Tour de France 2014: Stage 13 - First Hors Catégorie Climb

Friday July 18th, 2014 - The 197.5 kilometres between Saint-Etienne and Chamrousse contain three categorized climbs. After the Col de la Croix de Mont Vieux and the Col de Palaquit, the mountain goats will enjoy the hors catégorie Montee de Chamrousse. (Slideshow route/profile)

After a short descent from Saint Etienne, the riders soon begin to climb the Col de la Croix de Mont Vieux, a category-3 hill of 4.1%. In 2008, the Tour riders came here in the 18th stage when they arrived via Saint-Paul-en-Jarez.

A lot of up and down follows but nothing categorised until later in the stage.

Col de Palaquit
The col is a Tour rookie at 1.154 metres. The climb is 14.1 kilometres long, good enough for category-1. The average increase of 6.1% actually doesn’t say anything lot since the climb consists of three sections. The first 3 kilometres are 7.6%, with the last 8 at 7.3%. The middle section provides a bit of a breather for riders.

Chamrousse
The first official hors catégorie climb of the Tour de France 2014. 7.3% with the only respite coming at the very top.

In 2001,a time-trial finished here. Lance Armstrong took the stage that day although all his results have since been removed of course.