Читать книгу Tour Climbs: The complete guide to every mountain stage on the Tour de France - Chris Sidwells - Страница 40

Length: 17.6 km

Altitude: 1570 metres

Height gain: 921 metres

Average gradient: 5.2%

Maximum gradient: 8.2%

Part of a complex group of climbs that join each other at various stages along their length, the Col d’Agnes links the Arac and Garbet river valleys with each other and, by means of the Port de Lers, the two valleys with the town of Vicdessos.

The Tour first climbed the Agnes in 1988 when Robert Millar was first to the top, no doubt trying to repeat his 1984 stage victory at Guzet-Neige because the 1988 stage finished there too.

The climb starts in the town of Massat and runs more or less straight up the course of a stream for its first few kilometres. The gradient is anything but straightforward. For the whole climb there is hardly 500 metres where it is the same, although there is nothing really vicious about the Col d’Agnes. That is if you don’t count the short trick it plays on you by having a descent at 13 kilometres, whose lost metres you then have to make up.

The rest of the climb twists and turns to trace the contours of the easiest way up through the lush woodlands that cover most of the mountains in this part of the Pyrenees. The road from the Port de Lers that climbs from Vicdessos joins this route about four kilometres before the top of the climb.

The descents to Aulus-les-Bains is exciting as it’s just as serpentine as the latter part of the road you’ve climbed. For a really pretty circuit, turn right in Aulus and head down the D32 until Ercé, where a right turn will take you over the Col du Saraillé, which hasn’t been in the Tour de France yet, and back to Massat.

WHICH WAY? Massat is 25 kilometres southeast of St Girons on the D618. Turn right into the town centre and follow the D18 and D8 to the top of the climb. The right turn for the Col du Saraillé in Ecré is the D132, you then turn right again onto the D17 to cross that climb.