Classic Mountain climbs

alan23p said:

Does anyone know if there is a comprehensive list anywhere of the classic climbs in the Tour?

I will be in France in a couple of weeks and was hoping to bag a col or two....

(For reasons to complicated to explain, I only know that I will either be in the Alps or Pyrenees)

Alan

I think this is as comprehensive as you'll get:
http://www.memoire-du-cyclisme.net/eta_tdf/montagnes_tdf.php

Click on the links to see the profiles of each climb and the winners, years etc.
When you do go, buy the yellow Michelin maps for the area so you get the really tiny roads, or you could print from the Michelin website.

alan23p said:

Does anyone know if there is a comprehensive list anywhere of the classic climbs in the Tour?

I will be in France in a couple of weeks and was hoping to bag a col or two....

(For reasons to complicated to explain, I only know that I will either be in the Alps or Pyrenees)

Alan

you can do worse than look at www.cyclingnews.com vast coverage of this years Tour. It shows both route and profile maps for all the stages. I'm not sure how far back their coverage goes, but it's a good starting point.

Famous Alpen climbs include: Alpe d'Huez, Col de la Madeleine, Glandon and Col de la Colombiére.

Famous Pyrenees climbs include: Col du Tourmalet, Col d’Aspin, Col de Peyresourde, Col d’Aubisque, Col du Soulor and the Tour finishes of Hautacam, Cauterets and Luz Ardiden all close.

A word to the wise. The Pyrenees climbs are considered to be much longer and steeper than the Alpen ones even though the Alps are consisdered to be more illustious. Either way, if you haven't done much climbing before i'd get the miles in quickly.

Hope this is useful. would be great to find out how you got on, as i'm planning a trip to Mount Ventoux next year.

btw this isn't a full list by any means. I'm sure others on this board will fill in the gaps for you.

Thanks.

I spent a week last year in Luz St Saveur and went up the Tourmalet. (with a few(!) stops on the way.) I was planning on doing Luz Ardiden too, but didn't manage to find a spare day - I'm on a family holiday.

Naively, I just thought someone might have a website with them all listed that I could look at, a for location and b for tips.

Currently, I am reduced to looking at a map of France and spotting them all....

Just for completeness....

We stayed near Annecy and for the big ride, I got dropped off at La Clusaz. So I went up the Col de Colombiere and then over the Col de Aravis. (Rewarded there with a fabulous view of Mont Blanc) 57 miles in total, which I was more than pleased with.
I managed to get a few long rides in over the fortnight, including a great ride in the Auverne where I went up a horrible little hill near Estaing riding out of the Gorges du Lot. I did contemplate heading over to Mende but if was about 40-50 miles away and was just(!) out of my range.

Anyway, drove past Mont Ventoux on the autoroute, maybe some day.......

This is a nice page, information and pictures about many climbs.
http://grenoblecycling.free.fr/the-Alps.htm

Also, for reference http://ciclismo.sitiasp.it/motore.aspx?sid=d78115d5011a4f478c08c548df8a0e5f&da=az

Once you know what you are looking for in terms of names of passes, here are the sites with all the info (routes, gradients, profiles, etc) you need...

http://home-1.tiscali.nl/~edwinsel/start.htm

http://www.salite.ch/ (salita is Italian for uphill)

http://ciclismo.sitiasp.it/ (click on ' salite d' europa)

That should get you the information you need! Enjoy!