Читать книгу Tour Climbs: The complete guide to every mountain stage on the Tour de France - Chris Sidwells - Страница 43

Length: 9.7 km

Altitude: 1431 metres

Height gain: 771 metres

Average gradient: 7.3%

Maximum gradient: 10.7%

A real Pyrenean toughie, the Col de la Chioula has been climbed four times since the Italian, Luciano Pezzi was the first Tour rider to scale it in 1955. It has also been climbed from both directions, but I’ve chosen the side from Ax-les-Thermes because it is especially tough, and it’s easier to link it with other climbs in the same area from that side.

The first 3.5 kilometres are up a series of lacets, but already the character of the climb will have made itself felt as an easy first kilometre changes to a gradient that switches between seven and nine percent every few hundred metres. If you are climbing the Port de Pailhères from Ax-les-Thermes this section of road is the same for both climbs.

The two routes part at Ascou, where a really tight left-hand hairpin sets you on your way to the top of the Chioula. The hairpin is the prelude to some stiff climbing, with a long section of concerted effort required to get you over the six kilometre crux of this climb ending in a stretch of nearly 11 percent.

From the top you can descend then climb the Col des Sept Frères and the Col de Pradel and return to Ax-Les-Thermes. Or you can continue after the Sept Frères towards Mazuby, Aunat and the D118. Turn right on the D118 to Usson les Bains and climb the Port de Pailhères before descending to Ax-les-Thermes.

WHICH WAY? Ax-les-Thermes is 36 kilometres southeast of Foix. Take the D613 north out of Ax-les-Thermes and turn left at Ascou to follow the D613 to the top of the Chioula. For the Sept Frères-Pradel circuit turn right at the top of the Sept Frères onto the D20 and right again onto the D107.