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| (photo: Touho Häkkinen) |
Location: Hautes Pyrenees, France
Altitude: 2115 m
Length from Luz-Saint-Sauveur (west side): 19.000 m
Height difference: 1404 m
Average gradient: 7.4 %
Maximum gradient: 10.2 %
Col du Tourmalet is the highest paved road in the central Pyrenees in the department of Hautes-Pyrénées in France. At the col is a memorial to Jacques Goddet, director of the Tour de France from 1936 to 1987, and a large statue of Octave Lapize gasping for air as he struggles to make the climb.
Many people think Col du Tourmalet is the "climb of all climbs" from the Tour de France: more Tours have been won on Tourmalet alone than on any other climb. Although it's name alone is legendary, the challenge of the actual climb is as real as the scenery is spectacular. Each kilometer is marked by the distance to the summit and the average gradient of the next kilometer.
- The western side from Luz-Saint-Sauveur the climb is 19 km long, climbing 1404 m at an average gradient of 7.4 % and with a maximum gradient of 10.2 % near the summit.
- From the east, from Sainte-Marie-de-Campan, the climb is 17.2 km, gaining 1268 m, an average gradient 7.4 % and with a maximum gradient of 10.0 %. The ski station of La Mongie is about 4.5 kilometres from the top.
From the pass there is a track which leads to the Pic du Midi de Bigorre observatory (2877 m). Sainte-Marie-de-Campan is at the foot on the eastern side and the ski station La Mongie two-thirds of the way up.
What is the meaning of Col du Tourmalet?
Some Frenchmen believe that Tourmalet translates into "bad trip" or "bad detour" because in French Tour translates into "trip" and mal translates into "bad". However, the correct language to translate from is Gascon, and not French, because of the mountain's location in the Gascony-region. The "du" in the name is the Gascon pendant to the French "de". Tour becomes "distance", which is spelled "tur" but pronounced "tour"; mal is translated into "mountain"; and et becomes "the". The translation from Gascon to English then becomes "The Distance Mountain".
Col du Tourmalet history
The Pyrenees were included in the Tour de France in 1910 at the insistence of Alphonse Steinès, a colleague of the organiser, Henri Desgrange.
The Col du Tourmalet is one of the most famous climbs on the Tour de France. It has been included in the race more often than any other pass, starting in 1910, when the Pyrenees were introduced.
The first rider over the Tourmalet was Octave Lapize, who went on to claim the yellow jersey in Paris. In 1913, Eugène Christophe broke his fork on the Tourmalet and repaired it himself at a forge in Sainte-Marie-de-Campan.
After the 2011 edition of the Tour de France, the summit has now been crossed 76 times in the Tour de France's history. Since 1947, the Tour has crossed the summit 48 times, plus a stage finish at the summit in 1974. There have also been three finishes at La Mongie. Since 1980 it has been ranked Hors Catégorie, or exceptional. The Vuelta a España has also crossed the pass several times!
Tour de France 2010 and the Look from Andy Schleck
The 2010 edition of the Tour included the pass on two consecutive stages, crossing westward on the 16th stage to Pau and eastward on the 17th stage with a finish at the summit. This Tourmalet ascent fight Schleck vs. Contador was the great moment in the Tour de France 2010. In that race Contador won, but after doping test and cord cases Andy Schleck became the great final overall winner of the Tour de France 2010.
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| Andy Schleck is pushing but Contador will not give up. (photo: Touho Häkkinen) |
Andy Schleck (LUX) had lost his overall lead to Alberto Contador Velasco (ESP). That was the story when Andy's chain broke.
Soon after passing Luz-Saint-Sauveur and heading to the stage finish on the top of the Col du Tourmalet, Andy made his move. From the entire World elite, only Alberto could follow. This was the moment of pain and truth, July 22nd 2010. Two of the greatest cyclists head-to-head on one of the greatest mountains, Col du Tourmalet!
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| The Andy Look. Nothing helps, Alberto is still there. (photo: Touho Häkkinen) |
Nothing helped, the strong Spanyard was sitting there despite Schleck's attacks. Schleck won the stage and Contador won the Tour. The spectators on the windy, rainy, foggy, and cold Tourmalet had proved one of the legendary fights in the history of professional road cycling.
However, in February 2012, Contador lost this Tour de France 2010 victory as well as the victory in Giro d'Italia in 2011, all this after the retroactive clenbuterol-case decision from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
The Col du Tourmalet profile (from west)
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| The profile of the ascent from west, Luz-Saint-Sauveur. (graph: climbbybike.com) |
Col du Tourmalet and Team Zoncolan, not a long success story
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| Not easy. As expected. Day 22.7.2010. (photo: Touho Häkkinen) |
Oopee Z cycled Tourmalet from Luz-Saint-sauveur on 22.7.2010. The Big Boys came up some hours later.
"That was perfect bad weather: very cold, very rainy, and very foggy. Already rolling down from the autocamper was a pain, the brakes did not work in the rain and the hands were freezing. Tourmalet is the legend. I probably thought this would be the final ascent to climb. What can I say? It is a pretty serious uphill. But that time I did not know about Monte Zoncolan."
See our articles from other great climbs here!
