France Cayolle-Allos-Champs
Cayolle-Allos-Champs Bike Climb - PJAMM Cycling

31.5
PDI
73.9 mi
DISTANCE
11,565 ft
GAINED
0 %
AVG. GRADE
FULL CLIMB STATS
MORE

INTRO

Cycling Cayolle-Allos-Champs from Barcelonnette - one of the world's greatest cycling loops.

PLAN YOUR ROUTE

We've partnered with Sherpa-Map.com to bring you the best route planning tool. With a PRO Membership you can use this climb as a reference when creating your route.

See more details and tools regarding this climb's grade via our interactive Profile Tool.
Information Not Available

If you have any information regarding this climb, we'd like to hear from you. Click the CONTRIBUTE button to share your thoughts with us.

Information Not Available

If you have any information regarding this climb, we'd like to hear from you. Click the CONTRIBUTE button to share your thoughts with us.

Before heading out on any cycling adventure check out our Things to Bring on a Cycling Trip and use our interactive check list to ensure you don't forget anything.
Information Not Available

If you have any information regarding this climb, we'd like to hear from you. Click the CONTRIBUTE button to share your thoughts with us.

ROUTE MAP

MEMBER RATING

Difficulty: Strenuous
4
Road
5
Traffic
5
Scenery

CURRENT WEATHER

PJAMM TRIPS ADVENTURE STARTER BUNDLES

Check out PJAMM Adventure's prepackaged (self-guided) cycling trips. They will help you plan, document and conquer your next adventure.
ALL TRIPS
Browse all of our prepackaged trips and find your next adventure!

NEARBY CLIMBS (0) RADIAL PROXIMITY

FROM
No Climbs Found

MEMBER REVIEWS & COMMENTS

Let us know what you thought of this climb. Signup for our FREE membership to write a review or post a comment.
Already have an account?
LOG IN HERE
Mar 29, 2021
difficulty: Strenuous
scenery: 5
traffic: 5
road: 4
Mar 29, 2021
scenery: 5
traffic: 5
road: 4
A wonderful loop with 3 beautiful >2000m passes in a wild alpine area where 3 tumultuous river rise in (Ubaye, Var, Verdon)... what's not to like?! :) I did the loop in the other direction (counterclockwise) and I think it might be better for the col d'Allos and the col des Champs (going down on the ski station side has 2 advantages: the -rare- ungraceful facilities disappear quickly and the pavement is better for the descent). PS: a saddle breakdown(!) kept me from fully enjoying the last descent... I was lucky to avoid any serious injury but I'll have to come back one day, to settle the scores with the Cayolle!
ROUTE MAP
PROFILE TOOL
Route Data
S.G. (%)
hide
Segment Data
hide
CLIMB SUMMARY

Col d’Allos Climb Summary

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.  In July and August te Col d’Allos is open only to bicycles on Friday mornings from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. - talk about bike friendly!

Tour de France

        Cayolle:

“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:

Allos:

 

“Between 1911 and 1939, the Col d'Allos barely missed a year in the Tour de France (one of the most popular cols). François Faber was the first rider to cross the pass in 1911 and since then, it has been part of the route 33 times. It was last part of the 2000 Tour, (13th stage) when Pascal Hervé was the first to summit, in 2015 the mountain was again visited by Tour de France at Stage 17 this was won by Simon Geschke.”  Wikipedia - Col d’Allos (as of 2018)

Champs:

As of 2018, Col des Champs has been included once in the TdF, but that one time was enough for a lifetime.  It was on the last few hundred meters of Col des Champs that Eddy Merckx with a 58 second lead over overtook Bernard Thevenet only to collapse later in the stage and ultimately lose the tour to Thevenet.

“In the 1975 Tour, Thévenet attacked Eddy Merckx on the col d'Izoard on 14 July, France's national day. Merckx, who was suffering back pain from a punch by a spectator, fought back but lost the lead and never regained it. Pierre Chany wrote:

Those who were there will be slow to forget Bernard Thévenet's six successive attacks in the never-ending climb of the col des Champs, Eddy Merckx's immediate and superb response, the alarming chase by the Frenchman after a puncture delayed him on the descent of the col, the Belgian's attack on the way to the summit of the Allos, his breath-taking plunge towards the Pra-Loup valley, his sudden weakening four kilometres from the top and, to finish, Thévenet's furious push. The end of the race was frenetic. Has Eddy Merckx's long reign in the Tour de France come to an end on the Pra-Loup. Some think so; others believe that it will happen tomorrow.
A British writer, Graeme Fife, wrote:

Thévenet caught Merckx, by now almost delirious, 3km from the finish and rode by. The pictures show Merckx's face torn with anguish, eyes hollow, body slumped, arms locked shut on the bars, shoulders a clenched ridge of exertion and distress. Thévenet, mouth gaping to gulp more oxygen, looks pretty well at the limit, too, but his effort is gaining; he's out of the saddle, eyes fixed on the road. He said he could see that one side of the road had turned to liquid tar in the baking heat and Merckx was tyre-deep in it.


Beside the road, a woman in a bikini waved a sign that said: "Merckx is beaten. The Bastille has fallen." Thévenet - who had taken the climb on the larger chainring - went on to win the Tour, which that year finished on the Champs-Élysées for the first time. Merckx finished second, three minutes behind.”  Wikipedia - Col des Champs

Strava route for trois cols clockwise from Barcelonnette.