Tour De France, 2007, Stage 9 Preview: Climbing into Thin Air & Beyond

No two words are more revered in the Tour de France than "hors categorie." The French-to-English translation is "Above Category," and the term is reserved for the race's most strenuous climbs.

This year, in the 94th Tour de France, there are seven hors categorie ascents, and two will be contested Tuesday when the race resumes after a rest day with stage 9.

Riders will pedal 159.5 kilometers (99.1 miles) from the 1992 Winter Olympics venue of Val-d'Isere to Briancon, a Tour de France finishing city on more than 30 occasions.

En route to the second-shortest road stage of the race, the field will encounter one category 1 climb, the famous Col du Telegraphe and two monstrous hors categorie efforts, one before and one following the Col du Telegraphe.

Everyone knows the climbs are on the horizon and anyone in the race with dreams of arriving for the finale in Paris with a top finish must do well Tuesday.

In general teams, an hors categorie climb is designated as among the most severe efforts one of three reasons. It's a category 1 climb (the second-most severe) that occurs at a stage finish or it's a mid-stage climb that's either more than 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) with an average grade of 7.5 percent or is as long as 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) with an average grade of at least 6 percent.

It's rare that a severe climb begins from the start of a stage, but that's what will occur in the ninth stage. From the start in Val d'Isere, riders will climb nearly 3,000 feet in nine miles to the summit at Col de I'lseran. Its peak in 2,770 meters (9,085 feet), and it's the highest mountain in the Tour de France.

From there, the weary field will get a 45-mile reprieve of serpentine descending before beginning the climb to the Col du Telegraphe.

And if the second ascent of the day doesn't completely shatter the field, the concluding hors categorie effort to Col du Galibier will abruptly send its share of cyclists off the back of the group at their best or perhaps even into team cars as DNFs.

The climb Col du Galibier (8,675 feet) was first part of the Tour in 1911 and at the summit is a monument to Henri Desgrange, the former newspaper advertising director who invented the Tour de France and debuted as its race director in 1903.

Following the huge ascent, the field will descend another 21 miles before a nasty two-mile, seven percent climb to the finish at Briancon.

In its last appearance in the Tour, Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) of Kazakhstan edged Colombian Santiago Botero in a two-rider breakaway to claim the Briancon stage more than one minute ahead of the group.