The Col de la Croix Fry () is a

mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since many of the world's mountain ranges have presented formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both Human migration, human a ...

located in the Chaîne des Aravis, between

Manigod Manigod (; frp, Manegôd) is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Eastern France. In 2018, it had a population of 998. Geography The linked area of Manigod consists of several different ski areas: La ...

and La Clusaz in the Haute-Savoie

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

of France. The road over the col is used occasionally by the

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...

cycle race with the tour crossing the pass on Stage 19 of the 2013 Tour. At the summit is the village of La Croix Fry.

Details of the climb

From the west, the climb starts at

Thônes Thônes () is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France, and is the ″capital″ of local cheeses Reblochon and Chevrotin. Geography The Fier flows northwestward through the middle of th ...

, from where the summit is . Over this distance, the road climbs at an average gradient of 6.6%. En route, the climb passes through the village of

. This is the climb used on the 2013 Tour de France, although the race turns onto the climb shortly before reaching Thônes, thus shortening the climb to at 7%; the climb is ranked category 1. The climb from the east starts at

Saint-Jean-de-Sixt Saint-Jean-de-Sixt ( frp, Sent-Jian-de-Sixt) is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in southeastern France. It lies in the Aravis Range of the French Alps. The inhabitants are the ''Saintjeandais'' or ' ...

, passing through La Clusaz. The total distance is , with a climb of at an average of 4.9%.

Tour de France

The Col de la Croix Fry was first used in the

cycle race in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

when the leader over the summit was

Piotr Ugrumov Piotr Ugrumov ( Latvian: ''Pēteris Ugrjumovs'' or ''Pjotrs Ugrjumovs'', Russian: Пётр Угрюмов) (born 21 January 1961) is a former Russian professional road racing cyclist who participated for Latvia after the dissolution of the Soviet U ...

. Since then, the pass has been crossed four more times, including on Stage 10 of the 2018 Tour.

Appearances in Tour de France

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Croix Fry Mountain passes of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Landforms of Haute-Savoie