Number of editions: Perfect equality
From 1947 to 2025, no edition of the Tour has skipped the Alps or the Pyrenees. This principle of symmetry has become a tacit rule of the specifications of the test: the two massifs must be represented.
Even in editions in reduced format or atypical geography, the two channels have been integrated.
On this point, the balance is therefore total: 79 Editions for the Alps, 79 for the Pyrenees.
Step arrivals: advantage in the Alps
When you are interested in the role given to the mountain in the dramaturgy of the Tour, the Alps are clearly imposed themselves in number of steps arrivals. Between 1947 and 2025, the Alps welcomed approximately 60% of stages arrivals at altitude, against around 30% for the Pyrenees.
This imbalance was strengthened from the 1970s, with the multiplication of arrivals in the station in the Alps: Alpe d’Huez, La Plagne, Les Arcs, Val Thorens … So many emblematic places that return regularly.
The more wild and less equipped Pyrenees, certainly have a few bastions such as the PLA d’Adet, Hautacam or Luz Ardiden, but the infrastructure limits the possibilities.