Читать книгу Tour Climbs: The complete guide to every mountain stage on the Tour de France - Chris Sidwells - Страница 41

Length: 23 km

Altitude: 2027 metres

Height gain: 1122 metres

Average gradient: 4.8%

Maximum gradient: 8%

This climb is wholly in Spain, which might prove a problem if you want to be a purist and climb it in the direction the Tour has always climbed it because you’ll have to climb it then descend, then turn around and ride back up again.

It’s been used twice in the Tour de France. Once in 1974 when a Spaniard, Domigo Perurena, was first to the top, and again in 1993 when Tony Rominger of Switzerland was the best. On both occasions the riders climbed from the village of Esterri d’Àneu.

You could choose Andorra as a base for doing the climb from this side, but it’s well over a 100 kilometre trek to the start. Or you could climb from the Spanish town of Vielha, which is only 16 kilometres from Bossost, where the Col de Portillon starts.

From Vielha the climb of the Port de Bonaigua is 23 kilometres long, gains 1102 metres in height, has an average gradient of 4.8 percent and some stretches of eight percent. So the climbs are very similar in terms of length and severity.

The Port de Bonaigua is well up in the contenders for the wittiest bit of graffiti painted on the road by a bike fan. Usually these are messages to the painter’s cycling hero, exhorting him to greater efforts or counselling against getting discouraged, but this one, picked out clearly by the TV helicopter in 1993, read, “Hello mum, what do you mean I never write?”

WHICH WAY? From Andorra take the NA145 south to Seo de Urgel, then the N260 southwest. Turn first right on the N260 to Sort, then right again on the C13 to Esterri d’Àneu. The road to the top of the climb is the C1412 From Bossost go southeast on the N230 to Vielha and turn left on the C26 for the top of the Bonaigua.