The Col d'Èze is a

mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since mountain ranges can present formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both Human migration, human and animal migration t ...

in the

Alpes-Maritimes Alpes-Maritimes (; ; ; ) is a Departments of France, department of France located in the country's southeast corner, on the France–Italy border, Italian border and Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast. Part of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'A ...

department of

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. It is located between

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

, near to La Trinité.

Cycling

The pass is particularly well known for its frequent inclusion in the Paris–Nice road cycling stage race, where it has often formed the final decisive stage of the race. From 1969 to 1995 the race finished with a time trial up the Col d'Èze, except in 1977 when landslides had blocked the road. The Col d'Èze is a 9 km climb, starting from Nice and climbing to 507 m altitude. It is named after the village of Èze, part of the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

of Nice. Sean Kelly won the Col d'Èze time trial five times in his seven-year dominance. In 1996, the finish was moved back to the Promenade des Anglais because of the low number of spectators on Col d'Eze and to take advantage of funding from the city of Nice. From 1998 to 2011, the final stage was a road race – usually on a hilly terrain with the climbs of the Col d'Èze and La Turbie - starting and ending in Nice. In recent years the race often returns to a final Col d'Eze time trial stage.

Bradley Wiggins Sir Bradley Marc Wiggins (born 28 April 1980) is a British former professional Road bicycle racing, road and track cycling, track racing cyclist, who competed professionally between 2001 and 2016. He began his cycling career on the track, but ...

set a new climbing record in

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

of 19' 12" on his way to overall victory. The mountain was also climbed during the 1953 Tour de France (ranked as a 2nd category mountain). In the 2020 Tour de France, it was again given category 2 status.

References

Climbs in cycle racing in France Eze {{AlpesMaritimes-geo-stub