Mont Aigoual (; oc, Mont Augal, elevation 1567m / 5141 ft) is the highest point of the Gard '' department'',

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. It is part of the

Massif Central The (; oc, Massís Central, ; literally ''"Central Massif"'') is a highland region in south-central France, consisting of mountains and plateaus. It covers about 15% of mainland France. Subject to volcanism that has subsided in the last 10,0 ...

, and it is located within the Cévennes National Park. Its southern slopes are the source of the river

Hérault Hérault (; oc, Erau, ) is a department of the region of Occitania, Southern France. Named after the Hérault River, its prefecture is Montpellier. It had a population of 1,175,623 in 2019.Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

, the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...

, and also the

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Swi ...

and

Mont Blanc Mont Blanc (french: Mont Blanc ; it, Monte Bianco , both meaning "white mountain") is the highest mountain in the Alps and Western Europe, rising above sea level. It is the second-most prominent mountain in Europe, after Mount Elbrus, and ...

in particular. The summit is accessible by car from a variety of converging surfaced approaches.

Geography and climate

This granite and schist outcrop is a major water catchment area in the Massif Central, being located where clouds from the cold

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

converge with warm

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

air currents. The heavy rainfall has given the mountain its name: originally "''Aiqualis''" ('the watery one'). In an average year rainfall can measure up to , making it the wettest place in France. Mont Aigoual forms part of the watershed between the Mediterranean and Atlantic. The meteorological observatory, built in 1887 by the French Rivers Authority and Forestry Commission under the direction of Georges Fabre, is currently occupied by the French meteorological service (''

Météo France Météo may refer to: *Weather in French * Météo-France, the French national meteorological service * MétéoMédia, a 24-hour Canadian French-language cable television specialty channel and web site * Météo Suisse MeteoSwiss (german: Me ...

''). It is the last remaining

weather station A weather station is a facility, either on land or sea, with instruments and equipment for measuring atmospheric conditions to provide information for weather forecasts and to study the weather and climate. The measurements taken include tempera ...

which is still inhabited by meteorologists. An exhibition on weather forecasting is open to visitors in the summer months. Severe weather conditions are sometimes recorded: * Maximum Temperature : 29.9 °C in 2019; * Minimum Temperature : -28 °C in 1956; * Maximum wind speed : 360 km/h on November 1, 1968; * Maximum rain in 24 hours: 607 mm from 6 p.m. on 30th to 6 p.m. on October 31, 1963; * Maximum snow during one year : 10.24 metres; * Frozen days: 144; * High temperature days (> 25 °C) : 0; * Rain days: 170; * High wind days (> 16 m/s) : 265; * Fog days: 241; * Days with snow: 116. Mont Aigoual features a cool-summer variant of an oceanic climate (Cfc), bordering to a subpolar (Dfc) (highland) climate.

Tour de France

Mont Aigoual (1507 metres) was first used by the Tour de France in

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...

on Stage 17 from Millau to Avignon, when Italian rider

Silvano Contini Silvano Contini (born 15 January 1958) is an Italian former professional road bicycle racer. Career Professional from 1978 to 1990, his main successes were the 1982 Liège–Bastogne–Liège of 1982, the 1985 Grand Prix du Midi Libre and the 19 ...

(Italy) of was first over the summit. The climb featured in the

2020 Tour de France The 2020 Tour de France was the 107th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's three Grand Tours. Originally scheduled to start on 27 June 2020, it was postponed until 29 August 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in France. The race began ...

on Stage 6 as a summit finish from

Le Teil Le Teil () is a commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality ...

. The winner was the Kazakh cyclist

Alexey Lutsenko Alexey Alexandrovich Lutsenko (russian: Алексей Александрович Луценко; born 7 September 1992) is a Kazakh professional cyclist, who rides for UCI WorldTeam . Career In 2012 he won the under-23 road race at the UCI R ...

Astana Pro Team Astana Qazaqstan Team () is a professional road bicycle racing team sponsored by the Samruk-Kazyna, a coalition of state-owned companies from Kazakhstan and named after its capital city Astana. Astana attained UCI ProTeam status in its inaugura ...

The Rider by Tim Krabbé

The ''Tour of Mont Aigoual'' is the semi-fictional cycle race in the book ''The Rider'' by

Tim Krabbé Tim Krabbé (born 13 April 1943) is a Dutch journalist, novelist and chess player. Krabbé was born in Amsterdam. His writing has appeared in most major periodicals in the Netherlands. Once a competitive cyclist, he is known to Dutch readers for ...

. The race is recreated on the ''Rapha'' and on the ''inrng''inrng weblog
/ref> weblogs

References

* ''Green Guide:Languedoc, Roussillon, Tarn Gorges'' pp65–68, Michelin Tyre PLC, 1998 * ''The Rider - Tim Krabbe'', Bloomsbury Publishing, 2002 {{Authority control Massif Central Mountains of Gard