The Col de la Loze is a mountain pass in the

French Alps The French Alps are the portions of the Alps mountain range that stand within France, located in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regions. While some of the ranges of the French Alps are entirely in France, others, such as ...

, with an elevation of . A path up the mountain was opened in May 2019, and is the seventh-highest

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 ...

in France. The ascent featured in the

2020 Tour de France The 2020 Tour de France was the 107th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's three Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours. Originally scheduled to start on 27 June 2020, it was postponed until 29 August 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in F ...

, as well as in the 2019 Tour de l'Avenir.

Geography

Col de la Loze is in

Les Trois Vallées Les Trois Vallées (; ''The Three Valleys'') is a ski region in the Tarentaise Valley in the Savoie department of Southeastern France, to the south of the town of Moûtiers, partly in Vanoise National Park. Since 1971, it has been possible to ...

, at an elevation of . From Col de la Loze, one can ski to the nearby

La Tania La Tania is a ski resort in the Courchevel area of Les Trois Vallees at 1400m above sea level. It was developed for the Albertville Olympics of 1992 and is approximately a 25 minutes drive from Moûtiers. Overview The ski resort is near num ...

, and

Le Praz Le Praz is a village located on a plateau at the foot of the forest in Courchevel, Savoie, France, at the foot of Dent du Villard and Grand Bec. It features the ski jumping hill Tremplin du Praz, built for the 1992 Winter Olympics and used annu ...

. By

chairlift An elevated passenger ropeway, or chairlift, is a type of aerial lift, which consists of a continuously circulating steel wire rope loop strung between two end terminals and usually over intermediate towers, carrying a series of chairs. They ...

, one can get from Col de la Loze to

Courchevel Courchevel () is a French Alps ski resort. It is a part of Les Trois Vallées, the largest linked ski areas in the world. Courchevel also refers to the towns of Courchevel 1300 (Le Praz), Courchevel 1550, Courchevel 1650 (Moriond), and Courc ...

and

Méribel Méribel () is a ski resort in the Tarentaise Valley in the French Alps. Méribel refers to three neighbouring villages in the Les Allues commune of the Savoie department of France, near the town of Moûtiers (), called Méribel Centre, Méribel ...

, and by

button lift A surface lift is a type of cable transport for snow sports in which skiers and snowboarders remain on the ground as they are pulled uphill. While they were once prevalent, they have been overtaken in popularity by higher-capacity and higher- ...

, one can get to La Tania. From Col de la Loze, one can also cycle to . A path up the Col de la Loze was built in 2018 and was officially opened on 12 May 2019. On the official opening day, there was still snow on the mountain, and it was the first French mountain pass to be cleared of snow. Motor vehicles are not permitted on the path. The path is paved on the side toward Courchevel. The path links Col de la Loze to Courchevel, and in 2020 was paved on the side to Méribel. There are future plans to continue the path to

Val Thorens Val Thorens (), is a ski town located in the Tarentaise Valley, Savoie, French Alps at an altitude of . It is located in the commune of Saint-Martin-de-Belleville in the Savoie department. The resort forms part of the Les Trois Vallées ski ar ...

. It is the seventh-highest

in France, and the third-highest mountain pass in the

Savoie Savoie (; Arpitan: ''Savouè'' or ''Savouè-d'Avâl''; English: ''Savoy'' ) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Southeastern France. Located in the French Alps, its prefecture is Chambéry. In 2019, Savoie had a population of ...

region.

Cycling

While there are multiple routes to get to the Col de la Loze, the climb through Meribel is the most notorious, and at 14.1 FIETS is the hardest bike climb in France. The climb averages a 7.5% gradient for gaining nearly 1700 metres. On 12 May 2019, the Col de la Loze held the Eiffage

time trial In many racing sports, an athlete (or occasionally a team of athletes) will compete in a time trial against the clock to secure the fastest time. The format of a time trial can vary, but usually follow a format where each athlete or team sets off at ...

event to commemorate its opening. There were 2 races: one over a distance of , and one over a shorter distance of .

The first professional cycle race to ascend to Col de la Loze was stage 8 of the 2019 Tour de l'Avenir. The stage was won by Australia's Alexander Evans.

Appearances in Tour de France

Col de la Loze was the

summit finish This is a glossary of terms and jargon used in cycling, mountain biking, and cycle sport. For ''parts of a bicycle'', see List of bicycle parts. 0–9 ; 27.5 Mountain bike: A mountain bike with wheels that are approximately in diameter and ...

for stage 17 of the

, which was won by Colombian rider Miguel Ángel López. The stage included an ascent of the

Col de la Madeleine Col de la Madeleine (el. 1,993 m.) is a high mountain pass in the Alps in the department of Savoie in France which connects La Chambre in Maurienne with La Léchère in Tarentaise. The pass is closed from November to the beginning of June. It h ...

, which was not in the Tour de l'Avenir stage. The climb up to Col de la Loze was long, with an average

gradient In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar-valued differentiable function of several variables is the vector field (or vector-valued function) \nabla f whose value at a point p is the "direction and rate of fastest increase". If the gradi ...

of 7.5% and a maximum gradient of 24%. The route followed a path formerly used by a mechanical ski lift. The ascent started in

Brides-les-Bains Brides-les-Bains () is a commune in the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. It was an Olympic Village for the 1992 Winter Olympics, based in Albertville, France. There is easy accessibility via Euros ...

and passed through Méribel, before turning onto the new path up to Col de la Loze. The finish point was the highest point of the 2020 Tour. Col de la Loze was one of two new summit finishes at the Tour, the other one being

Grand Colombier Grand Colombier is a small, uninhabited island in the French North American territory of Saint Pierre and Miquelon. Only 50 ha in area, it lies 500 m off the north coast of Saint Pierre Island and rises to an elevation of 150 m. It ...

. It will feature again in the 2023 edition.

References

{{reflist Ski areas and resorts in France Tourist attractions in Savoie Mountain passes of the Alps Climbs in cycle racing in France