The best climb in all of France?

The first of a new series, Ultimate Climbs! Episode 1 – Col du Tourmalet.

Join Luke and I for some epic climbing and fun fact about one of the worlds most iconic climbs.

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[Music] Bonjour. I’m Alex from Moko. Welcome to my new ultimate climbing series. This week we’re in the Pyrenees. And to kick off the series, we are going to climb the iconic Kutal. It’s the second time I’m climbing it. And I’m actually more excited this time because last time I just climbed it, had the time of my life, but I knew nothing about it. And this time I’ve done a little bit of research to know more about the history. And this climb is pretty special. In fact, it’s been seen more than 80 times on the tour to France. And the first time the tour was climbed was in 1910. And the first ever man that passed the summit was the iconic Octav Lapis. But the most interesting thing about that is we were about to climb it on like beautiful smooth sarmac. That guy had to walk pretty much the whole thing because it was dirt roads. How insane is that? It was also part of a 323 km stage. Mental. Anyway, so today we are climbing the Kale from Lansova, a very nice mountain town. There are lots of ski shops. It’s really vibe here. You can see it’s quite popular on the C. Today we’ve got 18.4 4 km to climb all the way to the summit with 1,400 m of elevation gain. Average gradient is 7.7%. It should be lovely. Also, can’t wait for the hairpins. There are 14 of them. And I just love airplines because airpin mean view. Let’s get climbing. Look at that baby. I’m already in my easiest gear. [Music] Hot hot. It’s hard with bondai. We’ve just passed bar. Really cool town. I low key wanted to stop for coffee, but we now have 10.5 K to go and it’s about to become super scenic. Oh, nice. Just as we see, still feel it. It’s quite quite hard. Yeah, it’s not easy. It’s a fun time, isn’t it? Yeah, but we love it. Do you like climbing? I do. I feel like I should do cuz I’m only little, but I don’t think being stunned in the face has helped me. No, I don’t think it has because I can’t really see very well and my head is like really hot. How many times have you done this? Just once. Just once. Yeah, it’s my second time. two years ago when the to went up for the first time and the finish was like in the cloud. Miserable weather. Yeah, but that was incredible to see though. Gosh, battle with demi bothering like Yeah. What a stage. Crazy. So, you know, with uh Octaves, the guy who won it for the first time. Yeah. So, that stage was like 326k or something like that. And they had four climbs in that that were all category. They had culaspa. They had periswood. They had bloody tumal in it. And this was not road was bloody gravel. Like how how do they do that? We we stopped it with a stopped here with p last time. Had an apricot juice, an ice cream [Applause] resting. It’s Yeah, it’s nightly in my spot there, right? My eyes some cold water on that. Yeah, it’s so much better. I think put some water on. Maybe I think surely is drinkable. It’s pretty clear, isn’t it? Oh god. If I have diarrhea, it’s going to be a good story for the boat. [Music] Now we enter the switchback section. The best of the best. [Music] Hello. Eight to go. Nice. Is that it? We’re over halfway. Yeah. Makes me want to learn to ski, but then I’m worried I’d like crash and then not be able to ride my bike. High risk factor. Yeah. Vingore. What a view. If you could describe it in one word so far, what would it be? Stunning. Stunning. Of course it is. I’d say kaput. I’ve struggled. I’d say clutch. Clutch. Getting to the top of this climb is clutch. We’re not getting to the hard bit. What you mean? Yeah. What you mean the hard bit? Exactly what I just said. We’re not getting to the red gradient. Sorry. You love it. You’re here for that. Nearly at 8%. It’s all right, isn’t it? [Applause] That was fun. Maybe they’re doing a training training for the summer. So this is where the tom gets serious now. Look at this. Pretty epic. It’s incredible. 50 m to go in the summit. Yeah. Woohoo. Alex is factecking for everyone. Yeah. Because there are two statues and I want to know who’s who. I want to know if this is Lapis. I think that looks like Lapis more than the organizer of the to France. Right. But you would have thought so. Yeah. He’s riding a bike. Yeah, exactly. Okay. So, we’ve got lots of history here. The cafe here is called Octav in the name of Octav Lapis. Lapis the guy who uh did it first. Yeah. Octav lapis in can’t say numbers in English, can I? 1910. I just think Jos thinking is pretty amazing. And we also got his statue over here. Should we go and have a look? That’s his bum. That’s his bum. Must be solid. Can you imagine the bum of that guy? Can we talk about the fact that during that same tour they had another stage that was in the mountains with like 400 plus kilometers that they finished in 14 hours and he won it as well. Same guy. Yes. I’m like, I’m sorry, but