Madeleine Madness

The motto for this group’s final day with the Tour de France came from Wayne’s bike club in Fort McMurray: “Tonight we drink, but first we ride.” And with our hardest climb yet—the hors category Col de la Madeleine—ride we would… and ride hard. We started in Albertville where Jean-Luc led us along beautiful, quiet side roads as we worked our way towards the impending Tour madness. When we hit the base of the Madeleine, we knew the fun had begun.

The first part of the 26-kilometer climb was merciless and steep. Our group broke up immediately as the climb forced us all to find our own comfortable pace. The campers along the route were still waking up and I saw more than one guy walking around in boxers.

The road up the Madeleine was fairly narrow making traffic flow challenging. I got stuck between two Tour merchandise trucks for about 10 kilometers. These vehicles are open in the back where two women stand and hold up special Tour bags filled with goodies. Each bag is 15 Euros and includes a yellow Tour hat, a little Tour bear, a Tour sharpie and a magazine. They are so loud you can hear them coming for miles, so you can imagine what it was like to have them next to you for almost an hour. If they aren’t cranking out the latest and greatest pop hits, the drivers are on the micro trying to rally the roadside fans to open their wallets. And most of the drivers deliver their sales pitch in at least four languages. It was surreal (not to mention annoying) to be on this remote, small mountain road surrounded by cows and pasture and be sandwiched between two moving, loud, yellow symbols of consumerism.

I finally saw the last of these two special vehicles with about 7K to go in the climb. There on the right side of the road was the devil’s camper and giant bike. The Tour merchandise vehicles stopped there and everyone on them started yelling for El Diablo to wake up and come out and play. One woman even got out and knocked on his camper door. Really it was enough noise to wake the dead, let alone the devil himself. But he didn’t come out and they took off for good up the mountain.

When I got the to top, there was Katie, Sophie and the ever so helpful and sweet Susie Williams from Australia putting the finishing touches on our picnic set up. Katie and Susie had gone to the farmer’s market in Annecy that morning to buy us a huge spread of fresh fruit and vegetables, roasted chickens, sausages, bread, cheeses, salads, desserts and of course, wine.

Our view from a top the Madeleine.

We all filed in one by one having conquered a truly epic climb. Vera, Heather and Erin summited weighing more than when they started. Their jerseys were filled with goodies from the publicity caravan that they milked for all it was worth on their way up the mountain.

Despite being our third and hardest climb of the week, the Madeleine brought out the best in everyone. One of the most amazing cycling stories of the week was Rich. I found out just yesterday, after he had completed one of the hardest climbs around, that our easiest ride the first day – a 24-mile spin through Alsace – had been his longest ride to date. And there he was on top of the world having gotten there on his own volition. Owen Williams from Sidney made to the top looking fresh and ready for more. Steve and Jim knocked off the climb with ease despite having done the Colombiere along with a couple other climbs during a 100+ kilometer ride the day before. Peter Greer from Great Barrington, Massachusetts was the mountain goat of the week and seemed to savor the suffering each new challenge presented. We were all riding into Tour form!

Once the Tour cyclists and all the helicopters and team madness had passed, we descended down the mountain to the next village where we had reserved space in a bar to watch the stage finish in Briancon after two more climbs over the Telegraph/Galibier. Holding true to his club’s motto, Wayne bought me an ice cold Leff. I savored that perfect drink while watching one of my Tour favorites—Vinokourov—go on a bold escape for the stage win.

After the stage finished, we transferred back to our luxurious Imperial Palace in Annecy for our farewell dinner and final good byes. The dinner was lovely and the company was perfect. Just when we all seemed to be coming into form, it was time to go our own ways. It was difficult saying good-bye to such a great group of people, but I hope we were only really saying see you again soon.