Col du Glandon - stage 18, stage 19
Col du Glandon - stage 18, stage 19
The Col du Glandon was first in the Tour in 1947, when it appeared in conjunction with its close neighbour the Col de la Croix de Fer. Since then it’s been on the route 12 more times as a categorised climb – most frequently en-route to Alpe d’Huez.
Depending on which side you climb the Glandon from, just before or after the summit is a junction road linking it to the Croix de Fer, meaning you can take in both climbs in one go, an option that has been used on the Tour route in the past. The Col Collective have done a great video on the Glandon, check it out below.
Despite being frequently ridden, the Glandon has never hosted a stage finish of the Tour, due to the fact that it’s a remote peak but also relatively close to Alpe d’Huez, and it’s most often used as either a precursor to the Alpe, or as an early climb in a stage beginning in Bourg d’Oisans, the valley town at the bottom of the 21 hairpins.
You can approach the climb from either La Chambre or the Allemont with both ascents over 20km long and featuring average gradients of between 5-7 percent. As it happens, the Glandon will feature on both stage 18 and 19 of this year’s race, on the former stage climbing from Allemont as a hors categorie ascent in its own right en-route to Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, and the latter as part of the climb to the summit of the Col de la Croix de Fer on the way to a summit finish in La Toussuire. Speaking of which…