Not quite the same elevation as the highest US mountains or the mountains I
described? The Tourmalet is a regular feature in the Tour and it rises to
6995'. There are a few others that go up almost as high. Roads in the Alps
typically average no more than 7%. Any roads with regular car traffic try to
keep the same or less pitch.


"Raptor" wrote in message ...
Nick Burns wrote:
I know you are trolling but I want to provide you with a little
perspective.

Some of those Tour de France stages through the mountains are the
equivalent
of driving from Sacramento, California up and over the Sierras, down to
Lake
Tahoe and then finishing at the top of Heavenly (or pick just about any
other ski resort in the Lake Tahoe area). That would be similar to the
Alps.

The roads in the Pyrenees are much steeper.I figure you skiers have
either
been there or are familiar with the terrain I am talking about.

But the European mountains don't have quite the same elevation. And,
based on the course statistics, it's not hard at all to find similarly
steep roads in the States, except for the occasional
beat-the-riders-over-the-head climbs like the Angliru and Koppeburg.

--
--
Lynn Wallace http://www.xmission.com/~lawall
"I'm not proud. We really haven't done everything we could to protect
our customers. Our products just aren't engineered for security."
--Microsoft VP in charge of Windows OS Development, Brian Valentine.