velotel
12-27-2015, 03:42 AM
This quote unquote winter is crazier than ever. On 17 December, I rode Ventoux, summit 1912 meters, by the road from Malaucene, the road that goes up the north slopes that are normally under snow. A week and one day later I ride the Col de la Madeleine, altitude 2000 meters (or almost, no one seems to agree on its height). In the winter Col de la Madeleine is a ski run. Not this year, or at least not yet. Actually I didn't get to the col itself, stopped by snow about a K and a half short. Not much snow, just enough to make pressing ahead with road cleats and skinny tires unappealing.
The Madeleine wasn't even on the radar screen in the morning. I knew I'd bag a ride later in the day but what that would be remained unknown. First some chores, vacuum the house, mop the floors, prepare a fire for later so my wife could cook a big ol hunk of young goat. Chores done, time for a ride. Lots of possibilities. Maybe revisit one of my favorites, Col de l'Arpettaz, up in Savoie, check out if there's snow on the Grand Traverse.
In the car, heading up the autoroute, direction Albertville. The Madeleine leapt to mind. Not the normal road, not one of my favorites. At all. An okay descent, even an okay plus descent, but up, a bit boring. Then there's the old road, the original road built long before the ski area. I'd never ridden it. Scared me. Seen from the other side of the valley from the normal road, it looks steep. I'd heard it was steep too. So I avoided it. Until now.
No idea why now. My legs were still beat from Ventoux but the road was calling me. Parked in my usual place near the autoroute's La Chambre exit. Headed off, rolling through sunlight and heat. In December. Looked up, saw the old road on the mountain side. Looking steep. Got to the junction, the one I'd always studiously ignored, swung left, and coasted downhill. So much for the hard climbing. A hundred meters later an old church. Actually they're all old, some just older than others. Old churches are ubiquitous in France. Past the church, past the cemetery, over the creek, hit a junction, turn right, head up.
Past houses, most relatively new, some older but modernized. Kind of a subdivision and I'm in my lowest gear, a 34/27. Saving my legs. Get to the end of the houses, the road pinches in, rises up. A lot. The climb fully joined. Nothing but up for some 10 K with lots of bad ass pitches along the way! Some short, some long, all wickedly rude. We're talking double digits. That's what they felt like and given my jaunt up Ventoux only eight days earlier, I feel safe calling them double digits. The steepest I saw on Ventoux was 12%; the steepest here are steeper.
A fantastic road. Narrow, car and a half with mostly imaginary shoulders, wonderfully twisty, views and road constantly shifting, some sections clinging to the mountain with only a guard rail between the road and air. And killer ramps that appear regularly, maybe I mentioned that already. The kinds of ramps that when you spot them, or at least when I spotted them, generate lots of holy f...s and holy s...s. Some were pretty long.
A beautiful ride, very cool, riding the Madeleine on 25 December, never imagined doing that. Never. What cracks me up is that the damn thing turned out to be more brutal than I'd imagined and I loved it! Totally transformed my opinion of the Madeleine. Plus when I finally arrived in the ski station, I made a spur of the moment call and hooked back left on a road that I had no idea where it was going, only a hunch. Turned out to be a good call. I avoided the center of the station with its high-rise block buildings that always turn me off and climbed up past some nice looking wood and rock architecture and eventually arrived at the switchback where the road to the col leaves the ski station and heads up across the fields.
From there up the road was closed to cars. Or supposed to be but the gate was open enough that cars could get through anyway. Must have seen maybe a hundred walkers on the road and on the snow, all either heading to the col or coming back. Everyone out enjoying the crazy weather.
Got to where there wasn't any more black showing, took a long break, ate, drank, enjoyed where I was. Then headed down. Down the road I came up. Had a suspicion it could be a fun one. It is. Fierce gravity accelerations, lots of linked bends, fast carvers, some round switchbacks, and the road doing lots of jumping around. A wild mouse ride, technical and fast. Also a bit dangerous because it's so narrow with lots of totally blind turns so huge care is the rule in case a car's coming up. Even worse, there's no traffic to speak of so after awhile thinking the road's automatically clear is way too easy. Which is when you'll meet a car of course.
In short, this road blew me away. It's now firmly planted in the crowd trying to get that top place. A kick butt climb and a technical scorcher coming down. I think I now have one more stunning loop : up the stackbacks to Col du Chaussy, down the back side, up and across the high traverse to the road to Madeleine, up to the col, turn around, down the old road back to the valley floor. That would be one awesome ride. But just as an up and back is awesome too. Around 1475 vertical meters (4840 ft) and 40 K of pure joy. On the 25th of December. Amazing.
