Puy de Dôme cycling climb map

by Sidney van den Boogaard

Starting in the heart of Clermont-Ferrand, this climb plays out in two acts. First you leave the city behind, climbing via La Baraque to the foot of the volcano. Then the finale: around four kilometres at roughly twelve per cent, spiralling around the cone with the Chaîne des Puys spread out below. In 1964 Jacques Anquetil and Raymond Poulidor fought their famous shoulder-to-shoulder duel here, and in 2023 the biggest race in cycling returned after 35 years. The top holds the remains of a Roman temple to Mercury. The summit road only opens to cyclists for organised events. For those who got their chance, or are still waiting.

This work is part of the Legendary Climbs collection: the most famous climbs in road cycling, from the Alps and the Pyrenees to the short, steep hills of Flanders and Limburg. Each climb is drawn from the real road, with the elevation profile coloured per kilometre and, along the bottom, the length, elevation gain, average and maximum gradient and the summit.

The road is drawn from OpenStreetMap data (© OpenStreetMap contributors) and the profile from Copernicus elevation data (EU-DEM). A great gift for any cyclist, to hang next to the bike or as a goal for next season.