SAINT-LARY-SOULAN PLA D'ADET
2018’s 65km “sprint” stage from Luchon to the Col du Portet, high above Saint-Lary-Soulan, which was won by Nairo Quintana, was the first time that the race finished at the top of the highest pass in the French Pyrenees. But this town had already witnessed several similar finishes, which all concluded at the ski station of Pla d’Adet. Since Raymond Poulidor’s victory in 1974, the last of his career in the race, all of the winners have been climbers: Joop Zoetemelk (1975), Lucien Van Impe (1976 and 1981), Mariano Martinez (1978), Beat Breu (1982), Zenon Jaskula (1993) and Rafał Majka (2014). In 2021, Tadej Pogačar won his first stage in the Yellow Jersey at the Col du Portet, that day’s podium identical to the final one in Paris, with Jonas Vingegaard second and Richard Carapaz third.
- Stage town for the 11th time
- Town in the department of Hautes-Pyrénées (65)
- Population: 850 (Saint-Laryens), 230,000 in Hautes-Pyrénées
