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May 22, 2025
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INTERVIEW
Photographer Michael Blann on the Mountains of the Tour de France
Michael Blann's photography book, Mountains: Epic Cycling Climbs is a large-format love letter to cycling's greatest mountains. Ahead of this year's Tour de France, we spoke to Michael about the topography to come and which stages could prove decisive.
PUBLISHED
June 23, 2025
WORDS
Regroup
PHOTOS
Michael Blann
The Tour de France is measured in mountains. Flat stages have their charms, of course - the seduction of the Tour is in its variety. But it's in the mountains where the real action happens. From killer moves to terrible bonks, treachery, and the transcendent, mountains are where names are made, careers become legends, and the unlucky struggle to survive. But, as photographer Michael Blann writes in the prologue to his book, 'Mountains: Epic Cycling Climbs', a cycle race is a "blip on the geological timescale. A traveling circus that visits for the day and then is gone, leaving the mountain, the constant, behind."
Michael’s book is a visual treat. His photos of French, Spanish, Italian, Austrian and Swiss mountains, lovingly and expertly shot in large format, are a love letter to the roads, passes, cols and peaks of some of Europe’s most celebrated eminences. His photos encourage us to reflect on the symbiotic relationship cycling has with the mountains. If a mountain is magnificent, it becomes even more so when the peloton arrives. And the cyclist, in turn, inspired by the terrain, rises to the occasion with even greater feats of daring.
With the 2025 Tour de France on the horizon, we contacted Michael to ask if he’d like to share his thoughts on the mountains to come, their character, and what it’s like to photograph them. Happily, he agreed. After exchanging emails a few days prior, Michael asked us to call the following week, when he’d be driving back to the UK from France after photographing more mountains for his next project and book. “It’ll keep me awake!” he said. And it did. Fittingly, our call found Michael traversing the Pyrenees. Here’s our edited chat.
Mont Ventoux - Stage 16 (Summit finish)
“It’s such an iconic mountain,” says Michael as I reel off the first mountain on my list that is in this year’s Tour and also his book. “There are climbs that are famous and climbs that are photogenic. I think Ventoux is both of those things. It has its history, which makes it immediately appealing. And the fact that the landscape is barren from a third up is so unusual. From a photographic point of view, you can make something unique out of it. There are certain vantage points where you can get above the race and certain characteristics that you can pull out, like the pinnacle at the top or the view from afar. Ventoux was one of the easier ones to shoot for the book!” Michael tells us that he was up there earlier in the week, shooting it again for his next project. “There’s a risk with Ventoux that you take it for granted,” he says. “But it’s extraordinary. When you’re at the top, it’s spectacular and unlike any other mountain range. There’s nothing near Ventoux of remotely the same height. It stands alone.”
Col du Loze - Stage 18 (Summit finish)
When the riders dust themselves off at the end of stage 18, they’ll have arrived at the highest point of the 2025 Tour de France (2,304m / 7559ft). Although not featured in Michael’s book, he has since photographed the Col du Loze for a new project he’s working on, which will extend beyond Europe and feature famous mountains from around the world. On the Col du Loze, he says, “It’s basically a new climb. It comes in from the Courchevel area. It used to be a track, although it’s now paved. Still, you can’t drive up it. It’s the climb where Pogačar famously cracked, and Vingegaard rode away to victory in 2023.” The problem, from a photographic perspective, Michael says, is its lack of access. “The kit I shoot with is much too heavy to cycle with!” he laughs. “So, you’re forced to walk five or so kilometers to the top of the mountain to photograph it.” As to its status as a newcomer to the Tour, Michael points out that little-known climbs become famous solely through their inclusion in races like the Tour de France and Italy’s Giro. “It’s cycling that gives these mountains their providence,” he says. “They don’t have a status before the race goes up. But once they’re included and the history is written, they grow in importance and, for the most famous, become the cycling equivalent of household names.”
Col du Tourmalet - Stage 14
If you’re of a betting mind, stage 14 of this year’s Tour might be worth a flutter – that is, if you believe the stage’s excruciating ascents of the Tourmalet, Aspin, Peyresourde and the coup de grâce to the ski station at Superbagnères, over 5000 meters of climbing in all, will prove decisive.
