The 2026 Tour de France is already making headlines for all the wrong reasons. The iconic climb of Alpe d’Huez is at the center of a heated debate about the future of cycling. The question on everyone's mind is: can the sport protect its heritage of free access while creating a sustainable financial model for the future? But here's where it gets controversial... Former B&B Hotels manager Jerôme Pineau has reignited the long-running question of how the sport should fund itself, and he has gone straight for the sport's most sacred cow: free roadside access. In a recent podcast, Pineau floated the idea of charging spectators on the upper slopes of the Alpe, arguing that the sport must evolve financially if teams are to survive the growing economic divide. He proposes, "Let’s privatise the last five kilometres of Alpe d’Huez, let’s charge admission, let’s have VIPs, let’s create something to make money!" This bold statement has sparked a fierce debate. While some argue that the sport needs to evolve and adapt to changing economic realities, others insist that the open-door character of cycling is intrinsic to its identity. Groupama - FDJ boss Marc Madiot firmly rejected the idea, emphasizing that the sport’s free access is one of its strengths. He also raised a structural concern often overlooked in surface-level funding debates — the financial imbalance created by differing employment and tax systems across Europe. The debate over how to fund the sport is not just a theoretical discussion; it has real-world stakes. With state-funded superteams reshaping the WorldTour and private sponsors increasingly thin on the ground, the sport’s fundamental question remains unresolved. Can cycling protect its heritage of free access while creating a sustainable financial model for the future? The conversation isn’t going away, and Alpe d’Huez has suddenly become a testing ground not only for legs, but for tradition, economics, and the very soul of the sport.
