Col du Tourmalet (East side)
Distance: 17.55 km
Elevation Gain: 1262 m
Elevation Loss: 61 m
Difficulty:
1094 (Very Hard)
FIETS Index: 9.39 FIETS
Avg Grade: 7.44 %
Max cat climb: HC
Min elevation: 853 m
Max elevation: 2115 m
Ride Category:
Epic Climb
Before the Tour de France could send its riders over the Col du Tourmalet, in the Hautes-Pyrénées of southern France, someone had to prove that a bicycle could get across it. In January 1910 the Tour’s founder, Henri Desgrange, sent Alphonse Steinès to find out. Steinès drove up this eastern side from Sainte-Marie-de-Campan until snow stopped the car, then walked on alone into the night. Searchers found him near Barèges at three in the morning, and once he had warmed up he telegraphed Desgrange that the road was passable. That July, Octave Lapize led the Tour over the summit for the first time, and no pass has been crossed by the race more often since. In 2023 the Tour de France Femmes climbed this side straight after the Col d’Aspin, and Demi Vollering won at the summit to take the yellow jersey she kept to the end.
This ride climbs the eastern side from Sainte-Marie-de-Campan to the summit and a short way down the far side. The Tour’s early heroes are remembered at both ends of it. In 1913 Eugène Christophe broke his fork on the descent and walked down to the forge in Sainte-Marie-de-Campan. Outside help was forbidden, so he spent three hours repairing it himself; a plaque marks the spot. Higher up, past Gripp, the road climbs through the ski resort of La Mongie. At the summit stands the Géant du Tourmalet, Jean-Bernard Métais’s iron rider, nicknamed Octave after Lapize. Each June more than a thousand cyclists escort it back up from its winter home in the valley.