how the hell do you do that? I think it took me 14 hours to get up this climb. So dramatic. Actually, I wasn’t quite accurate. Like they say octaves. Okay, he literally So that stage was 326K. I think I said 323. Anyway, and he won the race in 14 hours and 10. Given that those 20k of this were dirt roads probably like that like that. Can you imagine? That is crazy. All good octave. Well done. He’s a good boy. Proud of you, babe. So, you know that really famous. He said something very famous like he he finished that stage and he said with the organizers of the tour which means they are murderers because it was outrageous how difficult that stage was. That’s interesting. No, it is. But I surprised considering the numbers that you gave us earlier on how many kilometers they uh they made them ride. Yeah, it’s crazy. [Music] There you go. Oh, that’s nice. Cute. Hi, there’s a picture. I saw some Well earned. Nothing like a sandwich. Crusty baguette. Everyone has to scream. Yes. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] [Music] Okay, all the chickens have made it. We’ve done the descent. My god, that was fast, wasn’t it? Sick. That was so good. Do you think it would be a little bit more boring though to climb that side? It was very straight, wasn’t it? 100%. I was looking at it and thinking for descending it’s amazing because there are not that many switch back. It was so fast. I mean, I was picking up speed like crazy. Unbelievable. But I was thinking that climbing I don’t think it would be nowhere near as interesting as the side we did cuz when you climb you want to switch back and when you descend you want it to be a little bit more loose, a bit wavy. So yeah, I think the order we did it was actually bloody per like it was pretty bloody perfect. Bloody perfect. How we going to rate those climbs then? Are we doing out of 10? Out of five. I think out of 10. Okay. So out of 10, I rate it eight out of 10. I I rate it out of 10. I think it’s an eight because it’s amazing. You’ve got the switchback. You’ve got the history. It was really cool to see that tour as well with the riders and stuff. So that was cool. The only thing that’s missing for me for it to be a 10 is what you have in the Alps is like a turquoise leg at the top. You know, when you reach the top like having something like a little iconic like Yeah, I think it’s an iconic top history wise, but if you don’t know much about cycling, it’s beautiful. It’s stunning. But imagine that with like a turquoise lake at the top. For for me, a lake at the top and snowy pigs always like this is the range of the tent for me or at least a McDonald’s or something at the top would be good. Shut up. We had a banging ice cream at the top. No, it was it was good to be honest. Yeah, I think eight out of 10 as well. Eight out of 10. Yeah, it’s not brutally hard. It is really pretty. It’s got a Yeah, like you say, a really faster scent if you do it that way. I think doing it that way. Eight out of 10. I probably do it le I probably would think it would be a little bit less if it was I agree. And I think the loop was perfect as well where we started it from because the riding before was not too hard. like it’s this is definitely the way to do it that way around and yeah this was the first episode of our ultimate climb series series on the next one we are heading to the t-roll so we are going to climb the Stelbio we’re going to go to Celonda then we’re going to the Alps trace after that so you’re going to have lots of iconic climbs coming I guess we want to show how can you enjoy your climb that on paper is difficult but if you pace it if you stop if you enjoy the landscape if you have a snack if you just refreshing the water. There’s so many ways that those climbs can be accessible for everyone and this is what this series is made for. So, and to give a bit of info to the people so they know what to expect. Yeah. And to give a little bit about info because I actually enjoy the tour more today than last time because I did my research. So, I had more information about it and I was climbing and I was thinking about everything I read yesterday. Thinking about um Octave’s bum the whole way up. Yeah, she’s been she haven’t been stopped talking about these. He did have a good bum, didn’t he? 1910. Are you going to put that on the video? Yeah, maybe. Maybe not. No, but I I didn’t know about Octavis and I just now I want to know more about it. Like I think I think that’s also quite exciting. So we will do the research for you. We will show you the climb and we will get you the DJI and something to film the whole descent and stop being selfish about it and just enjoy it for I think the descent the the descent will be an important part of each video. So that will that will um be coming once we can have the mounts but that will be coming soon. We’re waiting to descent. Yeah. I hope you enjoyed this video. Thank you so much for watching. Remember to subscribe not to miss the next one. And see you in the next video. Bye. [Music]