Col du Tourmalet

De Col du Tourmalet is een beklimming van 16.9 kilometer. Dit is een beklimming van de hoogste categorie (HC). Het ligt in Campan, Midi-Pyrénées, Frankrijk. De gemiddelde helling van deze beklimming is 7.4% met een maximum van 9.5%. De Col du Tourmalet stijgt van 873 meter aan het begin tot 2.115 meter aan de top, met een totaal van 1.242 stijgende meters.

Beschrijving

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.

- Tour de France 1910 - Stage 10
- Tour de France 2001 - Stage 14
- Tour de France 2002 - Stage 11 (La Mongie - finish)
- Tour de France 2003 - Stage 15
- Tour de France 2011 - Stage 12
- Tour de France 2018 - Stage 19

Beklimmingen in de buurt