SUPER BY NAME...

Thirty-six years after Superbagnères played a starring role in the iconic 1989 Tour, the legendary climb is back. Peter Cossins takes it on

- Peter Cossins

For longtime bike racing fans, particularly those who started following the sport in the Channel 4 era of the mid-1980s, Superbagnères evokes two famous moments. The first came in 1986 - widely regarded as the best Tour de France vintage of all time - when the mountain provided the setting for an extraordinary duel between La Vie Claire teammates Bernard Hinault and Greg LeMond. The American won the stage as the Frenchman just about hung on to the yellow jersey. Three years later, Philippa York (then known as Robert Millar) took her third Tour stage victory, while Laurent Fignon nudged LeMond out of the yellow jersey in the midst of their ding-dong battle that ran all the way to the Champs-Élysées.

York's victory 36 years ago was the Tour's last visit to the climb - but it is back with a bang this year. On Saturday 19 July, stage 14, the peloton will climb up to its 1,804m summit, bringing down the curtain on a triptych of Pyrenean stages, and waking this mythic mountain from its slumber. When race director Christian Prudhomme announced the return of Superbagnères to the Tour route at the event's presentation in Paris, the momentousness did not go unnoticed. Not only was it back, it was hosting one of the race's key stages, which, as Prudhomme underlined, will trace the route of that legendary day in 1986. Starting in Pau and covering 182.6km, the peloton has 4,950m of climbing to tackle - including the Tourmalet (2,115m), Aspin (1,489m) and Peyresourde (1,569m) passes - before finally taking on the long-lost jewel, Superbagnères.

Above and beyond