Famous climbs of the Tour de France
Many of the most famous and repeatedly-used climbs of the Tour de France are included, from the French Alps and the French Pyrenees.
It's challenging to find any climb that has yet to feature in the Tour de France at one time or another. Yet many are used year after year for all sorts of different reasons.
The Col du Tourmalet is one of them. The 1910 edition of the Tour de France took on the Tourmalet. The first high mountain pass to be included. It's been going up ever since, sometimes twice. It is the most visited of all the mountain passes of the Tour. This has much to do with its location in the middle of the Pyrenees. It's difficult not to go up the Tourmalet, as there isn't any way around it.
The 1910 stage started with the Col de Peyresourde. The Tourmalet featured after the Col d'Aspin and before the Col d'Aubisque finished up a colossal 326 kilometres stage. The riders had to start at 3.30 a.m. to stand a chance of finishing the same day.
One of the riders, Octave Lapize, was foolishly asked at the top of the Col d'Aubisque how he was feeling? "You are assassins, yes, assassins", was his now-legendary reply. And vowed to quit. Octave Lapize eventually won the first mountain stage and the Tour overall. Here are a few more climbs Octave Lapize definitely wouldn't have approved off.
