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Find out more about Club des Cent Cols

The aim of our club is to bring together people who are passionate about mountain biking and to encourage them to share the knowledge they have acquired on the world's mountain passes.

We're not a competitive club - our members ride at their own pace, wherever and whenever they want, on roads or mountain trails, on their own or in a group. Some members climb fewer than ten passes in a year, others more than a hundred. But we hope you'll at least share our passion for the mountains and enjoy the challenge of climbing passes all over the world.

Membership of our club de facto implies a friendly, conciliatory and benevolent attitude in relations between members, without any spirit of competition.

We want to devote our columns and discussions exclusively to mountain passes and mountain biking.

A pass is a specific entity that has a topographical definition. It is never a summit or a mountain, and not every ascent, however long or difficult, leads to a pass. The rules of the game give a definition specific to the Club des Cent Cols, in the knowledge that it is not intended to be universal.

The establishment of the annual list of passes passed is based solely on the good faith of the member. No proof is required.

The six articles of the Game rules clearly provide useful information for anyone wishing to join the Club des Cent Cols. The appended document containing the rules of the game is an explanatory extension of these six articles.

Organisation of the Club des Cent Cols

The legal framework for our club is the French law of 1901 on non-profit associations.

We are affiliated to the Fédération Française de Cyclotourisme (FFCT) under no. 6384 and can offer a licence to anyone who wants one.

Our aim is not to divert memberships or licences to another club, but on the contrary, we want our members to stay with their usual club when they have one.

Although the club originated in Savoie, France, it has no fixed territorial base. The aim of our general organisation is therefore to encourage cohesion, exchanges and meetings between all the members who live in different countries and speak different languages.

The Brotherhood is managed by a Board of Directors made up of a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 11 members, elected by all paid-up members for a four-year term. It meets at least twice a year.

The Board of Directors is supported by dozens of other volunteers, each of whom has an essential task to perform to ensure the smooth running of the club.

Among these, the Territorial and National Delegates are the intermediaries between the Confraternity and the members from a particular geographical area or country, and their role is to lead their zone and provide all the necessary assistance to each of the members in that zone.

A working group in each country drew up a catalogue of all the passes in that country in accordance with our rules. The result is 26 different national catalogues (covering 31 countries). Volunteers are always welcome to help update these constantly evolving catalogues.

The annual "Revue" is the work of an editor-in-chief, a reading committee and numerous authors who freely submit their articles. It also contains the "Roll of Honour" listing the names of our members. This list, which is broken down according to various criteria, reflects the diversity and dynamism of our members.

An IT group made up of skilled members is responsible for maintaining the site and creating IT tools for sharing data about club members and the passes in our catalogues.

A shop has a line of clothing in the club's colours, which was revised in 2018. Other useful items with the Cent Cols Club logo can also be purchased.

Each member of the fraternity can organise his or her own cycling activities, as he or she sees fit and in the locations he or she chooses. But there are also plenty of opportunities to get together within the club.

Stays :

We organise three trips a year to the different mountain ranges of Western Europe, in spring, summer and autumn. At the end of the summer trip, an international get-together gives all the members present the opportunity to get together for a few good words and a friendly drink. The autumn is the time when the Annual General Meeting is held. At the same time, a number of regional meetings are organised throughout the year in different regions and countries.

Regional meetings :

At the initiative of regional coordinators or club members, many regional meetings are organised throughout the year in different regions or countries. They give local members and visiting members the opportunity to meet up. These gatherings are also open to cyclists interested in our club.

Permanent walks :

These are routes mapped out in a region or a country and obey one rule: cross at least 100 passes on a route chosen by the author. There are 17 to date. The participant organises the permanent hike as he or she sees fit, while respecting the rules of the permanent hikes game.

Patents :

To obtain a brevet, the game consists of climbing all the road passes in a département, länder, canton or province, regardless of the number of passes. A national brevet is also awarded for each country. (These certificates are currently being developed and the link will be active as soon as they are available).

Challenges :

These are incentives to travel, proposed by a member of the Club des Cent Cols on a particular and different theme for each challenge.

The permanent walks, brevets and challenges are open to non-members of the brotherhood and are an excellent way of joining.