Col du Ballon d’Alsace – 1,171m

Location: D465 Saint-Maurice-sur-Moselle to Giromagny (15 miles)

Coordinates: 47.8203306,6.8350429

Ridden: 2006 & 2008

This col on the D465 between Saint-Maurice-sur-Moselle and Giromagny, just north of Belfort – where Alstom make the TGVs (Train Grande Vitesse) – takes you over the Ballon d’Alsace. A good biking road from both sides but beware, there’s a lot of overbanding on the road surface.

There’s a memorial at the top to WWII bomb disposal units and an impressive collection of old bomb casings. Why anyone should have wanted to drop a bomb around here is hard to fathom. Also famous as being the first ever mountain stage in the Tour de France – in 1905.

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Routes & Posts:

The run down to Chalet Le Bois Rond in Chamonix
Belfort and loving it up the Ballon