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Region: French Alps
Climbing effort: 1246 cep
Elevation meters: 1543
Steepest kilometer: 9.8%

Steepest 250 m: 12%
Foot: 450 m    Top: 1993 m
Mean slope: 7.7%
Length: 19.9 km

From: La Chambre
Road conditions (2018): good
Other race bikers: 10-25 per hour
Motor vehicles: 30-60 per hour
Scenery and road: (2/5)
Restaurant or bar near top: yes

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Other climbs French Alps

Thanks to its melodious name, I have always expected the Col de la Madeleine to be utterly beautiful but unfortunately I was disappointed, once more. The landscape surrounding her is not really outstanding, the road leading to her is wide and five kilometers before the pass a typical French winter resort (Longchamps 1650), which does not really look like a gem, skirts the road on both sides. Luckily, there were relatively few car drivers and motor cyclists on the road to Madeleine when I cycled here. Instead I saw many cyclists heading to the pass. Until 2018 Madeleine was visited 26 times by the cyclists of the Tour de France. To reach her from La Chambre, cyclists have to make quite an effort because 1543 elevation meters have to be overcome. These are distributed fairly evenly over the long (20 kilometers) ride. After a short approach of one and a half kilometers, the remaining five hundred meter intervals, except four, have a slope of 7-9%. Nowhere a longer, easy stretch is found that could be used to recover. As a consolation, Madeleine is a good hostess because she welcomes her visitors on a terrace with drinks and food.