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La Planche des Belles Filles

Mountain in France

Field	Value
name	La Planche des Belles Filles
picture	2020-08 - Planche des Belles Filles - 01.jpg
caption	The western side of the mountain, seen from Ronchamp
location	Plancher-les-Mines, Haute-Saône
nearest_city	Belfort
coordinates
pushpin_map	France#France Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
pushpin_relief	y
top_elevation	1148 m
external_link

|}} La Planche des Belles Filles () is a ski station in the Vosges Mountains, in France. It is located in the Haute-Saône département. Since 2012, the climb to the summit has been used several times during the Tour de France cycle race.

Etymology and legend

The name Belles Filles literally means "beautiful girls", but is actually derived from the local plant life. The mountain is attested from the 16th century as lieu peuplé de belles fahys, a "place inhabited with nice beech trees" in the local dialect. Belles fahys later became corrupted into Belles Filles, though there remains a nearby village of Belfahy. Meanwhile, Planche, "board", is derived from the nearby small town of Plancher-les-Mines.

A folk etymology, in contrast, holds that the mountain took its name from the time of the Thirty Years' War. According to legend, young women from Plancher-les-Mines fled into the mountains to escape Swedish mercenaries as they feared being raped and massacred. Rather than surrender, they decided to commit suicide and jumped into a lake far below. One of the soldiers then took a board on which, with his dagger, he engraved an epitaph for the "beautiful girls". A wooden statue, created by a local artist, is a reminder of the legend.

Cycle racing

From Plancher-les-Mines the climb to the finish at 1035 m is 5.9 km long, gaining 503 m and averages 8.5% with a maximum of 14%, but with a short stretch from 22% to 28% near the finish.

Tour de France

La Planche des Belles Filles was first used as a finish in Stage 7 in the 2012 Tour de France, 199 km from Tomblaine on 7 July. The steep finish proved popular, and it quickly became a popular climb among cycling fans. The climb has since been used frequently; in 2014 it was the finish of Stage 10 and won by then race leader Vincenzo Nibali; in 2017 it was the finish of Stage 5 of the Tour, with Fabio Aru winning by 16 seconds from Dan Martin, and Chris Froome taking the yellow jersey. It featured again in 2019, won by Dylan Teuns.

It was the penultimate stage finish in a mountain time-trial in stage 20 of the 2020 Tour de France, which was won by Tadej Pogačar, who also took the yellow jersey and the polka-dot jersey.

Year	Stage	Start of stage	Distance (km)	Category	Stage winner	Yellow jersey
2022	7	Tomblaine	176.5	1	Tadej Pogačar	Tadej Pogačar
2020	20	Lure	36.2 (ITT)	1	Tadej Pogačar	Tadej Pogačar
2019	6	Mulhouse	160.5	1	Dylan Teuns	Giulio Ciccone
2017	5	Vittel	160.5	1	Fabio Aru	Chris Froome
2014	10	Mulhouse	161.5	1	Vincenzo Nibali	Vincenzo Nibali
2012	7	Tomblaine	199	1	Chris Froome	Bradley Wiggins

Le Tour de France Femmes

La Planche des Belles Filles featured in the premiere event of Le Tour de France Femmes in 2022 as the finish of the final stage (stage 8) on 31 July.

Year	Stage	Start of stage	Distance (km)	Category	Stage winner	Yellow jersey
2022	8	Lure	123.3	1	Annemiek van Vleuten	Annemiek van Vleuten

References

"Légende de La Planche des Belles Filles". www.destination70.com.
"La légende . . .". www.stationdelaplanche.fr.
"Sculpture de Jacques Pissenem". www.bleuet-vert.com.
"Stage 7: Tomblaine – La Planche des Belles Filles". [[Amaury Sport Organisation]].
MacMichael, Simon. (4 July 2012). "TDF Stage 7: Video Preview - La Planche des Belles Filles". road.cc.
(7 July 2012). "Tour de France: Bradley Wiggins takes yellow jersey". [[BBC Sport]].
(11 July 2019). "La Planche des Belles Filles: Taking on the Tour's brutal summit finish". Cycling Weekly.
(23 October 2013). "Le tracé tour de France 2014".
"La Planche des Belles Filles dans le Tour de France". ledicodutour.
(5 July 2017). "Tour de France: Aru wins on La Planche des Belles Filles". [[Immediate Media Company]].
(19 September 2020). "Pogacar storms to maillot jaune on stage 20 as Roglic's Tour de France bid collapses". [[Cyclingnews.com]].
"Stage 8 - Lure > la Super Planche des Belles Filles - Tour de France Femmes 2022".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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