Today we decided to check out the well known Col de la Madeleine and the little known Col du Chaussey. The Col de la Madeleine is one of the major routes running north to south over the Alps and their is a major ski station at the top. This year's Tour de France will cross the Col de la Madeleine on July 13th during Stage 9 of the Tour. For the TDF the Col de Madeleine will be the last of four cols on a 204.5 kilometer day, a huge day of climbing that will no doubt be a determining factor in the race for the yellow jersey. 
On the day the TDF goes over the Col de La Madeleine Hank and I will be able to put our feet up in front of the TV as Hank is demonstrating above and say with full confidence, "Yes, the Col de la Madeleine. That's a tough one. I remember it well."
But we decided (well, I decided - not we - what follows here is all my fault) that it might be interesting to ride the Col du Chaussey as an alternate approach to the top of the Col de la Madeleine from the south side. The Col de la Chaussey is the same col I mentioned in day one of this blog - the one with the 'lacets' or 'shoelaces,' tighly winding switch backs that looked to be spectacular. What could possibly go wrong with this plan? It seemed that we would run into about two kilometers of rough road at the top of the Col du Chaussey, but if it was unrideable we would be able to put the bikes in the back of our Renault Kangoo and drive them. So we drove over the Col du Glandon to the foot of the Col du Chaussey and started our climb of the Col de Madeleine and started our climb from there. It was a beautiful climb through forests and along cliff roads. I kept expecting the 'lacets' to begin but they never did. After 3,400 feet of climbing we popped out at the summit of the Col du Chaussey.
We had, evidently, once again fallen victim to the alternate approach from the bottom of the col syndrome. The' lacets' were well below us now, on some side road that fed into the route we had come up from Pontamafrey.We should have started in Montvernier, a bit to the west on the main road, but we had seen the signs for the Col du Chaussey and thought that we were there. Oh, well. We had done the climb but without the novelty of riding the Lombard Street of San Francisco-like 'lacets.'
I blame myself and I'm sure Hank and Ki do, too. Then, of course, things got worse. we had to drive the 2 kilometers of dirt at the top, but then we found pavement and Hank and I started to climb towards the top of the Col de la Madeleine by bike again. 1.87 miles and 860 vertical feet of climbing later the road became unrideable again and we forced to begin an activity that would best be described as 'jeeping.' The road was extremely rough, suitable for mountain bikes, but not road bikes. It took us high up onto the ski hill above the main highway on the Col de Madeleine. Then eventually we dropped down to the main road near the top of the col. We had a late lunch on the deck of a scenic restaurant at the summit of the col. Then Hank and I hopped on our bikes and dropped down the north side. We were running out of time so we only went down 9 kilometers to where they were doing some road work on the main route in the middle of the first small town on that side. Hank and I climbed the 2,200 feet back up to the summit. We were finally once again on the route, 'la bonne route,' of this year's TDF. On top Hank put his bike in the car - some of his spokes were loose and he did not want to chance the descent - and I road the first part of the descent. It was a beautiful day. We got in about 6,500 feet of climbing in about 25 miles of riding, but we had lost a lot of time with our jeeping adventure and in justdriving over to where we started our ride, so we had to hop in the Renault and head back home to our lodge.
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