Road Cycling - Toughest tour in the world

I once did the "Hundred Cols Tour", which is a Dutch organisation, although the tour is entirely in France. They claim it to be the toughest organised bicycle tour in the world. Does anyone know of a tour which is tougher than this one? It is 4000 km, climbs 110 cols and 60 cotes (hills) with a total denivellation of 60000 meters. They have a website at http://home.planet.nl/~honderd.cols.

I don't know. I do know one thing, however, if I ever get some spare time and a few $ I plan to ride even more hills than that.

Originally posted by Jaby
I once did the "Hundred Cols Tour", which is a Dutch organisation, although the tour is entirely in France. They claim it to be the toughest organised bicycle tour in the world. Does anyone know of a tour which is tougher than this one? It is 4000 km, climbs 110 cols and 60 cotes (hills) with a total denivellation of 60000 meters. They have a website at http://home.planet.nl/~honderd.cols.
Jaby it's ONLY 50 000 meters I though.. ;-)
I've done it past summer and can confirm it's a tough ride but manageable at a decent touring pace.
But I'd be hard pressed to say it's the hardest organised bicycle tour... yes, the longest hardest, but perhaps PAC tour deserves that term? PAC Tour is if I recall well a tour across the USA in a very short time riding perhaps 250 K/day?
However, it was also very tough for me, considering that I don't exactly have the build for a climber (short, lots of excess weight to schlepp around and some 25 kg of luggage). It showed in that for the first 2 weeks I had difficulties sleeping as my heart was pounding so loudly that I had to consume alcohol to make myself go asleep sooner.. it was really troubling! A problem too as I am more or less a teetotaller, and once it led to a first hangover.. luckily it was a rest day but EEEWWWW stayed away from alcohol after that as my heart had steaded a bit anyway.

OK, I don't know whether there are any tougher ones, but if I'm going to have my way, it won't be the only one.... starting this or next year I'll explore possibilities to build an itinerary for 100 cols in Spain & Portugal using famous cols/mtn passes that cyclists take in the Vuelta .
I still have to have my booklet checked by Jan Bijma as I wanted to show him the pics taken and was held up a long time... but anyway, I'm proud to say that when the booklet is validated I will be the first self-supported woman to have completed the Hundred Cols Tour.. :beer: :beer:

It was truly a wonderful trip, especially since I wasn't hung-up about riding over 100K every day.. averaged about 80K per riding day and had approx. 7 rest days, so it took me 55 days (Aug 5 - Sept 29)..

Cheers from Wageningen, Gelderland

PS if I hate ANYTHING more it's Hollanders who sign with Holland and not THE NETHERLANDS!!! GRRRR!:mad:

Well, I congratulate the both of you for the feat - hardest or not. I wish I had the time (left in my life) to be able to try that. I guess I will settle for Ventoux all three ways.

Cheers...Gary

P.S. Is my sig OK? I am in North Holland. ;)

Originally posted by gmason
Well, I congratulate the both of you for the feat - hardest or not. I wish I had the time (left in my life) to be able to try that. I guess I will settle for Ventoux all three ways.

Cheers...Gary

P.S. Is my sig OK? I am in North Holland. ;)
Yup Gary yours is totally correct.. I often sign with Gelderland, the Netherlands.. When I grew tired of people who ask whether I'm from Holland and what's the difference between the 2 I have started mentioning I'm from Gelderland. Gelderland is after all the biggest province of all, with North Brabant in 2nd place.. so who cares about the silly Hollanders ;)

But there's a couple of rides that are harder than this one..
RAAM is a race (across America) so doesn't really count. It should be a ride which is not a race, but long enough to make it difficult. There's a ride which is called a race, but isn't which is! It's Race Around Australia which will start shortly (or in a few months as I forgot the details). Participants are to be self-supporting! The set up requires participants to ride at least 200K every day.. now that's tough! Even though Australia has few mountains, they have winds, lots and lots of wind and if they are against you, it's NO fun! (been there, done that).

As for the 100 cols ride.. aren't you working for a Dutch firm?
There are 2 approaches.. the simplest is to split the ride in 3 parts (there are handy cut off points at 3 places) and ride it in 3 summer-holidays. I was fully loaded and taking it easy, a set up I prefer over sleeping in hotels as it isn't as flexible, especially not in summer. But if you divide 55 by 3, you have 18 days to ride every year.. anyone can do that.
the other approach is good when you're employed for a long time and have no fear of losing your job.. you then save up vacation time until you arrive at 8 weeks.. since a regular year already has close to 6 weeks of holiday, this is virtually a no-brainer!
The 3rd way is to do it in your own time.. either take an unpaid leave for a couple of weeks so you can ride or when you are unemployed anyway to take a break in that period ...

Hope this helps and to your completion of such a ride.

Ivana:beer:

Ivana -

Well, after the end of the year (give or take) I hope not to be employed at all. I was actually referring to the remaining time I have in my life to get into the kind of condition required to do this kind of ride. I believe it will be a year before I am ready to tackle Ventoux.

As for "Holland", we do have the Floriade, the Keukenhof, and Maxima! :o

Cheers...Gary

Just came back from Culemborg (with a bulb that failed, while it was OK the time I left.. the dynamo was still on then until I turned it off) and am now the proud owner of a Honderd Cols Tocht jersey to show off with!

We more or less agreed now that as Jaby stated it is probably the toughest tourist ride for the combination of distance & denivellation or altitude meters..
For racers the TdF is tougher, but it's not a race.
For randonneurs the ride of Hammerfest (or Trondheim) to Gibraltar is probably also tougher, but it's not a randonnee..

I'm still wondering whether there's a ride that IS tougher... it didn't feel so tough to me... after all, I still struggle with measly hills!

Ivana