At the end of the summer term, one of our students, Harry Parks, ascended (and descended!) by bike one of hardest and most famous climbs in the French Pyrenees – the Col du Tourmalet. It is one of the highest paved mountain passes in the region and as such is often used as part of one of the Tour de France stages, including this year in stage 14 on 13th July, just 9 days after Harry rode to the summit in 27 degree sunshine!
The profile is steep and unrelenting, averaging 7.4% over the 18kms, with its steepest sections being near the top and measuring a brutal 10.9% and 9.8% respectively and lasting a kilometre in distance each.
Harry ascended a total of 1321m (4333ft) in the space of 18km (11miles), four times the average elevation in Devon! By the sounds of it, the descent was lots of fun and well worth the effort – well done Harry!
In the student’s own words:
“We drove for about 25minutes from our chalet in Cauterets to a car park in Luz-Saint-Sauveur and cycled from there. Luz-Saint-Sauveur is the west of the Col du Tourmalet, so this route is referred to as the ‘west side’. The ‘east side’ starts at Sainte-Marie de Campan. At Bareges, a village nearly half-way up the Col, we regrouped and had some coffee and pastries before refilling our water bottles and setting off for the summit.
Excluding stoppage time, it took me about 1hr 56min to get from Luz-Saint-Sauveur car park to the Col du Tourmalet summit and only 28min to get back down, which was incredibly good fun!
I had not been out on my bike as much as I would have liked before this holiday and my level of fitness was not great. Since the holiday, however, my fitness has been steadily improving and so has my confidence when descending. So, I’d love to give this beast of a climb another shot!”
