Hautacam

An extremely tough climb and another Tour de France favourite, their last visit to the Hautacam was for stage 18 in 2022. The beauty of the Hautacam is that it has to be a summit finish because there is only one road up or down, often leading to a thrilling stage and this one was no exception. Apparently. Obviously I don't know exactly what was going on because I was there. It's great fun watching a summit finish live but when you're out in the sticks, halfway up a mountain, surrounded by tens of thousands of fellow spectators and in an area not particularly well served by mobile signal, it's hard to get any information on the race. Apparently Vingegard won, Pog was second. Here's my photo of 3rd and 4th place finishers, Wout van Aert and Geraint Thomas.

Geraint Thomas and Wout van Aert battling it out on the Hautacam.

Hautacam

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• 1610m altitude

• 26km from the Pyrenees Cycling Centre to the start of the climb.

• 14 km ascent.

• Average gradient 8.1%

• Maximum gradient 11%

• Height climbed 1140m.