Col De La Madone

Murph100

Heading over to Nice on Tues ( tomorrow ) for a week, found some great trips on Ride With GPS, cheers Diarmuid !!

Just curious about the Col De la Madone, how long does it take to climb it and how long is the tunnel at the top ?

BTW If anyone else is there this week and wants to hook up for a spin, send me a PM.

Diarmuid

Murph100 wrote: »

Heading over to Nice on Tues ( tomorrow ) for a week, found some great trips on Ride With GPS, cheers Diarmuid !!

Just curious about the Col De la Madone, how long does it take to climb it and how long is the tunnel at the top ?

How long is a piece of string It's a tough climb, do it early in the morning (ie start in Menton 9am at the latest). The climb faces directly into the sun the whole way up and gets really hot (esp in August).

I just did a google on motionbased and found my first trip up it. from May 2008. I did it with a mate from Ireland in 2009, check out the big break at the fountain in St Agnes on the way up Looks like it took me 1:20 to climb it but I think I brought it down to about an hour by the time I left the region, I'll have a look at my Ascent log tonight. The first section to St Agnes is the toughest.

There's no tunnel on the top but a few really small ones on the way up and down. Nothing worth talking about.

I'm over there around the 12th but won't be on the bike unfortunately. How many days on the bike will you get? How long do you want your trips? I can recommend a few spins based on that.

Murph100

Well I'll be missing the SK so I thought I'd make up for it by do the Madone twice in the week

Jaysus, over an hour climbing ! :eek:

Looking at that Garmin connect you linked, I'm assuming the whole trip is about 75KM from Blvd Victor Hugo ?

I'm trying to keep the spins down to 2 - 3 hours, that way I can go out 6 mornings at least, if I alternate the intensity.

Plan is to head out at 7am and be back with fresh pain au chocolats just in time for herself waking up around 10, should miss the traffic that way as well.

Whats the deal with all the cyclists meeting up on Promenade Des Anglais on Sat & Sun mornings, there were hundreds both mornings last Nov when I was working there. General spins or club only ?

ednwireland

http://www.climbbybike.com/climb.asp?Col=Col-de-la-Madone&qryMountainID=8195

just back from france took me 2.5 hours to climb 1250m over about 17km pn the col du grand columbier

Murph100

Feck ! Just looked at the stats on the col du grand columbier, killer climb ! :eek:

Well done !

ednwireland wrote: »

http://www.climbbybike.com/climb.asp?Col=Col-de-la-Madone&qryMountainID=8195

just back from france took me 2.5 hours to climb 1250m over about 17km pn the col du grand columbier

ednwireland

Murph100 wrote: »

Feck ! Just looked at the stats on the col du grand columbier, killer climb ! :eek:

Well done !

ah but the first day i did

http://www.climbbybike.com/climb.asp?Col=Col-de-la-Biche&qryMountainID=6059

followed by

http://www.climbbybike.com/climb.asp?Col=Col-du-Grand-Colombier&qryMountainID=6622

didnt go up the really hard way
http://www.viamichelin.com/web/Cartes?layers=0001&strLocid=31NDFpcWIxMGNORFV1TmpVd09Eaz1jT1M0MU5Ea3pNUT09&showHRT=&showHRT=&showHRT=

which defo is :eek: even more so than the way i went up

see here

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056008164

edit

just for info had to stop about 3- 4 times on the climb cos my back muscles gave out but legs were fine

edit edit

print maps from here

http://www.viamichelin.com/web/Cartes?layers=0001&strLocid=31NDFpcWIxMGNORFV1TmpVd09Eaz1jT1M0MU5Ea3pNUT09&showHRT=&showHRT=&showHRT=

Murph100

NUTS !!!! ... but fantastic

Murph100

Can anyone tell me if this ' official ' Madone route is correct, it seems to differ from the others, but is very definite about the start point.

http://www.cycle2max.com/bike-hill-climb/THE-Madone-(col-de-la-Madone).aspx?id=454

Diarmuid

I know the start point for the Lance-times you've read about are not the main street in Menton but I never bothered to figure out where. Quite possibly where that map indicates The complete route starts at the junction of Corniches des Serres de la Madone and Avenue de la Madone. Here's a thread on Bikeradar about it.

Murph100

Cheers Diarmuid,


Last day tomorrow, so going to give it another bash, got a little lost on Sat morning, but ended up joining up with the correct route after some insane climbing on little roads around the motorway.

BTW that is some descent back to Nice afterwards, WOW ! Great route, thanks a again !

Diarmuid

Murph100 wrote: »

BTW that is some descent back to Nice afterwards, WOW ! Great route, thanks a again !

yeah you really get value for money on the descent

BTW If you have already topped out that climb I'd recommend you do this route instead. You will get in some classic climbs and descents, including this one: