Tour de France - Hors Categorie

Tour de France – Hors Catégorie
For August 9, 2025
Michael MacKuen

This afternoon we shall fly three scenic flights based on this past month’s Tour de France. Our emphasis is on the strenuous mountain climbs that almost always determine the overall winner of the Tour. These climbs are rated as categories 1 through 4 with 1 being the most difficult. But the truly extraordinary are rated HC or hors catégorie – those climbs too challenging to fit in the usual category system. The hors catégorie climbs are iconic – their length, height, gradient, and placement in a stage, all push riders to their limits and can identify the very best riders on any given day.


Legendary Courchevel

The first flight captures the route of Stage 16 Montpellier-Mont Ventoux in the 2025 Tour de France. Roughly following the cycling line, this is a slow-and-low leisurely flight through the south of France over the lovely sunbaked countrysides and excellent vineyards. We begin at Montpellier-Méditerranée [LFMT] and go north along the cycling route over the rolling hillsides before diverting slightly to see Alès-Deaux [LFMS] (a small local field), and then Uzès [LFNU] (a typical French aeroclub airstrip), and then Avignon-Pujaut [LFNT] (home to French parachuting and now used for parachuting and gliding and light aviation). We proceed further eastward over the ruins of the massive stone Château de Châteauneuf-du-Pape, a former 12^th century fortress and current national historic site. The region retains Châteauneuf-du-Pape as a formal name, or appellation, for its excellent wines (especially its reds). Then a quick stop at Carpentras [LFNH] (light aviation and gliders) before continuing through Bédoin. This is the classic entrance to the Mont Ventoux Hill Climb, one of the most famous climbs of professional cycling which often stands as a highlight of any year’s race. Mont Ventoux (HC) is nicknamed “the Giant of Provence” and known for its length, steep gradients and exposure to the elements including the strong cold northwesterly wind Mistral. The view from the bare summit is simply stunning – all the more so for the effort it takes to reach the top.

The second flight captures the spirit of the 2025 Tour’s most difficult leg with three HC climbs. Stage 18, from Vif to the Col de la Loze, looked ahead of time to be the decisive day in the full race. We start from Grenoble-Le Versoud [LFLG] and continue over the city proper and its Perret Tower. This reinforced concrete observation tower was built for the 1925 Exhibition of Hydropower and Tourism as a symbol of (then) modern construction and engineering. We continue through Vif (the cycling start for this stage) and curl around the Romanche River to climb up the iconic L’Alpe d’Huez [HC] which is a regular dramatic stage final in the Tour de France. (This is a classic HC climb. The average gradient is 8.1% with 21 hairpin turns. While not in the 2025 Tour, it has appeared in the race 28 of the last 50 years.) We land at the altiport Alpe d’Huez Airport [LFHU] which was built for the 1958 Winter Olympics held in Grenoble. This is now a top level ski resort.

We return to Allemond to follow the 2025 route up to the Grand’Maison Dam (whose reservoir powers the largest hydroelectric station in France) and over the Col du Glandon (HC). Then to La Chambre where we divert to Saint-Remy-de-Maurienne [LFKR]. Then back to the race up to the Col de La Madeleine (HC), one of the tougher climbs in the race – described as “beautiful but heartbreaking.” The 19km ascent has an average gradient of 8.01% and has been in the Tour 28 times since 1969. This hill was important in 2025 because it was the focal point of Team Visma’s strategy to break the race leader Tadej Pogačar and get their captain Jonas Vingegaard back on top. As it happened, Pogačar withstood the challenge and actually edged out Vingegaard at the end of the stage. Three days later, he placed first in the General Classification and won his fourth yellow jersey on the podium in Paris. 

We might want to land on the pass (there is a restaurant with a large parking lot) to get out and admire the views in every direction. Then we continue down what was for the racers a fast and dangerous descent. And a turn over the main town Moûtiers to begin the final ascent. Up the side of the mountain through the various levels of Courchevel, the large premier ski resort, passing the Courchevel altiport and climbing further to the Col de la Loze (HC) – the high finish to this year’s Stage 18. A mile down the mountainside, we land at the ski resort Méribel Altiport [LFKX].

Then restart at Albertville [LFKA] to retrace more-or-less the route of this year’s Stage 19. (Albertville hosted the 1992 Winter Olympics.) We follow the course of the Arly to Megève which was founded in the 1920s as a French alternative to St. Moritz. Originally a prime destination for the French aristocracy, it remains one of the most famous and affluent ski resorts in the world.  We turn south to land at the classic Megève Altiport [LFHM].

We climb back up the alpine mountainside to the pass at Les Saisies, and down to Beaufort. Then up the steep gradient to the Col du Pré (HC) over Roselend Dam and Lake and reach the high Cormet de Roselend. Then descend to pass Bourg-Saint-Maurice in the Isère Valley to the town of Aime. Here is the final climb to the large array of ski resorts at La Plagne (HC) with the finish at the Plagne Villages. There is no suitable place to land here so we fly over the valley to conclude at the legendary Corchevel Altiport [LFLJ]. The original and popular Le Pilatus restaurant will host our post-flight refreshments.

Documentation
The flightplans can be found here. The afternoon includes three distinct “flights.” Each flight has a separate flightplan in each of 4 formats. This the normal pattern, except that there are three different sets of departure-intermediate-destination waypoints.

Aircraft
The first low-and-slow leg over the fields of Southern France is designed for light sport aircraft. The second and third legs, through the Alps, are set up for either light aircraft or helicopters. I'll take a Pipistrel in the first flight and an Airbus H125 in the next two. Please fly what you like!

Scenery
Here are some airport improvements that you might appreciate. These are FS2020 sceneries (that that work well in FS2024). Thanks for the authors for their excellent work. (LFHM and LFLJ are Asobo-crafted airfields.)

Montpellier-Mediterranee [LFMT]. prairielet 
Ales-Deaux [LFMS]. Alfinet 
Uzes [LFNU]. Alfinet 
Avignon-Pujaut [LFNT]. laserjet34
L'Alpe D’Huez [LFHU]. EnforcedLotus45 
Saint-Remy-de-Maurienne [LFKR]. ailgorbot 
Albertville [LFKA]  (See full package)
Chateau de Chateauneuf-du-Pape. mv46
Provence Landmarks VFR. magnetic333

If you want a full package, go here. (252MB).

Grenoble Le Versoud [LFLG]. freeflight38. Nice freeware that is better than the default. Not included in the package due to its 1.9GB size. (If you have it, test it before using it.)

In addition there are good payware versions of LFMT LFHU LFKX. (The Orbx version of Meribel is currently on sale at the MSFS2024 Marketplace.) (The LLH sceneries for the alpine airports were excellent in P3D and they posted screenshots for MSFS. But those products seem to have disappeared. Or they may be available only at the MSFS2020 Marketplace. Does anyone know?) Again, if you have any of these, please use them.

If you have it, activate Mamu Design Project Lifts. And you might consider de-activating his Powerlines for this one afternoon.

Time and Weather
For takeoff on Saturday, set the simulator at 2:00pm local for August 9, 2025.
We typically prefer real weather.

Multiplayer Particulars
Date and time: Saturday, August 9, 2025. 1900 UTC
RTWR Multiplayer Discord Channel
Microsoft Flight Simulator Multiplayer: United States East server.

If you want to help others enjoy the multiplayer experience, don't forget to enter your aircraft details on the multiplayer spreadsheet (linked here). Please be kind enough to enter the title exactly as it stands in the title=”xxx” line of the aircraft.cfg file. Your courtesy will save others a lot of time and effort. Thanks!