Tour de France 2022 – Course – 11th stage: The Col du Granon, this giant forgotten for too long

Like every year, the Tour de France will discover a new mountain pass. After the Grand Colombier in 2016, the Mont du Chat in 2017, the Col du Portet in 2018, the Prats d’Albis in 2019 and the Col de la Loze in 2020, the Grande Boucle will this time meet the difficult col de Spandelles, in the Pyrenees, during the 11th stage.

An ascent well known to cyclo-tourists and fans of French passes, who had been hoping for its appearance on the Tour for a long time. However, despite its status as the penultimate pass of the 2022 edition and its 10.2km at 8.4% average, everyone only has eyes for the Col du Granon.

“Le Granon is 9.2% on average with passages at 10%!”

No longer appeared on the routes of the Grande Boucle since 1986, for what still constitutes its only moment on the Tour to this day, the Granon remains nonetheless a mythical pass in the popular mind. It remains in the eyes of all as the ascent where Bernand Hinault said goodbye to the yellow jersey after his 78th and last day with the leader’s tunic on his shoulders, during the 18th stage.

“These are images that marked the history of the Tour, explains Tour director Christian Prudhomme. We wanted to find an emblematic and very tough finish, it is the Col du Granon “. A jersey stolen by his then teammate Greg Lemond, future winner and with whom he will arrive the next day hand in hand at the top of Alpe d’Huez, at the end of a stage that the riders of the 2020 peloton will repeat by the meter close, they too the day after this first arrival at the alpine summit.

But the Granon is above all a very high altitude climb, very hard. “Its 2,413m was for 25 years the highest finish in the history of the Tour, recalls Prudhomme. No claimant for the yellow jersey will be able to miss this meeting “. Because the slightest failure will pay dearly. With its 11.3 km at 9.2%, the Col du Granon is quite simply the ascent of the 2022 edition which has the most percentages over such a distance.

But the most frightening, and the most astonishing too, is its maximum percentage: 11%. This is to say the regularity in the difficulty of this giant of the Alps. “It is very beautiful, it is a nice steady climb, but regularly hard, explains Laurent Jalabert for francetvinfo.fr. There isn’t even a bend where the slope eases a bit. It is 9.2% on average with passages at 10%“. And, as if that weren’t enough, the wind could make it harder for the runners a bit … if it were to be part of it.

“A pass where the legend of the race can be written”

“When you come out 4-5 kilometers from the summit, you are totally uncovered, there is no more vegetation., continues “Jaja”. Often, it blows up there, so it can play on the final part. It can help to widen gaps for the strong ones, and to lose even more time for those in difficulty.“Hell, even for those who manage to tame it.”The Col du Granon is a memory as terrible as it is happy, remembers Greg Lemond for LeDauphiné. It was so hard, but I can’t wait for him to return to the Tour program“.

And the American, triple winner of the Grande Boucle (1986, 1989 and 1990) is not the only one to expect a lot from this pass still little known by the modern peloton but which is already a dream. “THE‘Granon or Hautacam stage are the ones that will make me dream the most, admits the French climber of Groupama-FDJ, David Gaudu. The Col du Granon can be one of the key arrivals, very tough and it can correspond to me. It looks like a very hard pass, even though I’ve never climbed it. If I have to win one, I hope it will be this one “. But he will not be the only one to want to engrave his name on this prestigious stage, intended to mark this 2022 edition. “It is a pass where the legend of the race can be written“, believes Greg Lemond in LeDauphiné. She already began to write there 36 years ago and there is no reason that it stops.