Bucket list
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Bealach na Ba snakes up from
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Richie Porte leads Chris Froome up the Alpe d'Huez in 2013, where LeMond expects this year's race to be decided (pic: Sirotti)
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The Col du Galibier has been pulled from the 2015 Tour de France route (Pic: cyclepig / Creative Commons)
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Cycling is an intrinsic theme of the story, with Ventoux the perfect metaphor (Pic: Sirotti)
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Want to tick off both sides of the Col du Tourmalet in one sportive? Then the Marmotte Pyrenees is your event
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The iconic Passo dello Stelvio is likely to feature on the 'must ride' list of any cyclist
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The climb of Monte Zoncolan is the toughest ascent in Italy (Pic: Serafino Centenaro / Creative Commons)
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Which roads feature on your must-ride list? (pic: Marie, via Flickr Creative Commons)
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Chris Horner celebrates on the Angliru after he all-but sealed the red jersey in 2013 (pic: Sirotti)
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(Pic: James Creegan / Creative Commons)
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Bucket list
It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and can coast down them – Ernest Hemingway
The beauty of riding a bicycle uphill and the sense of achievement it brings is at odds with the suffering that’s ultimately endured to reach the summit, but cyclists continue to be drawn to roads which point skyward in a bid to ride higher, further and faster.
It’s in our DNA, as cyclists, to climb and some of the most feared roads in the world are also the most revered. Every rider has their own list of must-ride climbs and this is ours.
Our list is confined to Europe and by no means exhaustive – share your stories of your favourite climb in the RoadCyclingUK forum – but includes climbs which capture the imagination, be it for the prestige they hold within professional cycling, the beauty of the landscape, or the downright difficult in pedaling a bike over such terrain.
Here are 12 climbs for your bucket list.
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