Mont Ventoux
Solitary Sentinel of the Windswept Lands
This is a climb that every lover of the Grand Boucle and French roads must have in their portfolio, while the unique, windswept lunar landscape is one of the most rewarding sights a cycling ascent can offer. And there is plenty to be rewarded for, as almost every single one of the 21 kilometres of the route to the summit of Mont…
Passo dello Stelvio
The Greatest of All the Icons
This is the most mythical place on the map of the Italian Grand Tour, where the overwhelming power of nature and the perfect design of the road have become one, defying the laws of physics. Its hairpin bends built on stone foundations above the picturesque Trafoi, after almost 200 years, still amaze and take your breath away. It is…
Mur de Huy
The Longest Kilometre
“The Tour of Flanders has the Muur, Amstel Gold has the Cauberg and Liège-Bastogne-Liège has La Redoute… but the Mur de Huy is by far the hardest of the lot.” – Claude Criquielion, winner of the first Fleche to finish atop the Mur.
Not as legendary as the Liege-Bastogne-Liege, nor as unpredictable as the Amstel Gold Race, the second act of the…
El Portalet
Fires Old and New
Location
El Portalet (also: Col du Pourtalet, Portalet d’Aneu, 1794 m) is a mountain pass in the main ridge of the Pyrenees, marking the border between Spain (province of Huesca) and France (department of Pyrenees-Atlantiques). The road that crosses the pass links the towns of Sallent de Gallego, in the Tena valley, and Laruns, in the Ossau valley.
The…
