The Best Mountain Pass in the World
Every road cyclist dreams of suffering up the famous mountain passes of the Tour de France like the Galiber and Alp d’Heuz but the best mountain to ride up is the Col de la Madeleine from the North and the town of Feissons-sur-Isère.The mountain is a Hors Categorie or out-of-category climb with 26 km of ascent and 1500 meters of ascent.
1. Low Traffic- Alp d’Heuz and the Galiber have tons of traffic. The road is one of two only road for the people of the town of Heuz to use. Therefore, the entire time there are cars going by you. You can’t really enjoy the mountain since there is so much traffic and you are inhaling tons of smog. Plus there are a lot of cyclists on the road which is annoying also.
The Col de La Madeleine has almost no traffic. In the summer there are some annoying motorcyclists zooming by but no town is on the top of the mountain. The ski town is located on the southern portion of the mountain. There are very few cars. Once a bright blue Lamborghini flew by me but there are few people on the mountain.
2. Bike Paths nearly the entire way- France has some of the best bike paths in Europe for cyclist. I lived in Annecy which Is 50 miles away from the mountain and around 40 miles of the route was on the bike path. You take the path around the Annecy Lake and continue going to Albertville. There are also few cyclists and people on the bike path so you can chill and have your legs warm up for 30 miles before the climb.
3. The Climb is hard but forgiving- The first 5 km are brutal they basically Alp d’Heuz up the mountain and each turn is around 8% to 10% average. Then it straightens out and there is a little downhill so you can get some speed up and have some recovery.
4. Something for Everyone the mountain is so long it has some much varied terrain and this makes the climb seem epic. It starts as a two-lane road with steep bits of 10% 13% gradient with lots of trees then you get single-track narrow areas after that you get downhill with a waterfall, a couple of false flats hairpins, it has just about everything, and then at the end it opens up to crazy panoramic views of the mountain. You were shaded while climbing but you can finally see where you came from which is super rewarding! Also super hot.
5. Help- There are a couple of places to fill up your bottles so you don’t have to worry about running out of water and at the tour there Is an amazing restaurant to get some coffee and apple pie. Like most of the climbs in the alps, they have km signs of how far you have cycled and how many km to the top and the upcoming gradient which can be discouraging when you get %10 for the next km. Oh year that saves those high gradients for the end to kill off the cyclists!
The Tour de France usually uses this climb as a transfer climb so this is one of the climbs in the middle to get to the Galilber or somewhere else, but if you ever get a chance to cycle in the Alps don’t forget this mountain. It is the best in the world better than any other climb I have cycled and I have ridden my bike a lot of places!
