Col de la Madeleine

I rode this in July 2023 and, honestly, it was pure survival mode. My head unit was reading 36 to 45°C almost the whole way up — probably not entirely accurate, but it felt every bit that hot. The tarmac radiated like a pizza oven and the air in the Arc valley near La Chambre was close and still, the kind of heat where you empty a bottle in twenty minutes and still feel parched.

The D213 leaves the valley through Saint Martin sur la Chambre, tips upward almost immediately, and for the first handful of kilometres you're grinding between orchards and village rooftops with only brief patches of shade. Once the road enters the forest it settles into that grinding, patient rhythm the Madeleine is known for — narrow tarmac, stone barns in the hamlets, the occasional fountain that saved my ride. I stopped at every one. If you're riding this in summer, plan on it.

Saint François Longchamp is where the gearing gets a chance to breathe for a moment and the world opens up. The trees fall away, the alpages take over, and suddenly the road itself becomes the story: enormous painted names across the tarmac — Pogačar, Roglič, Bernal, Quintana, Van Aert, Alaphilippe — a rolling Tour de France fresco under your wheels. Cows graze behind the fences, and the gradient reminds you this is still a hors catégorie.

The final ramps toward Longchamp Montgellafrey and the col are brutally exposed. No shade, and the heat bouncing back up off the road. Then the summit sign at 2,000 m, stickered to within an inch of its life, and the granite monument listing the villages you've just clawed your way past. The Panorama du Col de la Madeleine orientation board looks north across the Tarentaise — and, dead centre, the snow of the Mont Blanc massif floating over the haze. Cold drink under a parasol at the refuge, legs ticking, and just staring at it.

The descent back toward the Maurienne was almost a relief until about halfway down, when the temperature climbed again with every lost metre and I was back in the furnace. 39.6 km, 1,523 m, one of the great Alpine climbs — but go early, carry more water than you think you need, and save something for those last exposed kilometres above the alpages.