France · Pyrenees
Luz Ardiden
The Pyrenean ski station where Armstrong famously caught his handlebar on a spectator's musette. A fierce Tour de France summit finish.
- Length
- 14.7 km
- Avg gradient
- 7.4%
- Max gradient
- 12%
- Elevation gain
- 1,082 m
- Summit
- 1,715 m
- Hairpins
- 14
Versants
- From Luz-Saint-Sauveur — 14.7 km at 7.4% (max 12%)
History
Luz Ardiden is famous not for the climb itself but for an incident: during the 2000 Tour de France, Lance Armstrong's handlebar caught a spectator's musette bag on a steep section, and he crashed but remounted to finish the stage. It became one of the defining images of his career, and the mountain has carried that moment ever since.
From Luz-Saint-Sauveur the climb is 14.7 km at 7.4% average to the 1,715 m ski station summit. The final section is steep and exposed, winding through open mountainside with little vegetation and long exposure to alpine wind.
The summit finish has hosted Tour stages multiple times, and it's become a standard Pyrenean test. The combination of altitude, steep final ramps, and the dramatic setting above the Luz valley make it one of the memorable Tour climbs.