velotel
08-08-2020, 03:38 PM
The ride that pushed me deeper onto dirt roads in the Alps. I'd done lots of local farm tracks and some single-tracks but nothing up high. Then I discovered this wonderful stretch of dirt between the road to Col du Chaussy and the road to Col de la Madeleine during a ride with my son and Max. During the wild mouse ride descent off the back side of Chaussy I glanced up a one-laner of a road in the hamlet of Bonvillard and noticed a small sign with an arrow pointing up the road and Col de la Madeleine written above the arrow. Further down the road we stopped for beers at an auberge and I asked the lady about the road to the Madeleine. And promptly heard her describing it like the road from hell. Well damn.
Eventually had to look at it myself. Gave me an excuse to ride up the road we ridden down. Did the climb to Bonvillard, a hard one, turned onto the so-called road from hell. Beautiful black top twisting up the mountain through groves of trees and sprawling meadows. Way steep. I'm enjoying myself despite the grades and wondering what that lady was going on about. The buffed asphalt ended, became classic rustic asphalt, the kind I like. Gorgeous scenery up there. A slow bend around a low hill and the asphalt ended. Figured this must be where the road from hell kicks in.
That lady must have been having a really, really bad day when she either drove it or was a passenger because this puppy was ridiculously smooth for a dirt mountain road. I was riding 700x25 tires (25s only in their dreams) at the time and barely even felt the transition to dirt. Finally had to stop because this was in September, the days already short, and it was 5:30 in the evening. With all the unknowns that lay ahead, decided to turn around and finish it another time.
Two weeks later I'm back with Max, both of us riding skinny tires with zero problems, that's how good the road is. With that I was hooked on what I call the Madeleine High Traverse. Perfect road to introduce someone to riding dirt in the Alps with a fat-tired road bike.
The high point of the dirt is on slopes overlooking the St François – Longchamp ski area and across at the Col de la Madeleine. From there on it's a ski area road traversing ski trails and passing under lifts and finally dropping down to the road to the Madeleine, 3 K of relatively easy climbing away. I have to laugh at that statement because according to the signs along the road, the first two of the three K are 9%, which for me is normally not easy. But after the grades on much of the pavement from la Chambre to the road from hell, the road to the Madeleine is almost a lark, even for me. A 28/32 climbing gear helps!
I like the Madeleine. Great views on clear days with Mont Blanc to the north and to the south the valley up to the Col du Glandon and the peaks behind the Col de la Croix de Fer. And a classic old time bar/restaurant right on the col with a terrace to relax on. But what makes the Madeleine special is the descent. This is my number one high mountain paved descent, bar none. Better than Finestre, north side of Izoard, south side of Galibier, etc. But I'm not talking about the normal road. That's okay, pretty fast even, but no challenge, a hold on and go descent. But the old road, the one from the ski area down through the village of Montgellafrey and on to la Chambre, is insane, a mind-blowing experience guaranteed to totally change your ideas on what makes a great descent. It's also a road either most cyclists don't know about or one they studiously avoid. If I hadn't stopped to remove a layer because of the heat I would have moved from 8 on the on the Strava board list to 5! I'm never close to the top of any Strava list, not even with binoculars. But I am on that one, right behind my son.
I always say that riding asphalt doesn't require technical skills, not like dirt where technique rules, but the descent off the Madeleine borders on arguing that point. Most of the distance it's a one-laner, and often a tight one-laner. Like down in the lower third I was ripping along and came up behind two cars. The first one as soon as he saw me pulled as much to the right as he could and slowed to let me go by. Not the second. Must have thought he was faster than a bike. He wasn't.
