Ballon d'Alsace
Mountain pass — 1,178 m, the Tour's 'first' mountain
Show it on the map- Days recorded
- 8Grand Tour days on this road
- Open on the map
- 5stages we hold the route for
- Years covered
- 1905–2026first to most recent
- Sides raced
- 3directions in the record
Celebrated as the first real mountain the Tour ever climbed, in 1905 — a rounded Vosges summit that launched a century of high-mountain racing.
The record
Raced here
5 of 8 open on the mapEvery Grand Tour day recorded on this road, newest first. The ones we hold the route for open on the map with that stage selected; the rest are the archive’s own account, most of them from before route data existed.
- 2026
- 2023
- 2022
- 2019
- 2005
Stage 9 · Gérardmer → Mulhouse
Won by Michael Rasmussen (DEN)
Crossed on its centenary; Rasmussen soloed over the Vosges to a long breakaway win that set up his polka-dot jersey campaign.
- 1969
Stage 6 · Mulhouse → Ballon d'Alsace
Won by Eddy Merckx (BEL)
Merckx won the summit finish, took the yellow jersey, and kept it all the way to Paris in the most dominant Tour debut ever ridden.
- 1905
Stage 2 · Nancy → Besançon
Won by René Pottier (FRA)
The Tour's first deliberate mountain test. Pottier led over the Ballon without dismounting — a sensation at the time — and won at Besançon. He won the whole Tour the following year; a monument to him stands at the summit.
Often ridden with
A Grand Tour stage rarely settles for one col. Ballon d'Alsace has shared a day's racing with each of these roads.