But the day starts with the Tourmalet. “I was back there this week,” says Michael. “Although it’s in my current book, I wanted to capture a different perspective, which involved a much longer hike away from the road to capture a broader view. Previously, I’d taken the cable car up the Pic du Midi and hiked down from there, getting a nice shot of the road leading down from the valley. When I reviewed those images, I realized there was another angle I wanted to shoot, which required walking up the mountainside that faces the Tourmalet.” And shoot it, he did. “I’ve still got to do the edit!” he laughs. “I’m literally driving back today with the shots in the back of the car.” Let’s hope he doesn’t have any trouble with customs.
I’m interested to know if he rides the climbs before he shoots them. “Oh yes, very much so, although there are some that I haven’t managed to ride.” The Tourmalet, he says, is always hard. “I started the day with the Luz Ardiden and finished with the Tourmalet. It was my first day in the mountains, and that’s always difficult. I don’t know what it is, but you’re just not acclimatized to it. I got a couple of kilometers to the top, and I was blowing big time!” As to the character of the Tourmalet, Michael says that it’s a long climb, around 18 kilometres in length. “And it starts way down the valley. You have this drag all the way there, well before you get to the hard part. The last kilometer is brutal. You’re over 2000 meters high and feeling it. It’s a monster.”
Col de la Madeleine - Stage 18
“It’s a challenging mountain to photograph,” says Michael. “My style is very much about getting away from the road and finding the vantage point that puts the road into the context of the overall landscape. But the Madeleine is all quite shallow, so you can’t quite look into the climb. For me, the Madeleine is unfinished business. I’d like to revisit and shoot it again and discover a new angle.” Like cycling, it seems that with Michael’s mountain projects, the journey never truly ends. “It’s a life’s work, certainly,” he says. “I’m sure I’ll always be moving around, shooting new climbs, capturing new perspectives. The character of a mountain is never static; it changes with the time of day, the weather, how you feel.”
Col du Glandon - Stage 18
“This one is lovely to photograph,” says Michael, with obvious relish. “The climb comes around the lake, so there are different vantage points to choose from. There’s a big dip where it drops then comes up through a dam, which is also interesting.” Not that the riders of this year’s Tour will be so ‘Glandon’ to see it, as it precedes the Col de la Madeleine, which in turn leads on to a summit finish on the Col du Loze. And we thought stage 14 was bad. All bets are off.
Superbagnères - Stage 14 (Summit Finish)
“Considering what comes before the climb, it will be incredibly tough for the entire peloton, even the pure climbers,” says Michael. “It starts in the town of Luchon-Bagneres, and the first pitches are almost 10%. It’s tough from the off. The last kilometer is also over 10%, which caps a 12.4km ascent at an average of 7.5%, and it’s a long, long drag to the finish line. I expect to see people cracking. Notably, it’s where Fignon got rid of Lemond all those years ago.”
Col de Peyresourde - Stage 13 (Mountain Time Trial)
A mountain time trial the day before one of the hardest days of this year’s race is cruel, to say the least. But this is the Tour de France: spectacle is everything. The Col de Peyresourde has made over fifty appearances at the Tour. “They send the riders up the Peyresourde, then they swing off to go up the Peyragudes, which is the airstrip next to it, ” says Michael. “At almost 8% for 8 kilometers, the final climb will be decisive.” There’s a beautiful, golden shot of the lower slopes of the Peyresourde in first light in Michael’s book, and on the next page, a markedly cooler photograph of the climb describing a line between the cleft of two ranges, with the altiport of the Peyragudes in clear relief on the right. The difference in character between the two photographs is night and day and more than words, illustrates how the mood of the mountains is always shifting.
Hautacam - Stage 12
“I’ve never been that successful photographing Hautacam,” says Michael. “I was there this last week giving it another go, and I was reminded how beautiful it is at the top. Everyone has picnics up there, and you can enjoy the sight of the sun setting over the Col d’Aubisque. You get amazing views at the Hautacam!” Although not in Michael’s Mountains book, he plans to include it in his next project. “It does take time to get it right,” he admits. “You can go to places and be met with fog, and it’s a wasted trip. That happened more than once with Hautacam.”
As we wrap up our call and I prepare to leave Michael for the road ahead and the rest of his journey home, I ask him about how he views his photography and where his photos of the mountains might lead. “I feel like I’m getting further and further away from the road,” he laughs. “I think it’s really important to try to contextualize the mountains and their climbs. I’m not trying to take action photography. It’s more like painting and trying to capture something timeless. I hope that whatever I shoot represents a history rather than a single day of a race. That’s the idea, anyway!”
Buy Michael’s book, “Mountains, Epic Cycling Climbs” at Awesome Books or his website.
