#29: Col de Tende (Alpes-Maritimes)
The endless hairpins
How would you take a hairpin when you're on a bike? Would you play it safe and ride it wide, or take all the risks, minimize the distance and face the steepness of the climb? Hairpins mean a lot to the cycling world. They make the legend of climbs like l'Alpe d'Huez (man, it's incredible how this is returning often in this thread!) or the Passo dello Stelvio, where hairpins are a central part of the road. Turning around at one hundred and eighty degrees, and contemplate the way done. Five times. Ten times. Twenty times. Even more.
Let's go back in history again, even farther away than the col des Champs. In 1952, the col de Tende was crossed for the first time in a stage leading to Monaco, then less than ten years later, the same road was taken to finish in Antibes. But this climb was done twice on the italian side, which is easier than the french side. Also... The col de Tende was a mere 3rd category difficulty. Definitely not what this climb is worth. Since then, the col de Tende was never ridden by the Tour again – too far south, not paved on its south side – to go to Italy, the classic col de Montgenèvre was used over and over again. Ignoring harder possibilities like Lombarde or Agnel, which were both discovered in 2008. Which is in my opinion, way too late.
To come back to the col de Tende, some people might think it might not meet the requirements to be an HC-categorized climb. But I honestly think it otherwise, because it is exceptional in nearly every day, in terms of difficulty and scenery. And I'll show you in the next couple of paragraphs, that this is a unique climb that any cycling enthusiast should ride at least once in its life, because it's just a pure experience you will probably not find anywhere else. In the country, at least. So let's take a ride on this hidden gem that deserves much more attention.
Top: 1871 m
Length: 27.7 km
Ascent: 1424 m
Average gradent: 5.1 %
Climbbybike difficulty score: 130
This climb is quite long, and could be compared to the easiest side of the col du Galibier: so normally, it would be probably a 1st category climb. But the col de Tende as some tricks up its sleeve, especially in its final parts, and it's not only a matter of steep gradients. The climb can be divided into two parts: the first one is 16 kilometers long and goes above the village of Tende. It is basically a long false flat section, with some harder parts but nothing really tough. As a whole, it only averages 3.5 %. It's not really challenging, but it keeps going up. So that's a good training for what's coming next.
Getting past the country club of Vievola, this is where the real deal begins. The last 11.7 kilometers are averaging 7.4 %, and the road will become crazy and twisted in every sense. As the road was pretty much straight with a few turns regularly in the first part, you'll have to use your handlebar much, much, much more. A first tough ramp near 10 % is brought on the table as you get near to the 130-year-old tunnel. But instead of going in, we're going left and up to the paradise of cycling.
The final part will make you face a hairpin every 150 meters in average. Also, the five last kilometers are unpaved, and to celebrate that, you are welcomed with a kilometer averaging nearly 12 %! That will truly make you feel like a rider from the first half of the twentieth century, as you climb the col hairpin after hairpin. This is also the hardest part of the climb, and each hairpin will be farther away from each other. You'll finally reach the top and its magnificent old military fort - and you can also descend safely towards Italy, as the climb is fully paved on this side.
So this is where, in my opinion, we're crossing the Hors Catégorie line: because at this moment, everything will make you feel achieving an incredible feat. The altitude, the road, the hairpins, the difficulty, the scenery – for me, even if the numbers might be a bit low, these are the reasons why the col de Tende deserves the HC classification.
However, the major flaw of this climb is it can only be preceded by the col de Brouis (10.5 km @ 5 %), which culminates at 882 meters. For the people who seek a harder challenge, and of course for the Tour de France – if it ever happens to go to Italy from there, I invite them to do the Turini-Brouis-Tende trilogy which offers over 3000 meters of positive ascent. That would be a real tough alpine stage, even if we're not in the Zomegnan-approved territory. Like Parpaillon, paving this climb would probably remove some of the myth that makes the col de Tende particular. It could be our own Finestre!
Tomorrow, he're going high for a place the Tour didn't visit in 20 years:
The highest station in Europe