All the cycling data and info you'll need to climb Montée Laurent Jalabert

Montée Laurent Jalabert Climb Summary

KM marker on Montée Laurent Jalabert Photo by Ludovic Péron 

Côte de la Croix Neuve also became known as Montée Laurent Jalabert after his magnificent victory on Stage 12 of the TdF on Bastille Day (July 14) 1995.  Because of this Frenchman’s heroic effort in the TdF on Bastille Day 1995, the Mayor of Mende changed the mountains name to Montée Laurent Jalabert in 2005.

Côte de la Croix Neuve is “Coast of the New Cross” in French. This is the road to Mount Mirmat which is above and overlooks the French City of Mende (pop. 17,296, 2015).

The Croix Neuve - Photo by Sanguinez

The climb is short at 3.3 kilometers but quite challenging with a 9.7% average grade (steepest ½ km is 15.3%).

Tour de France History

All four mountain top finishes involving this climb have ended at the Aerodrome of Mende-Brenoux.  We were perplexed about the finish we downloaded from Strava as it finished in the middle of an airstrip at an airport.  Of course further investigation revealed that this finish was unique to the Tour de France, not the everyday cyclists and Strava member.