Legends - 1962, Col de la Bonette, the highest road in Europe - Vidéo Dailymotion

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00:00The Col de la Bonette.

00:08At a mighty 2,802 metres, it is the highest paved road in Europe.

00:13La Bonette made its first tour appearance in 1962 on stage 18 between Antibes and Brienzon,

00:20and such a remarkable climb needed a remarkable climber to immortalise its debut.

00:26Enter Federico Bahamontes, the Eagle of Toledo.

00:30The Spaniard was already one of the greatest climbers of all time, winner of the tour in

00:341959 and king of the mountains in three separate editions.

00:42In 1962, Bahamontes was chasing his fourth mountains classification and nobody could

00:48live with him when the road ramped up like this.

00:51Climber number 91 soaring away to the summit, cheered on by the fans who had braved the

00:56climb of La Bonette.

01:00If anything, he was going too quickly for the poor old photographers.

01:14Next to reach the summit was Eddie Powell, the race's most combative rider, followed

01:18a few minutes later by the 1958 winner Charlie Gould.

01:24Bahamontes was caught on the descent, but little matter, he still went down in history

01:29as the first man to conquer La Bonette.