Читать книгу Tour Climbs: The complete guide to every mountain stage on the Tour de France - Chris Sidwells - Страница 36

2 STARS

Length: 17 km

Altitude: 1250 metres

Height gain: 777 metres

Average gradient: 4.6%

Maximum gradient: 9%

WHAT TO EXPECT

A good introduction. The Col de Port makes a great introduction to the Pyrenees for an inexperienced climber. It has a good dollop of Pyrenean character without any horrendously steep sections that other famous climbs in the range have.

Don’t be put off. The northern approach to Tarascon does not show the town to its advantage. All you can see is a tangle of cement works, railway sidings and the local sewage plant. That the graffiti on the town sign reads, “Welcome to the perfumed air of Tarascon,” says it all really. Don’t be put off, the town is quite nice really and the Eastern Pyrenees are beautiful. Trust me.

Round trips. Try climbing the Port, descend to Massat, turn right on the D15 to climb the Port de Lers and descend to Tarascon for a round trip of 74 kilometres.

Not particularly long or steep, the Col de Port is a major climb because of its long history in the Tour de France. First included in the 1910 event, the Col de Port has been climbed nine times by the Tour since 1947 alone.

But the Col de Port has a connection with history that goes much further back. The caves in this part of the Ariège valley are some of the oldest inhabited places in the world, and there is a very interesting prehistoric park at the foot of the climb that tries to depict what life was like here in those far-off days.

The climb links the towns of Tarascon-sur-Ariège and Massat over the Arize massif, and it has been climbed from both sides by the Tour. I’ve picked the Tarascon side because that is the way the race went when it was the first climb on the stage in 2007 from Foix to Loudenvielle. This was also the stage picked for the Etape du Tour that year, so a lot of cyclo-sportive riders will be familiar with the Col de Port.

The Col de Port’s name is very strange, because port in French means the same as port in English, a harbour, and there are no harbours in the Pyrenees. In fact the name is tautological as port means pass in the Catalan-influenced Occitan dialect that used to be spoken in this part of France. So as col means pass in French, the Col de Port translates into English as the Pass Pass.

The climb starts shortly after the roundabout where the D618 leaves the N20, just on the northwest edge of Tarascon-sur-Ariège. The start is quite easy as the first half of the climb meanders up the Saurat valley, gaining and loosing a little height as it goes, but never getting very steep.

Its character changes at the first bend after quite a long straight run. For the next four kilometres the road rises at an average of eight percent, but in keeping with the Col de Port’s Pyrenean character constantly oscillates between seven and nine. The gradient eases towards the top, but the descent to Massat is equally unpredictable and irregular.

WHICH WAY?

Tarascon-sur-Ariège is ten kilometres south of Foix, which is 80 kilometres south of Toulouse on the A61, A66 and E9, and is considered one of the gateways to the Eastern Pyrenees. Leave Tarascon by going north to the N20–D618 junction and take the D816 over the Col de Port.

The first Tour de France rider to climb the Col de Port was Octave Lapize in 1910. Lapize won the Tour that year.

Rik Van Looy from Belgium was the best single-day racer of his generation. He is the only rider in history to have won every one of the races that cycling calls the Classics, but he wanted to win the Tour de France as well. In the mid-1960s he thought he could do it, even though he was just too heavily built for success in the really high mountains. He tried though, and was first over the Col de Port in 1965.

Juan-Manuel Gárate was first to the top of the Col de Port in 2007.

Near the top, looking east

The Pic des Trois Seigneurs

This small peak marks the start of the climb

Scenery around the summit