Climbing Col de Tramassel - France by bike

Climb Summary

Cycling Hautacam, ski resort and col de Tramassel sign

Hautacam - one of the great ski resort TdF summit finishes of the Pyrenees . .

. . . with Superbagneres, Luz d’Ardiden and Pla d’Adet

The name of this well known bicycle climb derives from the ski resort at its summit. This climb is within the World Climbing area of Argeles Gazost-Luz Saint Sauveur in the western Pyrenees between Col d’Aubisque and Col du Tourmalet.

Bike climb Hautacam, kilometer marker

Road markers each kilometer

Continue past the TdF finish 1.5 km to Col du Tramassel - Strava Segment.

John Johnson with bike on Hautacam - Tour de France sign

We were blessed to have preceded the 2014 Tour by 2 weeks.

Hautacam has been featured in the Tour 5 times since 1994, most recently in 2014. Since Hautacam has no outlet, the stage always finishes at the top of the mountain, near the parking lot at the ski resort. While one of the more difficult climbs of the Tour, Hautacam is not one of the most scenic.

This mountain first appeared in stage 11 of the 1994 Tour. Luc Leblanc was the first Tour racer win a Hautacam stage.

I suppose we could call Hautacam “EPO Hill” since its first 4 winners were all found to have doped during the time in their career when they dominated Hautacam - Luc Leblanc 1994 (Festina - enough said; admitted to doping after retirement), 1996 stage 16 and Tour champion - Bjarne Riis (too dominant at age 32 after a mediocre career - later admitted to cheating), 2000 stage 10 - Lance Armstrong (enough said), and 2008 stage 10 - Leonardo Piepoli (expelled later in the tour for a positive drug test).

Not so fast Leonardo . . .

Leonardo Piepoli won stage 10 but he and his entire team stepped out of the race after stage 11

Piepoli was stripped of the stage win after 2 positive tests for CERA (an EPO).

The only pure stage winner is the great Vincenzo Nibali of Italy, winner stage 18 2014 (winner TdF 2014, Giro 2013, 2016, Vuelta 2010, Milan-San Remo 2018, Giro di Lombardia 2015, 2017).

Stage 18 - final mountain stage - Nibali wins by 01’12” over Thibaut Pinot

TdF 2014 Champion - 07’37” over Jean-Christophe Péraud

Photo: Zimbio.com

Year	Stage	Start of stage	Distance (km)	Category of climb	Stage winner	Yellow jersey
2014	18	Pau	145.5	HC	Vincenzo Nibali (ITA)	Vincenzo Nibali (ITA)
2008	10	Pau	156	HC	Juan José Cobo (ESP)	Cadel Evans (AUS)
2000	10	Dax	205	HC	Javier Otxoa (ESP)	Lance Armstrong (USA)
1996	16	Agen	199	HC	Bjarne Riis (DEN)	Bjarne Riis (DEN)
1994	11	Cahors	263.5	HC	Luc Leblanc (FRA)	Miguel Indurain (ESP)