Port de Larrau

Port de Larrau, pass

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The Port de Larrau (Basque: Larraineko mendatea or Uthurzéhétako - Lépoua in the local Basque dialect Soule, Spanish: Puerto de Larrau ) is a 1573 meter high mountain pass in the central Pyrenees. It forms the transition between the former province of Soule in the French Basque Country and the Spanish Valle de Salazar. He joins the department of Pyrénées- Atlantiques with the Navarra region. The summit is 2017 meters high from the Pic d' Orhy (Basque: Orhi ) dominates.

Route

Coming from the north, the road leads us through the valley of the Gave de Larrau, then a first steep ramp to reach the 630 m high place Larrau. At the exit begins after the branch of the west to Col Bagargui leading D 19, the actual pass road. At a length of 7.3 km, it overcomes the well 700 meters to the upstream, 1362 m high Col d' Erroymendi. Then it follows without much height difference the eastern slope of the Pic d' Orhy up to an altitude of 1424 m. The last 1.5 miles to the summit are again steep and contain three turns. The Spanish side is much flatter, up to 758 m high valley town Ochagavía is 19 km away. The upper part is 10.5 km long with an altitude difference of 665 meters.

Col d' Erroymendi

The Col d' Erroymendi represents an independant transition, because in a southeasterly direction, a road over the pass Chakhiko Lépoua down into the valley of the brook Zitziratzéko ERREKA, which forms a small reservoir there. The crest of Erroymendi is bordered by a chain of shelters (→ Palombières ) serving in October the hunt for migrating wood pigeons.

Tour de France

The Port de Larrau was twice so far on the Tour de France program and is due to its steepness, an increase of Honor category. At the leading to Pamplona 17th stage of the Tour de France 1996, the Frenchman Richard Virenque won the vote and thus consolidated his lead in the mountains classification. The associated test of the team Festina, to overthrow the cited of Team Telekom overall standings, Spaniard Miguel Indurain fell victim. Ironically, in his home he had to pull away the competition, he lost another eight minutes for the front-runner.

At the 16th stage of the Tour de France in 2007, the Spaniard Vicente Garcia Acosta reached in a breakaway group first to the top, just before the chase group referred to by the Colombian Juan Mauricio Soler.

View from the summit to the northeast

Last meters before the pass

The pass to the landmark; in the background of Pic d' Orhy

Col d' Erroymendi with Palombières along the ridgeline

Col d' Erroymendi in the Tour de France 2007

Tour de France 2007: the riders Carlos Sastre, Juan Mauricio Soler and Iban Mayo shortly before the Col d' Erroymendi.