Make or break in the first Pyrenean stage to the often decisive Hautacam

We've had to wait for it, but just after the halfway point of this Tour de France, we get a REALLY tough stage in the high mountains. For this, we travel to the Pyrenees. On Hautacam, we'll get a first showdown between Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard, and Remco Evenepoel. During the last arrival on this Pyrenean col, the first two played a leading role. Thanks to escapee Wout van Aert, Vingegaard - in the yellow jersey - could definitively distance himself from Pogačar. Although Jumbo-Visma with all its personnel refused to cheer, it was clear to the outside world that the Dane secured the first Tour victory for the Dutch team.

The riders already know it's going to hurt when they look at the name of the starting place: Auch! From there follows a stage that at first glance seems easy. In the first 105 kilometers, there are barely any noteworthy features. In the beginning phase, it can go two ways: either the peloton is fine with it and a breakaway group quickly rides away with relatively small names in it who - with all due respect - don't stand a chance at the stage victory. OR it takes a very long time before the escape gets away, because people think they have a chance. But that will have to be revealed in the stage.

The stage is a total of 181 kilometers long and has almost 4000 meters of elevation gain. But these are virtually all in the last sixty kilometers. After 105 kilometers, the roads already start to rise considerably, but according to the road book, the foot of the Col du Solour (11.8 kilometers at 7.7%) is after 121.5 kilometers. Who says Solour, usually also says Col d'Aubisque. But the organization leaves that famous climb to the right this time. They descend the other side of the Solour and then set course for the Col des Bordères (3.1 kilometers at 7.6%), which follows quickly.

The most iconic and heaviest climb of all then begins after a descent of just over 25 kilometers: Hautacam, where Tour history has been written multiple times in the past. Most of us will still remember Bjarne Riis's show of force in 1996, but the 2001 edition was also decisive for the classification. Then Lance Armstrong rode eternal rival Jan Ullrich into destruction on Hautacam. And the penultimate time it was in the Tour, Vincenzo Nibali won. The battle for yellow was no longer exciting then.

The Hautacam (13.6 kilometers at 7.8%) is a real Pyrenean climb with many irregular gradient percentages and steep outliers. Where the first kilometers still begin fairly tamely with percentages of around 6%, the riders really get it tough halfway through, as it remains above 10% for kilometers on end. So we'll definitely get fireworks between the classification riders.

17 Jul 2025	Tour de France - Stage 12
10 Jun 2023	CIC-Tour Féminin International des Pyrénées - Stage 2
21 Jul 2022	Tour de France - Stage 18
24 Jul 2014	Tour de France - Stage 18
14 Jul 2008	Tour de France - Stage 10
10 Jul 2000	Tour de France - Stage 10
16 Jul 1996	Tour de France - Stage 16
13 Jul 1994	Tour de France - Stage 11

Hautacam(Hautes-Pyrénées)