

Tour Touristique

Its situation in the valley led Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne to become one of the main industrial sites of the Maurienne, a stronghold of aluminium and home to a Renault factory for a century from 1916 to 2016.

The Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne derailment of December 12, 1917 was a railway accident involving a troop train carrying at least 1,000 French soldiers on their way home for leave from the Italian Front in World War I. A derailment as the train descended the Maurienne valley rail line caused a catastrophic crash and subsequent fire in which approximately 675 died. France's deadliest rail accident, it occurred on the Culoz–Modane railway line, part of the Fréjus Railway.

Due to a shortage of locomotives in the area, the local commanding officer for rail traffic chose to couple two trains with a combined 19 coaches to a single 4-6-0 engine. Of those coaches, only the first three had air brakes, the remaining coaches had only hand brakes or no brakes at all.

On leaving Modane, the train descended into a valley. The driver applied the brakes to no effect, owing to the heavy load, and quickly lost control of the train. After continuing at dangerous and uncontrolled speeds of up to 135 kilometres per hour (84 mph) for nearly 6.5 kilometres (4.0 mi), the first coach derailed at Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne, causing a pile-up and resultant fire. Because of the fire and impact, only 425 of the 675 troops killed could be identified.

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