First ride of the year up Col de la Madeleine

With the Col du Glandon now open it is fairly easy to get to the base of the Col de la Madeleine and although it is still technically closed I thought I would see how far up I could get. This is a monster of a climb over 20 km gaining 1500 metres in height and is a tough end to Day 2 of our Big Col tour. I managed to get to the top of the Col although I did have to trudge through a load of snow for the last 100 metres! They are currently resurfacing the road – probably in readiness for the 2010 Tour de France – so once this is done they will clear the snow at the top and the col will be fully open.