All too soon, the road drops into Saint-Lary-Soulan, weaves through the town and starts to climb, very gently, towards the village of Vignec a couple of kilometres away.
Nevertheless, over the past decade or so, they have regularly served up some of the most compelling and unpredictable mountain stages in recent Grand Tour history, frequently conjuring something new and dynamic from what is often very well-travelled terrain.The upcoming Tour provides several further examples of this, from the double ascent of the tricky climb to Mûr de Bretagne, the inclusion of several sectors of Paris-Roubaix’s pavé and the introduction of the dirt road on the Plateau de Glières.
Here the road splits, the left fork continuing towards Pla d’Adet and its 1,680m finish where Rafał Majka was the last stage winner in 2014, while the way right heads towards the towering peaks above the resort.A sign pointing for the first time towards the Col de Portet soon marked the beginning of the second and very different half of this remarkable col. It was pitch black, which was just as well given what we were riding through.Reaching the glimmer of light at the far end, we were soon up to the very acute hairpin that leads up to a pass so lofty that the renowned high-altitude GR10 walking trail between the Atlantic and Mediterranean passes through it.It is a magnificent setting, the view stretching to Pla d’Adet, the Col d’Azet and the Peyresourde, barely visible with the rainclouds still hovering over it.Whatever the result of Prudhomme’s experiment with a super-short mountain stage, by the evening of July 25 the Col de Portet, an ascent that has a little bit of everything, will undoubtedly have sealed its place in the Tour’s pantheon of classic climbs.Accessing the central section of the French Pyrenees from the UK is straightforward. With only 65km to cover in the warmth of the mid-May sun, I figured it would be far from the toughest test I’d ever set myself. Organisers of the Tour de France, Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), have revealed the route of the 2020 Tour de France at the Palais des Congrès in Paris on Tuesday October 15. Tour de France 2020 : voici les informations concernant la première étape pyrénéenne de cette édition 2020. Even on the shorter 10-kilometre ascent to Pla d’Adet, this was a brave move on Poulidor’s part as the next two kilometres are very nearly as steep as the first couple.The only positive as we slogged up them was that there were no rain clouds in this valley and we were finally starting to dry out under a milky sun.Apart from a few minutes of respite in Soulan, a quarter of the way up the climb, the gradient remained at or close to double-digit levels until the road neared Espiaube, which sits in a saddle between steep mountainsides. It’s open too, and the wind gusting down it was soon whipping heavy rain into my face. Il faudra monter au col de Menté puis au Port de Balès et finir par le col de Peyresourde avant d'arriver à Loudenvielle. There are plenty of lodging options in Saint-Lary-Soulan from around £40 a night for a double room. But this opening section is harder than the Alpe, because the first hairpin is much further away. The two roads meet at Payolle, making for a testing but not lengthy circuit.In the Col de Portet, the Tour de France has unearthed a stunning climb that’s set for legendary status. Monday’s stage — unfortunately not broadcast live on TV — was the first major showdown between some of the Tour de France favorites since coming out of the COVID-19 race stoppage. After eight kilometres on a wide, very well-surfaced, albeit steep road that has been designed to enable easy access for cars and coaches to the ski station, the next eight kilometres are much more typically Pyrenean.Narrow, twisting and poorly surfaced, they provide the Portet with unquestioned X factor, the stuff that will make it a guaranteed draw for the Tour and its fans for decades to come.Very open right from the start, the first kilometres are only one per cent shallower than those that initially veered upwards from the valley floor. Further up the Aure valley, Piau-Engaly hosted a Tour stage finish in 1999, while the adjacent ascent to the Lac de Cap de Long dam is cut from the same spectacular mould as the Portet, climbing for 23km from Saint-Lary-Soulan to reach 2,161m.Reaching Lac d’Orédon, the road divides, the right spur going to Lac d’Aumar, which sits at a similar elevation. My spirits, buoyed by the thought that the previous nightmare had been a one-off, sank a little, but were kept afloat by frequent glances across to Pla d’Adet, which steadily dropped further away.Above the hairpins, the road turned towards the pass. There are no cafes or restaurants on the Col de Portet, so stock up in Saint-Lary-Soulan.The Tour’s innovative approach to the 17th stage also encompasses the stage start in Luchon.
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