Gotta say 015 has turned out to be a year of riding like none before. Hell of a way to celebrate turning 70!
Happy Holidays and now a few pics
The Madeleine wasn't even on the radar screen in the morning. I knew I'd bag a ride later in the day but what that would be remained unknown. First some chores, vacuum the house, mop the floors, prepare a fire for later so my wife could cook a big ol hunk of young goat. Chores done, time for a ride. Lots of possibilities. Maybe revisit one of my favorites, Col de l'Arpettaz, up in Savoie, check out if there's snow on the Grand Traverse.
In the car, heading up the autoroute, direction Albertville. The Madeleine leapt to mind. Not the normal road, not one of my favorites. At all. An okay descent, even an okay plus descent, but up, a bit boring. Then there's the old road, the original road built long before the ski area. I'd never ridden it. Scared me. Seen from the other side of the valley from the normal road, it looks steep. I'd heard it was steep too. So I avoided it. Until now.
No idea why now. My legs were still beat from Ventoux but the road was calling me. Parked in my usual place near the autoroute's La Chambre exit. Headed off, rolling through sunlight and heat. In December. Looked up, saw the old road on the mountain side. Looking steep. Got to the junction, the one I'd always studiously ignored, swung left, and coasted downhill. So much for the hard climbing. A hundred meters later an old church. Actually they're all old, some just older than others. Old churches are ubiquitous in France. Past the church, past the cemetery, over the creek, hit a junction, turn right, head up.
Past houses, most relatively new, some older but modernized. Kind of a subdivision and I'm in my lowest gear, a 34/27. Saving my legs. Get to the end of the houses, the road pinches in, rises up. A lot. The climb fully joined. Nothing but up for some 10 K with lots of bad ass pitches along the way! Some short, some long, all wickedly rude. We're talking double digits. That's what they felt like and given my jaunt up Ventoux only eight days earlier, I feel safe calling them double digits. The steepest I saw on Ventoux was 12%; the steepest here are steeper.
A fantastic road. Narrow, car and a half with mostly imaginary shoulders, wonderfully twisty, views and road constantly shifting, some sections clinging to the mountain with only a guard rail between the road and air. And killer ramps that appear regularly, maybe I mentioned that already. The kinds of ramps that when you spot them, or at least when I spotted them, generate lots of holy f...s and holy s...s. Some were pretty long.
A beautiful ride, very cool, riding the Madeleine on 25 December, never imagined doing that. Never. What cracks me up is that the damn thing turned out to be more brutal than I'd imagined and I loved it! Totally transformed my opinion of the Madeleine. Plus when I finally arrived in the ski station, I made a spur of the moment call and hooked back left on a road that I had no idea where it was going, only a hunch. Turned out to be a good call. I avoided the center of the station with its high-rise block buildings that always turn me off and climbed up past some nice looking wood and rock architecture and eventually arrived at the switchback where the road to the col leaves the ski station and heads up across the fields.
From there up the road was closed to cars. Or supposed to be but the gate was open enough that cars could get through anyway. Must have seen maybe a hundred walkers on the road and on the snow, all either heading to the col or coming back. Everyone out enjoying the crazy weather.
Got to where there wasn't any more black showing, took a long break, ate, drank, enjoyed where I was. Then headed down. Down the road I came up. Had a suspicion it could be a fun one. It is. Fierce gravity accelerations, lots of linked bends, fast carvers, some round switchbacks, and the road doing lots of jumping around. A wild mouse ride, technical and fast. Also a bit dangerous because it's so narrow with lots of totally blind turns so huge care is the rule in case a car's coming up. Even worse, there's no traffic to speak of so after awhile thinking the road's automatically clear is way too easy. Which is when you'll meet a car of course.
In short, this road blew me away. It's now firmly planted in the crowd trying to get that top place. A kick butt climb and a technical scorcher coming down. I think I now have one more stunning loop : up the stackbacks to Col du Chaussy, down the back side, up and across the high traverse to the road to Madeleine, up to the col, turn around, down the old road back to the valley floor. That would be one awesome ride. But just as an up and back is awesome too. Around 1475 vertical meters (4840 ft) and 40 K of pure joy. On the 25th of December. Amazing.
Gotta say 015 has turned out to be a year of riding like none before. Hell of a way to celebrate turning 70!
Happy Holidays and now a few pics