I’ve only gone up the Cime de la Bonette a handful of times, and yet it is by far one of my favorite climbs. And while it has only been included in the Tour de France on five occasions it is always memorable. Situated at 2,802 meters it is not only the highest road of the Tour but the highest road in Europe, and it never disappoints.
I’ll never forget the first time I had the chance to see it back in the 1993 Tour de France. I was embedded in the Team GAN car as we left Serre-Chevalier. It was a stage not unlike stage 19 of this year, as both finished in Isola 2000. The pack splintered as made our way up the 25km climb. Mid-way up the climb we spotted two-time Tour de France winner Laurent Fignon struggling off the back. Team GAN’s Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle—a two-time Paris-Roubaix winner—was also struggling, and the two rode together briefly before Fignon faded. Shortly after, Tour radio announced he had abandoned.
Understanding the time cut was not generous, we followed Duclos-Lassalle for much of the day, but while he finished, he was outside the cutoff and was out of the race as well. For both riders, it would be their last day in the Tour.
On another day, I managed to ride it myself while doing a recon ride before the 2008 Tour. Rain greeted me early into the climb, which quickly turned to snow. By the time I got to the summit, a six-foot wall of snow blocked the road that loops even higher. I threw my bike into the wall of snow and regrouped, both frustrated and relieved that I could go no further.
Frank Schleck leads brother Andy Schleck up the Col de la Bonette during the 2008 Tour de France.
The sun was shining when the Tour actually made its way up just a few weeks later, but it was still a beast of a climb.
“Tell me about it,” former professional Christian Vande Velde, said when I ran into him at the start in Umbrun. “I was in third place until the Col de la Bonette!”
Both Vandevelde and I were fortunate enough to be on one of the in-race motorcycles for today’s stage, he as a television commentator and myself as photographer, but we were both excited to have a front-row seat.
The stage started with the Col de Vars, but the Bonette was what was on everyone’s minds. It’s a unique climb, which quickly climbs out of the tree-line before the road laces its way through kilometres of jagged rock formations. Crowds lined the roads and climbed the rocks to get a glimpse of this year’s Tour de France riders.
