#10: Col de la Couillole (Alpes-Maritimes)
The Mercantour lost treasure
That's been nearly four decades that the Tour never climbed some tough passes in the Southern Alps. Of course, there's the Cime de la Bonette, which is the highest road ever took by the Tour de France, topping at a whopping 2802 meters high. There's also the Col de la Lombarde, just above the ski resort of Isola 2000, which is a really hard climb and has been only discovered in 2008 by the Tour (and conviently rated HC). But it seems that beyond, there's nothing else. Since 1975.
Just look at all the routes since 38 years: they nearly all seem to avoid the extreme south-east of France, and the Mercantour. A kind of a paradox for a chain of mountains that has "Tour" in its name. And everytime the Tour visits, it just goes alongside the Côte d'Azur. Like in 1981, 2009, and this very year in 2013 where they'll just go from Nice to Marseille in two stages. Of course, you can argue: "But there's still the Paris-Nice!" But this one takes place in march, when many of the Mercantour passes are still under meters of snow. And once again, they usually go through the Côte d'Azur without daring to go really high above Nice.
So why the Mercantour is being completely ignored? The roads are in good condition, the backdrop is in some places spectacular, and I'm pretty sure some stations and small towns are willing to host the Tour. I think it's one of the biggest mysteries of the Grande Boucle: for ASO, it seems like between Nice and the Cime de la Bonette is just a vast plain, without any great mountains, any great passes to take. Like north-west of France! So here's the start of a trilogy of climbs that could be rated HC by today's standards, and are all located in this "flat zone for ASO". Let's go deep in it with the first climb: the Col de la Couillole, topping at 1678 meters.
In 1975, the col de la Couillole was featured in the grueling 15th stage between Nice and Pra-Loup (217.5 km), and was just a mere 2nd category difficulty, despite being climbed by its hardest side, from Saint-Sauveur-sur-Tinée. Being placed too far from the finish line, nothing really happened in the ascension, the favorites like Thévenet and Merckx preferring to keep their forces for the end of this long stage. This was the only time the Couillole was featured in the Tour. Leading to the Valberg plateau, its climb however should be definitely come back again.
Top: 1678 m
Length: 15.7 km
Ascent: 1174 m
Average gradient: 7.5 %
Climbbybike Difficulty score: 125
This climb is just an example of regularity. With nearly no section coming below 6 %, and with several kilometers above 8 % with peaks at 11 %, this climb just goes up and up until the top is reached. And don't count on a quick descent after the summit, because you end up on a plateau: you'll definitely need to ride 15 more kilometers before you reach the other end and finally descend on the Cians valley. Relentless and persistent, it might not be as steep as some climbs presented here, but we need to remember that in summer, the temperature can go higher than 30°C as we are in the hottest regions of France. And this could be a factor of fatigue.
Another mystery is the name of the pass. In french, "couille" is a slang for "testicle" (be happy I didn't put some male genitalia for the hint - and anyway I would have ended up banned from here). So why, when they opened it in 1965, they gave him that kind of name? But if we can laugh at the name, the riders who dare to assault this pass can prepare to suffer, and they'll need to get some "couilles" to keep up until the summit.
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