Col du Tourmalet

This is the highest paved mountain pass in the Pyrenees ( 2,115 meters - usually the highest pass of the race).

It is best know for the story of Eugene Christophe, who, in 1913, led the race over the mountain , but on the fast descent, his forks broke and he was forced to stop. He walked 10km down a path to the village of Ste-Marie-de-Campan, where he met a young girl who showed him to a blacksmith’s forge. The blacksmith offered to weld his forks but race officials forbade it, threatening Christophe with disqualification. So Christophe had a crash course in welding under the supervision of the blacksmith and three hours later emerged with a working bike. Later he was penalized ten minutes because he’d let a boy of seven pump the bellows for him.