Col de la Cayolle Climb Summary
Photo - Wikimedia.org
Daniel Friebe writes of Cayolle-Allos-Champs in the second of his fabulous cycling duology, Mountain Higher:
“There are not many places in Europe where the cyclist with a head for heights can spend an entire day on a bike, cover barely a metre of flat terrain and conquer three or more giant passes en route to exactly where they started.” p. 186.
Ride clockwise from Barcelonnette first over Col Cayolle, then Allos and finally Champs before connecting the dots back again in Barcelonnette - PJAMM’s Cayolle-Allos-Champs page.
Col d’Allos from Barcelonnette (pop. 2,735, 2008) is the traditional start of the great Trois Col loop. Barcelonnette dates back to medieval times and is the largest town in the Ubaye Valley. Of the Trois Cols, Col de la Cayolle is by far the longest - 26.8 km from Barcelonnette and 31.8 km from Guillaumes (pop. 689, 2012).
Tour de France:
“The Cayolle Pass has been crossed three times by the Tour de France and has been ranked twice in the 2nd category and once in the 1st category. Here are the runners who crossed the first pass: