Col de la Madeleine via Col du Chaussy
By Will • Aug 24th, 2009 • Category: Climbs, CyclingNOTE: If you are looking for a preview of Madeleine and Stage 9 of the 2010 Tour de France – click here.
Now this is an interesting way to do Col de la Madeleine. First climbing Col du Chaussy and then following small, mainly unpaved, roads to Madeleine.
Col du Chaussy is probably best known for the truly unbelievable hairpins at the start – the “lacets de Montvernier.” But beyond this it’s a big climb with more than 1000 metres of ascent.
The lacets de Montvernier is a special 3 km stretch with 17 hairpins as the road virtually climbs a cliff. It’s very difficult to photograph from the road but I got one shot hanging over the cliff from the picturesque chapel at the top (it’s worth clicking for a bigger version).
After the hairpins, it’s still a very interesting climb winding up through alpine fields with a great stretch along a cliff road a few kms from the top.
From Col du Chaussy until the last 2 kms, the majority of the road is not paved and is definitely NOT suitable for a road bike.
This stretch is great. No cars, lots of cows, great views – and the Lac du Loup (wolf lake).
At “La Traverse”, the road crosses back into the valley with Madeleine, and joins the main route a couple of kms from the top. This was a hot, tough ride and I enjoyed my reward at the restaurant at the top: a gauffre myrtilles!
Descending Madeleine, I took the D76 instead of the D213 which is the classic Tour route. The D76 descends on the opposite side of the huge gorge and has the advantage of absolutely no traffic. Frankly, it seems a more interesting route than the D213 for the next time I visit – and is do-able by road bike.
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Will is Happiest while cycling uphill. More enthusiastic than talented, his 2010 Challenge is to cycle a 100 Cols (mountain passes), survive La Marmotte again, and complete at least one century a month.
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Great ride! You got me jealous with this one
pareil !
ces 2 derniers articles donnent envie de passer un WE à “La Chambre”
vive la Maurienne !
Wow! Super photo des “lacets de Montvernier” and it looks like it was so quiet.
Will, You have solved one of my great mysteries. I think. I saw a picture of this col on one of the tour operators web sites with a note that they had a secret col no other companies new of. I searched for hours on the web, and scanned the alps on google earth ad nauseum. Looks like the road was built on a gravel slide down a cliff face. Amazing. Pete
Well done, Will! This looks like a fantastic pass in the Maurienne valley. Just one question: is it possible to do Col de Chaussy up to the top, with a road bike (without getting down on the other side to do the Madeleine)? Cheers,
Nicholas
Hello Nicholas,
Yes, The route from Pontamafrey, up the Lacets de Montvernier until (but not past) Col du Chaussy is perfect for a road bike.
So Will, as I said, you got me jealous with this one. So jealous that I did it myself yesterday. This is a TOUGH piece of road indeed (definitely when you add luggage for 3 days of touring). Plus, as I had no GPS support I missed the proper road at Bonvillard and ended up on the hiking path towards Lac du Loup. No need to say I was walking/pushing. Just like you did, I really enjoyed the way down over the D76-no cars indeed. However, I would be very cautious descending this road on a racebike as it is very technical and the turns are sometimes coming up pretty unexpectedly. What I mean to say is that this is not the type of road where you can just let roll. BTW, once this was done, it was too late to do Glandon-Croix de Fer so I started heading back up north towards Geneva and spent the night on top of another old friend of ours : Col du Marocaz with view on Champ-Laurent
I wish i have seen this review before i took my Orca up the road to the top of the Madeleine….i was on edge all the way up………my mate puncture just before we hit the tarmac again…..but it is easily possible on a road bike!!!!