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#1
10-01-2014, 04:51 AM
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Col de la Madeleine by the Fantabulous Traverse
14 September I headed into the Savoie to check out a road, a high mountain chemin of rock and dirt. All I knew about it was that it existed; I’d seen a sign for it in the spring when Maxn, my son Mat, and I rode the Col de Chaussy via the stackbacks then down the north side. We went through a small hamlet perched on the hillside and saw a narrow road going right with a sign that said Col de la Madeleine. A bit lower in another hamlet we pulled into a restaurant that was open and sat outside and enjoyed some well-earned beers. Mat asked the owner about the road we’d seen. She threw her arms up in the air and with lots of gesticulations told us the road was a disaster, all up and down, up and down, don’t go near it.
Which made me want to see it for myself. Checked out Google Earth, found the track, didn’t learn anything other than it was there. Summer arrived and passed with the road wriggling around in my gray matter. This was the summer that wasn’t, as in cool and wet much of the time with the high cols looking bleak. September pulled in wrapped in mostly blue skies and warm even hot temperatures. Sunday the fourteenth was particularly fine. A perfect day to check out the road. My early start got swallowed up by lots of unexpected needs that had to be dealt with. Didn’t get to La Chambre until three in the afternoon. A late start for what could be a big ride because first I had to get to the start of this mystery road by riding up what Mat, Maxn, and I had ridden down from Chaussy. The profile I found of it showed lots of red. When it wasn’t red it was yellow. Red is double-digit, yellow high single-digit. A climb of pain. At least the start wouldn’t be too bad, the road to the Madeleine. Or so I thought. Turned out to be another memory failure. First K post in La Chambre showed 6%. Well before the end of that K I was on my 34/27. The next K post showed 9%. Okay, just a bump at the start. Won’t last. Got to the next post, 10%. Oops, slight miscalculation in my head. Next one was easier, 8%, but somehow it didn’t feel any easier. Barely saw the next one while I was staring at the road in front of my wheel, 9%. Only lasted for a short bit because I got to the turn for the road to Chaussy. Where the climbing got serious. Two-laner road but tight angling up the mountain. Blacktop heavily dosed with gravel but smooth and uniform anyway. No idea how steep it was other than at least as steep as the steep sections on the road to the Madeleine but, at least for me, easier anyway. Not physically but mentally. I like those small roads twisting up the mountains. Their interest factor is way higher and in this instance even higher yet because it was all new territory. True, I’d ridden down it once but have to admit to not having seen much. We were flying down off that mountain pushing the speed and I was like a pickpocket in a roomful of saints; all I saw were pockets. What the road was like I had no idea other than lots of fun. Thus going up was all new territory. I won’t bore you with details other than the pitch is forever changing, mostly between way steep and just steep, in the afternoon it’s a pizza oven if the sun’s out (the sun was out in full force), traffic is mostly non-existent, views are down into the valley the road to the Madeleine goes up and across the Maurienne Valley and up the valley to the Col du Glandon. I like the climb even though I had lots of moments where when I looked ahead I groaned at what I saw. There was a long section that was new, super smooth blacktop and all of a sudden the bike is rolling faster. A long, angling, curving traverse led into a series of 4 switchbacks. The first one back to the right was followed by a ramp of torture. After the fourth switchback a short traverse took me up to some sort of chapel after which the road went left and died. Almost flat, that felt good, no felt luxurious. Plus the views opened up like someone had thrown open the curtains. Fields of grasses in the foreground, a high ridge of peaks in the background, in between the roofs of villages and hamlets scattered across the hillside in a thin forest. The easy rolling didn’t last but long enough for a good pause in the effort exerted. Started rising again, mixed grades, some hard, some not so hard, lots of bends, past houses with lots of flowers and wood and every one with a vegetable garden, a lot with chickens too. Into the village of Montaimont, nice looking restaurant to the left with tables outside under trees. Big temptation. Forget this riding business, sit back, drink a beer, relax. Instead I stopped at the fountain just past it and filled both bottles. One was empty, one half empty. Hot day. Up into a tight switchback in front of the cemetery. Good location. If anybody blows it driving down too fast they’re already home. Around another tight switchback to the right. Glance left and I’m looking through the tower of the church, as in looking level through the tower. Good location too only this time the driver who overcooks his ability is already in the church for the services. Friggin steep through here. Let’s off, then gets steeper. Finally arrive at the restaurant where the lady told us to stay away from that road to the Madeleine. I ride past, heading to that road she warned me about. Get to the hamlet and the junction, turn left, and up. I won’t say it was steeper yet because by then my legs were whining but if it wasn’t steeper, it also wasn’t any easier. I was wondering how soon the dirt would kick in because climbing on grades this steep on dirt with a 34/27 is going to be a monster. No dirt, just buffed blacktop. Truly, I kid you not, buffed blacktop, a one-lane road high on the mountain going nowhere and it’s totally buffed. Looks like asphalt that was laid down this year or if not, no more than a year ago. Amazing. Along the edge in places I could see chunks of the old blacktop poking out so the pavement bit wasn’t a new development. This is an insanely wonderful road, as