I was floating off his left rear corner waiting either for a chance to jam by or for him to realize he was blocking me and pull over. Hit a slight bend to the left, blind of course, and I made my chance. Big acceleration, squeeze into the space on his left, one elbow almost grazing the car, the other threatening the cliff face, that's how tight this road is. I was totally tunnel focused on my line, slipped through the gap, and was gone. Can't imagine what the driver was thinking when he, or maybe she, saw this cyclist practically in the window. That section wasn't atypical. At a rough guess I'd say maybe 30-35% of the road is tight like that. Another 35-40% is just standard tightness, as in enough space for a car and a bike with some room to spare, sometimes. The rest is mostly either a butt-clinching two-laner or a barely generous one-laner-and-a-half.
The road doesn't know straight. There are sections where you can kind of see maybe a hundred meters or so ahead if you swing to the outside edge, but it's still doing this slow wiggle through that entire distance. More often than not the turns are blind. Which is good because given the road's width and the lack of visibility, drivers go slower than they probably would otherwise. Then from time to time there are these steep ramps where letting go of the brakes is instant turbo city. Also some sections of flowing S-turns, the kind where you dance from one lean into the next, laughing the whole time.
For me it's an absolutely beautifully choreographed descent, kicking off with the descent off the Madeleine. A full-on normal road with two clear lanes, the road surface smooth, gravity pulling hard. Couple of tricky places with these right-hand turns that suddenly tighten up fast then spit you out into round lefts where you can let the bike roll. At the switchback just above the start of the ski resort there's a road going straight ahead out of the switchback. Road arcs down through a collection of condos then there's an unmarked junction with a road coming in from the right. Easy to miss if you're going fast because it's like 175° back in the other direction.
This is the old road. Starts off easy, rustic pavement, generous lane and a half, through a small hamlet, after which is where things start getting interesting with the road plunging down into the forest, through a couple of round switchbacks, and it's off to the races. The further you drop, the narrower the road. It's crazy fast too. How fast I really don't know but then speed is always relative to the proximity of disaster, like trees, cliffs, rocks, etc. Maybe it was just me that day but I can't help but think that the road has this rhythm that coaxes us into riding with a fluidity and speed that's totally intoxicating. Lots of good views along the way too but you need to stop to see them which is all but mission impossible. I mean it's just way too much fun. Then again I did stop, involuntarily, I was too hot, had to remove the wind jacket. Glad I did too because it was like dropping into a pool of ever increasing heat!
Anyway, that descent turns the Madeleine High Traverse into a total have-to for anyone who loves gravel and screamingly intense descents. It's got it all, great climbing, beautiful dirt road, a 2000-meter col, and a plunge back to the valley like none other.
Eventually had to look at it myself. Gave me an excuse to ride up the road we ridden down. Did the climb to Bonvillard, a hard one, turned onto the so-called road from hell. Beautiful black top twisting up the mountain through groves of trees and sprawling meadows. Way steep. I'm enjoying myself despite the grades and wondering what that lady was going on about. The buffed asphalt ended, became classic rustic asphalt, the kind I like. Gorgeous scenery up there. A slow bend around a low hill and the asphalt ended. Figured this must be where the road from hell kicks in.
That lady must have been having a really, really bad day when she either drove it or was a passenger because this puppy was ridiculously smooth for a dirt mountain road. I was riding 700x25 tires (25s only in their dreams) at the time and barely even felt the transition to dirt. Finally had to stop because this was in September, the days already short, and it was 5:30 in the evening. With all the unknowns that lay ahead, decided to turn around and finish it another time.
Two weeks later I'm back with Max, both of us riding skinny tires with zero problems, that's how good the road is. With that I was hooked on what I call the Madeleine High Traverse. Perfect road to introduce someone to riding dirt in the Alps with a fat-tired road bike.
The high point of the dirt is on slopes overlooking the St François – Longchamp ski area and across at the Col de la Madeleine. From there on it's a ski area road traversing ski trails and passing under lifts and finally dropping down to the road to the Madeleine, 3 K of relatively easy climbing away. I have to laugh at that statement because according to the signs along the road, the first two of the three K are 9%, which for me is normally not easy. But after the grades on much of the pavement from la Chambre to the road from hell, the road to the Madeleine is almost a lark, even for me. A 28/32 climbing gear helps!
I like the Madeleine. Great views on clear days with Mont Blanc to the north and to the south the valley up to the Col du Glandon and the peaks behind the Col de la Croix de Fer. And a classic old time bar/restaurant right on the col with a terrace to relax on. But what makes the Madeleine special is the descent. This is my number one high mountain paved descent, bar none. Better than Finestre, north side of Izoard, south side of Galibier, etc. But I'm not talking about the normal road. That's okay, pretty fast even, but no challenge, a hold on and go descent. But the old road, the one from the ski area down through the village of Montgellafrey and on to la Chambre, is insane, a mind-blowing experience guaranteed to totally change your ideas on what makes a great descent. It's also a road either most cyclists don't know about or one they studiously avoid. If I hadn't stopped to remove a layer because of the heat I would have moved from 8 on the on the Strava board list to 5! I'm never close to the top of any Strava list, not even with binoculars. But I am on that one, right behind my son.
I always say that riding asphalt doesn't require technical skills, not like dirt where technique rules, but the descent off the Madeleine borders on arguing that point. Most of the distance it's a one-laner, and often a tight one-laner. Like down in the lower third I was ripping along and came up behind two cars. The first one as soon as he saw me pulled as much to the right as he could and slowed to let me go by. Not the second. Must have thought he was faster than a bike. He wasn't.
I was floating off his left rear corner waiting either for a chance to jam by or for him to realize he was blocking me and pull over. Hit a slight bend to the left, blind of course, and I made my chance. Big acceleration, squeeze into the space on his left, one elbow almost grazing the car, the other threatening the cliff face, that's how tight this road is. I was totally tunnel focused on my line, slipped through the gap, and was gone. Can't imagine what the driver was thinking when he, or maybe she, saw this cyclist practically in the window. That section wasn't atypical. At a rough guess I'd say maybe 30-35% of the road is tight like that. Another 35-40% is just standard tightness, as in enough space for a car and a bike with some room to spare, sometimes. The rest is mostly either a butt-clinching two-laner or a barely generous one-laner-and-a-half.
The road doesn't know straight. There are sections where you can kind of see maybe a hundred meters or so ahead if you swing to the outside edge, but it's still doing this slow wiggle through that entire distance. More often than not the turns are blind. Which is good because given the road's width and the lack of visibility, drivers go slower than they probably would otherwise. Then from time to time there are these steep ramps where letting go of the brakes is instant turbo city. Also some sections of flowing S-turns, the kind where you dance from one lean into the next, laughing the whole time.
For me it's an absolutely beautifully choreographed descent, kicking off with the descent off the Madeleine. A full-on normal road with two clear lanes, the road surface smooth, gravity pulling hard. Couple of tricky places with these right-hand turns that suddenly tighten up fast then spit you out into round lefts where you can let the bike roll. At the switchback just above the start of the ski resort there's a road going straight ahead out of the switchback. Road arcs down through a collection of condos then there's an unmarked junction with a road coming in from the right. Easy to miss if you're going fast because it's like 175° back in the other direction.
This is the old road. Starts off easy, rustic pavement, generous lane and a half, through a small hamlet, after which is where things start getting interesting with the road plunging down into the forest, through a couple of round switchbacks, and it's off to the races. The further you drop, the narrower the road. It's crazy fast too. How fast I really don't know but then speed is always relative to the proximity of disaster, like trees, cliffs, rocks, etc. Maybe it was just me that day but I can't help but think that the road has this rhythm that coaxes us into riding with a fluidity and speed that's totally intoxicating. Lots of good views along the way too but you need to stop to see them which is all but mission impossible. I mean it's just way too much fun. Then again I did stop, involuntarily, I was too hot, had to remove the wind jacket. Glad I did too because it was like dropping into a pool of ever increasing heat!
Anyway, that descent turns the Madeleine High Traverse into a total have-to for anyone who loves gravel and screamingly intense descents. It's got it all, great climbing, beautiful dirt road, a 2000-meter col, and a plunge back to the valley like none other.