La Voie Laurent Fignon Col du Tourmalet
Luz Saint Sauveur, France
The La Voie Laurent Fignon Col du Tourmalet is a climb with a length of 18.4 kilometer. This is a highest category (HC) climb. It is located in Luz Saint Sauveur, Midi-Pyrénées, France. The average grade of this climb is 7.6% with a maximum of 10.2%. The La Voie Laurent Fignon Col du Tourmalet ascents from 730 meter at the start, to 2.115 meter at the top, with a total of 1.385 ascending meters.
Profile
Facts
| Distance | 18.4 km |
| Elevation gain | 1385 m |
| Average grade | 7.6 % |
| Maximum grade | 10.2 % |
| Climb category | HC |
| Minimum elevation | 730 m |
| Maximum elevation | 2115 m |
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Description
La voie Laurent Fignon version of the climb.
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, not French, because of the mountain's location in the Gascony-region and the "du" in the name, which is the Gascon pendant to the French "de". Then Tour becomes "distance", which is spelled "tur" but pronounced "tour", mal is translated into "mountain", and it becomes "the". The translation from Gascon to English then becomes "The Distance Mountain".
The Col du Tourmalet is one of the most famous climbs on the Tour de France. It has been included more than any other pass, starting in 1910, when the Pyrenees were introduced. The first rider over was Octave Lapize, who went on to win the general classification in Paris. In 1913, Eugène Christophe broke his fork on the Tourmalet and repaired it himself at a forge in Sainte-Marie-de-Campan.
Up to 2019, the Tour has visited the Col du Tourmalet a total of 87 times. The total includes three stage finishes at the summit and three at La Mongie. Since 1980 it has been ranked hors catégorie, or exceptional. The Vuelta a España has also crossed the pass several times.
This is the old route of the climb used until 2011. Now it is a route dedicated to cyclists in homage to the winner of the Tour de France and Haut-Pyrénéen by adoption who died in August 2010.