Survivalist

Description

Tarbes to Col du Tourmalet

Stage 14 - Saturday, 20 July - 117 km (73 mi)

The Stage

A short stage at 117 kilometers with the Col du Soulor summit after 60 kilometers and high summit finish on Col du Tourmalet at 2,115 meters altitude. The first "real" mountain summit finish; will we see any of the GC favorites make a break for it? If the last ten years are any indication; no. They are all just trying to survive till the last week.

Winner: Thibaut Pinot

Tour Touristique

The Bareges valley, one of seven valleys in the Lavedan county, once was a small independent Republic with its own customs. It was called the valley of the Toys, inhabited by mountaineers who proudly defended their freedom and were never subdued. The thermal baths were revived in the 18th century – after the visit of Madame de Maintenon – and the small thermal village became a commune in 1946. Its waters are used in traumatology, dermatology and to cure rheumatisms.

In 1675, Madame de Maintenon, mistress of King Louis XIV, went from Bareges to Bagneres de Bigorre by the Tourmalet in a Sedan chair. It was at the time, in spite of the altitude, the safest way to go since the valley road was often flooded or littered with stones. Francoise d’Aubigne, who was then 40, was looking after the Duke of Maine, the King’s son, who had come to Bareges to cure articular problems preventing him from walking normally. He would be a limp his whole life. Her nurse, who was made a marquise that year, always treated “the little duke” as her own son. The Duke of Maine spent most of the summer in Bareges and made some progress. “The Duke of Maine walks and even though it is not very vigorously, there is ground to hope that he will some day walk like us”, Madame de Maintenon wrote in October.

The marquise returned to Bareges twice and always recommended the baths to her friends. She became the King’s mistress that same year and married him secretly nine years later.

View attached image.