Tour de Big Bear, August 2nd, 2025
United States | Midwest | Ohio >> VIDEO: Phil Gaimon vs Range Rover Sport on the Tour de France's Les Lacets de Montvernier climb!
 
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VIDEO: Phil Gaimon vs Range Rover Sport on the Tour de France's Les Lacets de Montvernier climb!

Race Car Driver vs. Cyclist: Watch American hill climb cyclist champion Phil Gaimon go up against race car driver and Le Mans champion Justin Bell in a race between a Range Rover Sport and a bicycle, taking place in cycling mecca's Les Lacets de Montvernier

 

About the Les Lacets de Montvernier

The Les Lacets de Montvernier was voted number 2 in our Top Ten Craziest Switchedback Climbs, which is French for ‘the Shoelaces of Montvernier’ and the climb’s beauty is how it scales the cliff face above the Maurienne valley, as if a shoelace had been dropped from the sky. It’s a fun, narrow, silly road but it’s only the beginning. The Lacets are only about 20% of the climb to Chaussy, with 17 hairpins stacked one on top of another in just 3km, an astonishing piece of mountain road engineering.

Col du Chaussy is a difficult climb of over 1,000 metres of climbing with some very steep stretches. 

After the Montvernier hairpins, the climb continues for another 9 km, winding through Alpine fields. A total altitude gain of more than 1,000m and average gradient of 8% means it’s not only the hairpins that will take your breath away.

You can actually see this climb from the A43 from Alberville to Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne towards the Italian border.

The climb was used in the 2015 Tour de France on Stage 18. Professional cyclist Robert Gesink holds the Strava record with a whopping VAM of 1,650 meters per hour!

The 17 switchback of the Les Lacets de Montvernier to the Col de Chaussy