The Tour's New Icon

In the Col de Portet, the Tour de France has unearthed a stunning climb that’s set for legendary status. Peter Cossins headed to the Pyrenees to ride it before the pros do

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Unlike the organisers of the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España, Tour de France boss Christian Prudhomme and his first lieutenant/route-finder Thierry Gouvenou don’t have the benefit of an almost endless supply of testing climbs with which to spice up each edition of the Tour. 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. None stands out more, though, than stage 17, a 65-kilometre dash between Bagnèresde-Luchon and the summit of the Col de Portet, a climb appearing for the first time.

Soon after Prudhomme had confirmed the Portet’s inclusion on the Tour route at the race presentation last October, I suggested a story on it, rashly adding that I planned to ride it as soon as the road to the 2,215-metre summit was free of snow. 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. Yet I was wrong on both counts.