Col Agnel
Mountain pass between France and Italy
Col Agnel (Italian: Colle dell'Agnello) is a mountain pass in the Cottian Alps, west of Monte Viso between France and Italy which links the Queyras valley (Hautes-Alpes) with Pontechianale in the province of Cuneo, Piedmont.
At 2,744 m (9,003 ft), it is the third highest paved road pass of the Alps, after Stelvio Pass and Col de l'Iseran.
Despite being the highest international pass of the Alps, Col Agnel is somewhat unknown and not heavily used. It is one of the many passes suggested as the route taken by Hannibal in his march, with elephants, to attack Rome at the start of the Second Punic War and a modern-era plaque, mounted on a rock on the French side, commemorates the event.
01Cycling
From Château-Queyras (France), the climb is 20.5 km long at an average gradient of 6.6%. From Casteldelfino (Italy), the climb is 22.4 km long at an average gradient of 6.5%.
Tour de France
The Col Agnel was crossed for the first time on 20 July 2008 during stage 15 of the 2008 Tour de France. The Col Agnel was crossed for the Second Time on 21 July 2011 during Stage 18 of The 2011 Tour de France.
| Year | Stage | Category | Start | Finish | Leader at the summit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 18 | HC | Pinerolo | Serre-Chevalier | Maxim Iglinsky (KAZ) |
| 2008 | 15 | HC | Embrun | Prato Nevoso | Egoi Martínez (ESP) |
Giro d'Italia
The Col Agnel has been crossed twice during Giro d'Italia.
| Year | Stage | Category | Start | Finish | Leader at the summit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | 20 | 1 | Cuneo | Les Deux Alpes | Stefano Zanini (ITA) |
| 2000 | 19 | 1 | Saluzzo | Briançon | Chepe González (COL) |
| 2007 | 12 | 1 | Scalenghe | Briançon | Yoann Le Boulanger (FRA) |
| 2016 | 19 | 1 | Pinerolo | Risoul | Michele Scarponi (ITA) |
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Col Agnel”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Colleagnello001.jpg by No machine-readable author provided. Idéfix~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0
- Znak na przełęczy Col Agnel -- Colle dell'Agnello (2025-08-23).jpg by Olgierd Rudak, CC BY-SA 4.0
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