good as any I’ve ever ridden. What I want to say is it’s the best I’ve ever ridden but I don’t want to exaggerate. But if it was a little less steep (or more likely if I wasn’t quite so tired) no question, this would be the best of the best. Through a thin forest of deciduous trees and fields of grasses sweeping up and down the mountain. The road doesn’t know what straight is. Just snaking along up the slopes. Forest left behind, nothing but prairie now with scattered pockets of trees and some isolated farms. The views are huge. I have no idea where I’m going and it absolutely doesn’t matter because where I am is surreal. Road rolls over a small hill and my jaw is bouncing off the handlebar. There’s this beautiful little lake in a hollow under the mountain. I’d seen signs for the Lac de Loup (Wolf Lake) but hadn’t given it much attention. And here it was. And the pavement just kept on going. Past the lake, up through a short series of stackbacks, over a low, round ridge and into another basin. Road’s still paved. This is crazy. I’ve got to be around 1600 meters on the side of this mountain and there’s nothing there but fields and cows and some scattered farmsteads and the road is paved. And here I was thinking I was going to be doing this big ride on dirt. If it had been I would have suffered because lots of the grades were low double-digit, or if not, damn near. And I still don’t know where the road’s going because it disappears out of sight beyond a low ridge. I get to the ridge, the road goes limp, starts contouring across the slopes, and that’s it for the pavement. Not suddenly, just a sort of slow degrading from asphalt to dirt. I keep going. It’s late and I really need to start back but I want to see where this puppy is going. Around another shoulder and I stop. I can see the road way the heck up on the ridge on the far side of the basin. Check the time again. No way, can’t go on. Okay, another day. Reluctantly. The light coming in low from the west, the temperature no longer hot, the air still, the silence penetrating, I really didn’t want to turn around. But… The plunge back to La Chambre was superb. Thirty minutes of sustained, high intensity downhilling, dancing the line between sheer speed, staying on the road, and leaving that hopefully large enough margin for the unexpected car in the wrong place at the wrong time. Your basic rush. Some pics from this first excursion 
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#2
10-01-2014, 04:56 AM
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Two weeks to the day later I was back to do the full loop, this time with Maxn. He really wanted to do it via the stackbacks and the Col de Chauffy but I had big doubts about being able to go the route that way. He was okay with that, especially when I told him the north side was a terrific climb. Our timing was impeccable, we’re talking silver dollar day, pure and simple. We were also earlier in the day so avoided the pizza oven effect. Maxn’s a real Scotsman when it comes to words so when he commented a few times on the grade in two words (assuming a word with an apostrophe is one word, not two), I was one happy camper because now I knew it wasn’t my legs being a couple of wooses. Plus, and this was an even better comment on the grades, he was even off the saddle on lots of occasions! We got to the start of the grand traverse road and headed up and now he was stunned. A buffed, paved singletrack high on the mountainside. Totally crazy. We even watched a red fox cross the road and somewhat casually amble up the hillside.
A little before our grand traverse road we’d passed a mountain biker heading up. And forgot about him. Rode past the lake, up the stackbacks, looked down, saw him back there a ways toiling up towards the lake. Rolled across the alpine prairie, over the ridge, and onto the dirt where I told Maxn I needed to stop, eat, take a break. Man did that feel good. Just sitting back staring out at this fabulous panorama at our feet. Right across the way we could see the Col du Glandon. To the left we could see the Aiguilles d’Arves above the Col du Molard. Closer in we could see the Col de Chaussy. Gorgeous. Ate, drank, relaxed, looked up and lo and behold here comes the mountain biker. He tells us this isn’t the end as he rides by, no doubt thinking so much for those pesky road riders with their skinny tires, time for them to turn around and leave the rest of the route to a mountain biker. Eventually we’re back on the bikes, heading into the unknown, the dirt road up the mountain. I was hoping like hell it wasn’t going to be as steep as what we’d been riding so far because if it was, I’d be hurting with a 34/27 for my climbing gear. Like maybe even having to hoof it at times. Didn’t happen. The road was excellent. More than half the time more dirt than rock and when things got pretty rocky, we’d just pick our lines and power up. And all the time there are these huge views all around us. We weren’t above tree line but for whatever reason this was nothing but high mountain prairies. And yea, at times it was steep but traction was good enough that with some careful weight transfer, I was even riding up them standing up much of the time. There was one nasty little pitch into a tight turn to the right on a steep grade that when I looked at it, I thought this was going to be tricky. It wasn’t. But I had to stop anyway part way through the turn because when I looked left, I was looking right down into the valley with the road to the Madeleine. It seemed so steep I felt like I could have thrown a rock and hit the road. Which wasn’t even close to the truth of course but that’s how airy it was. Turned out that was also just about the end of the hard climbing. We came up onto a round ridge that’s part of the ski area and the road took off into a long, snaking contour. Maxn’s up ahead carrying a pace while I’m lagging behind stopping and shooting pics. He cheats and does the shooting business with a GoPro. I shot him disappearing around a ridge. With a long lens could have bagged a good shot. Oh well. I took off after him and all of a sudden I’m moving down the cogs