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.

This climb is deeply embedded in the history of the Tour. When the organisers first discovered it, scouting for the 1910 race, they told the local man responsible for the roads of their plan, and he replied that they were crazy. When they offered to pay him 5,000 francs to clear the pass, he chan...