Port de Balès
Mountain pass — 1,755 m
Show it on the map- Days recorded
- 7Grand Tour days on this road
- Open on the map
- 7stages we hold the route for
- Years covered
- 2007–2020first to most recent
- Approach
- Oneone side on record
The newest of the great Pyrenean passes, and the youngest road: until 2006 the D925 over the Balès was a forest track on the Barousse side and a shepherds' track on the Luchon side, tarmacked that summer largely at the Tour's instigation, and raced for the first time in 2007. The road drawn here is the northern ascent the race has always used — 18.9 km at 6.3% from Mauléon-Barousse, up the Ourse valley through Ferrère to a col at 1,755 m; the southern road from Bagnères-de-Luchon by Bourg-d'Oueil (19.7 km at 5.7%) has never been climbed by the Tour. All six Tour crossings have come from the north, and the descent to Luchon has decided more than one of them. The Vuelta has been over it once as well, on the 2013 stage from Andorra to Peyragudes.
The climb
The climb, from the foot.
The record
Raced here
7 of 7 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.
- 2020
Tour de France · Stage 8
Won by Nans Peters
- 2017
Tour de France · Stage 12
Won by Romain Bardet
- 2014
Tour de France · Stage 16
Won by Michael Rogers
- 2013
Vuelta a España · Stage 15
Won by Alexandre Geniez
- 2012
Tour de France · Stage 17
Won by Alejandro Valverde
- 2010
Tour de France · Stage 15
Won by Thomas Voeckler
'Chaingate'. Thomas Voeckler took the stage from the breakaway, but the Tour turned on the Balès behind him: Andy Schleck attacked in the yellow jersey, dropped his chain, and Alberto Contador rode away over the col and down the 21 km descent to Luchon to take the lead by 8 seconds. Contador said he had not seen the mechanical and later apologised; he won the Tour by 39 seconds, until the CAS stripped him of it in February 2012 and the title passed to Schleck.
- 2007
Tour de France · Stage 15
Won by Kim Kirchen
The col's Tour debut, a year after the road was surfaced: Kim Kirchen led the race over the Balès on the way to Loudenvielle. Alexander Vinokourov crossed the line first but was stripped of the stage in April 2008 after testing positive for a blood transfusion the following day, and the win passed to Kirchen. Michael Rasmussen kept the yellow jersey he would lose a week later, expelled by his own team.
Often ridden with
A Grand Tour stage rarely settles for one col. Port de Balès has shared a day's racing with each of these roads.