and the road’s still going up. How sweet can it get! Here we are high on this mountainside on a dirt/rock road and we’re flying along. Somewhere along in there I even moved up onto my big ring! Must admit that the aesthetics of the ride tailed off dramatically through here. We were in the ski area domain, lifts, ski runs, and service roads scattered over the slopes. And down below to the left the ski station itself, St François Longchamp, a place that probably looks better in the winter full of snow. Pretty much null in the architecture department. Off to the left we could see the Col de la Madeleine and thejunction where our dirt road joined the road to the col. Getting to that junction was looking like a long downhill which, depending on conditions, could be interesting with the skinny tires. Turned out it was fun city all the way. I’m following Maxn down and he’s just burning down the track. Oops, a slight interruption, a climb, some panic shifting, out of the saddle power stroking, over the top, and down again, hard and fast. And lo and behold here’s our mountain biker! He hears us coming and pulls to the side as we barrel by and he shouts out the equivalent to you guys are crazy! Maybe by normal french road biker standards, not by ours. Maxn tells me all the french road riders he knows never leave the pavement. Never. Their loss. We hit the junction flying. Maxn looks back with a shrug that’s asking do we ride to the col. Of course we ride to the col, he at his pace, fast, me at mine, slow. I’m beat but there’s no way I’m not going to ride to the col. I mean it’s only 140 meters above us by the K post I saw, which, to use the rather hilarious french phrase, I can do with two fingers in my nose. Don’t ask, I have no idea where that comes from. I also keep all my fingers on the handlebar but get there anyway. Maxn is standing next to a new and rather elaborate sign for the col when I get there but I spot something very cool looking in the parking lot further on. I keep going. Yes, two Lotus 7’s and a Porsche Spyder. I’ve never seen a Spyder in real life. Just pics. Sweet car. Normally I’d be checking out the 7’s but the Spyder hogs up all my attention. So much so that I barely even noticed Mont Blanc standing proud in the background. Okay, I was told in another post that I put up with pics of the car that’s it wasn’t a real Spyder but a very well done replica. Sure as heck looked to me like the real deal. Either way, sweet car. Then down, fast and furious all the way by the normal road to La Chambre. Much better as a downhill than a climb in my opinion. Going up just a long and at times hard climb, going down a speed fest with no worries about cars taking up the roadway. We even passed a couple on the way down. The Madeleine grand dirt traverse. Unreal ride in an unreal setting. Hands down one of the best rides I’ve ever done, even with the section in the ski domain. A have to ride, simple as that. And I think the direction we did it in, up from the Chaussy road, is the way to go. Toss in the stackbacks to the Col de Chaussy like Maxn wanted to do and you’d be looking at a concept-warping ride, the kind that opens up the eyes to all kinds of new riding possibilities. Pics from the day with Maxn who’ll probably be posting a link to the video he shot.
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#4
10-01-2014, 07:11 AM
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Fantastic! Thanks for taking the time to share this with us. Tim
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#7
10-01-2014, 01:52 PM
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Wow! Austin is really nice today. As nice as it is, I'd REALLY like to be on the la Madeleine instead.
Beautiful pictures as always. The third one really does it for me.  I LOVE that road on the mountainside.Texbike
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#10
10-01-2014, 11:42 PM
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I agree with all the laudatory comments! One of my favourites of all Velotel's write ups. Thanks again.
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#11
10-02-2014, 03:07 AM
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A glorious ride on a spectacular day. To be repeated, for sure!
Velotel, you forgot to mention that we saw two yet to be identified supercars along the way and it has been driving me crazy ever since. They were convertible, wide, sounded great and had a set of three or four small tail lights in a slightly arcing vertical arrangement. The front's looked Alfa-ish Video here http://youtu.be/PMFHR6DGNgQ?list=UUq...msYfFt-FsP_o-A
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#12
10-02-2014, 08:28 AM
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Oh yea, we saw two very fast looking cars, roadsters, nice sounds coming out their pipes, no idea what they were, both the same.
I like your B&W treatment. Cool. The vid too (on the other hand, the music...but I'm old). Too bad you ran out of power so couldn't have more of the descent. That one's fun and fast.
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#13
10-02-2014, 09:39 AM
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Awesome write-up. So jealous I wasn't there for that one. Can't wait to check it out.
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#14
10-02-2014, 10:01 AM
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Thanks for taking the time to communicate your experience so powerfully. The photos are unreal, but this line spoke straight to my core:
Quote:
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#15
10-02-2014, 10:09 AM
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Stunning! Thank you for taking the time to share an "Epic" ride. I had the opportunity to ride the Col in 2010 when we were following the Tour. All I could remember was making it to the top and writing my name on the old sign.
You pictures and Maxn's video brought back visual memories of what was not recorded by my oxygen deprived brain. Beautiful... thanks. Last edited by lovethesport; 10-02-2014 at 10:16 AM.
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