Climbing Col de la Madone age 51 and 92Kg | climb with power data & commentary | Too heavy to climb?

A hugely enjoyable, fun, and tough day on the bike in the South of France. Col de la Madone turned out to be a real challenge.

I picked the wrong bike to hire, with a 28-tooth cassette. I should’ve known better, as being a relatively big-unit, I need a bigger cog to spin-out when the gradient gets close to double digits

My target was to get into the top -100 for my weight category on Strava, which meant coming in under the 1-hour mark for the official segment. This proved to be tight, on a climb that’s 7.35 miles long averaging 7.2%.

My average numbers for the official segment were: HR 166bpm / Power 274 watts for just over 57 minutes.

Big thanks to Andrea for the guided ride and to Cafe’ du Cyclist for the Bianchi rental, great service and lovely espresso.

Copyright free music courtesy of YouTube audio library:
So Sweet – Lish Grooves
Spectrum – TrackTribe
Summer somewhere in Cuba – Cumbia Deli

so welcome back to the channel I’m here in nce in the south of France to take on the cold de la madon the madon is one of a number of popular climbs in this area and it’s been made famous for not only having never featured in the tour to France but also being the climb in which Lance Armstrong tested his pre- tour Fitness the official segment starts just on the outside of Menton which is the last French town before the Italian border so it’s a pretty tough climb with over 7 m of ascent averaging over 7% gradient with a number of double digit ramps along the way I chose to rent a bike that turns out has only got a 28 Toth cassette which for a big unit like me weighing 92 kg could prove to be a problem [Music] so taking a look at my weight class on straa a top 100 place will need a sub 1 hour effort which is going to be a big ask I’m going to give it my best shot and we’ll see how we get [Music] on oh wo wo w w wo W oh wo wo wo wo wo wo woah wo w [Music] oh [Music] hey oh oh hey oh hey [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] w [Music] nearly finished the clim from buy about to go down into Menton I think I picked the wrong bike 28 cassette it’s no good when you’re 92 kilos I think the cold Li on it’s going to be tough [Music] the madon is a long climb and so to help me Pace it I split it into five sections section one is the initial twisty climb up under the motorway Bridge section two two is a steadi a drag north to the start of the switchbacks section three is the first and the steeper part of the switchbacks section four is the longer and steadier switch back marked by the turn at Sint agno and section five is the final long drag that includes the tunnels this part starts off pretty hard and just gets tougher as it goes on to the Finish [Music] [Music] so the end of section one and was already feeling it the 28 tooth cassette was definitely a mistake [Music] [Applause] getting to the end of section two didn’t feel too bad I was dreading the switchbacks cuz I knew what was to come oh [Music] you’re doing great man 7K to go I was pretty glad that section two was behind me my legs were really hurting at this point I had to dig deep and the steeper sections through the switchbacks have taken their t [Music] oh wooo [Music] had a little bit of a second win here particularly after passing the left turn at St AG but things were only going to get worse [Music] what Happ with the called him it on so I uh didn’t cover myself in glory with that ride uh just dipped under the hour for the official segment 5731 average power was down from my effort up Rock a corba I managed 274 Watts for just under an hour this was though an amazing ride and an amazing climb I’d recommend it to anyone it was so much fun really hard work and actually quite a long effort required but the views were brilliant when you get to the top and the downhill afterwards was well worth it