Col d'Aubisque

From Laruns: about 16.6 km at 7.2% to roughly 1,709 m; from the east, about 30 km over the Col du Soulor One of the passes that first took the Tour into the high mountains in 1910, and still one of the most dramatic. It was on the Aubisque that Wim van Est, in the yellow jersey in 1951, went off the edge of the road, which had no barriers yet, and was hauled back up with a rope of knotted tires. The Laruns side is the harder climb, with pitches up to 13%; the eastern approach is long but gentler, averaging about 4%, and treats the Soulor as part of the same ascent, so the scenery is the reward rather than the gradient.