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.
Fans packed the narrow roads built into the barren rock formations.
The Col de la Bonette, the actual mountain pass, is situated just over 2,700 meters above sea level, but in the early 1960s the final loop known as the Cime de la Bonette was added, to assure the climb’s status as the highest road in Europe.
A plaque at the summit of the Cime explains the history of the climb, which was originally built to link Nice to Briançon under the reign of Napoleon III
While the entire climb is stunning, I knew I wanted to be at the very top when the riders crested the roof of this year’s Tour. There was a sudden calm, as the Tour race radio requested that the Tour vehicles refrain from any honking and spectators were not permitted to climb the last 100 meters to the Cime.
I waited as Richard Carapaz crested the summit first and led the breakaway down the isolated slopes overlooking the Mercantour National Park. Minutes later, Tadej Pogačar and his UAE Team Emirates squad followed.
Richard Carapaz leads the breakaway over the summit, a ride that would give him the polka-dot jersey awarded to the best climber by the end of the stage.
Needless to say, the view was stunning, and I enjoyed it as I waited for a few other riders, but soon enough we had to make our way down as well.
Tadej Pogacar leads the pack down la Bonette as the Mercantour National Park stretches out below.
“If we wait too long, we will never catch the leaders before the foot of the Isola 2000 climb,” Bruno Bouvier, my driver cautioned. I have ridden with Bruno for the better part of a decade now. During his day job, he is a motorcycle customs officer in the Alps, and he constantly monitors France’s borders with Switzerland and Italy.
I would trust no one more to chase the leaders down this narrow and sinuous descent as much as Bruno. And sure enough, just two kilometres before we reached the foot of the final climb to Isola 2000, we caught and passed what remained of the peloton.
Pogačar and his UAE teammates ready themselves for the final climb to Isola 2000
Positioning ourselves just in front of the peloton, we took our turn dropping back. All of the in-race photographers were waiting for the same thing—another blistering attack by Tadej Pogačar.
And he did not disappoint.
Powering away once again from his main rivals, he then proceeded to race through what remained of the breakaway before storming to his fourth stage win, the cherry on the top of what has already been a historic performance.
Alone at the front, American Matteo Jorgenson understands that Pogačar is quickly closing the gap behind
And yet somehow, the highlight of today’s stage came much earlier, on the Cime de la Bonette.
