Is the Tour de France 2026 Queen Stage in danger? Petition against return of famous climb gathers thousands of signatures

The Col de Sarenne, located in the French Alps, is scheduled to come as the final climb on stage 20 – the race’s Queen Stage – before a finish in the neighbouring Alpe d’Huez ski resort. It will be the Tour’s first ever ascent of the mountain.

“The organisers of the 2026 Tour de France want to transform the Col de Sarenne into the biggest stadium in the world,” writes the man behind the petition, Matthieu Stelvio. “Placed at the end of the stage, the climb could bring hundreds of thousands of spectators.”

The Col de Sarenne has featured three times before in bike races, according to ProCyclingStats, and only once as an ascent: stage seven of the 2017 Critérium du Dauphiné.

The road is located in the Ferrand Valley, an area home to marmots, foxes, short-toed eagles and stoats, as well as a number of rare bird species, whose chicks hatch in July, the same month the Tour is due.

Stelvio is concerned about the television helicopters which will fly overhead and may disturb the nesting birds. He also fears the “rare and fragile flora” of the area “will be trampled by the crowds, perhaps even crushed by hundreds of vehicles, hundreds of tents.”

“Is this really the place to organise an event that could gather as many spectators as 10 Stade de France stadiums?” he writes

“Nature is more important than this spectacle-business (which has often proven to be a sham). And the organisers of the Tour de France don't care about nature.”

An environmental activist and writer, Stelvio started a similar petition in 2013, when the Tour descended the Col de Sarenne between a two ascents of Alpe d’Huez. That petition gained more than 12,000 signatures, and he wrote an open letter to ASO, the organiser of the Tour, but did not receive a response.

Next year, not only will the race ascend the Col de Sarenne, but also the L'Étape du Tour de France sportive, in which around 16,000 amateurs will ride the stage route. L'Étape will take place on 19 July, six days before the Tour visits the climb.

At the time of writing, the petition – ‘Non au passage du Tour de France 2026 au col de Sarenne’ – counts more than 5,800 signatures.

Cycling Weekly has contacted ASO for comment.