Col de Sarenne () is a
mountain pass located in the
Grandes Rousses massif, approximately east of
Alpe d'Huez in the
Isère department of France. The pass connects Alpe d'Huez with the villages of
Mizoën and
Le Freney-d'Oisans in the
Romanche
The Romanche () is a long mountain river in southeastern France. It is a right tributary of the Drac, which is itself a tributary of the Isère. Its drainage basin is .[2013 Tour de France
The 2013 Tour de France was the 100th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It started on the island of Corsica on 30 June and finished on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on 21 July. The Tour consisted of twenty-one stages ...]
bicycle race as this loops round to enable the cyclists to climb the Alpe d'Huez twice in the same stage.
Details of the climb
From Alpe d'Huez, the route used on the Tour de France follows an unnamed road initially, descending to before the final climb to the summit which is long at an average gradient of 7.8%.
From the south, the road to the pass follows the D25 from its junction with the D1091 to the east of Le Freney-d'Oisans. From here, the road is km long, climbing at an average of 7.5%, although the first kilometre to Mizoën has a gradient of 11.5% and the maximum gradient is 13.5% at from the summit.
The passage over the summit was used in the
2013 Tour de France
The 2013 Tour de France was the 100th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It started on the island of Corsica on 30 June and finished on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on 21 July. The Tour consisted of twenty-one stages ...
; following that race, German rider
Tony Martin criticized the decision of the Tour de France organisers to use the pass, saying: "The road is old and narrow. It’s a bad road, no guardrails. A mistake could see you falling straight down 30 metres. It's irresponsible to send us there." Martin repeated his criticisms on the eve of the Tour de France: ''It’s still the same descent. … It’s quite nasty and a really dangerous descent. We’ve made a lot of comments already in the media, so I really hope the organization heard it.''
In the race, the summit was crossed first by a group of four riders, led by
Tejay van Garderen
Tejay van Garderen (born August 12, 1988) is an American former professional road racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 2008 and 2021 for the , , and . Following his retirement as a cyclist, van Garderen became a directeur sportif for ...
. On the descent, van Garderen had a technical problem with his bike, and
Christophe Riblon left the road on a corner before going on to win the stage at the top of
Alpe d'Huez.
References
External links
Le col de Sarenne dans le Tour de FranceCycle the Col de Sarenne (www.morethan21bends.com)Cycling up to the Col de Sarenne: data, profile, map, photos and description
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sarenne
Mountain passes of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Mountain passes of the Alps
Landforms of Isère