Tour 2025: Will Col de la Madeleine's climbing record fall too?
Mihai Simion
"I'm gone. I'm dead." Those might be the most famous words ever spoken on Col de la Loze, a climb that makes its return tomorrow in Tour de France. This time, though, the route to the rooftop of the Tour (2303 m altitude) will avoid that cursed place for Pogacar and will climb a different side of the mountain, through the rich people's favourite ski station of Courchevel.
With its 26 kilometers, it will be the longest ascent of this year's Tour de France, expected to take more than one hour of climbing even for the best riders.Its length and the high altitude make it a proper Hors-Category Alpine climb, but its merciful, constant gradient around 6.5–7% makes it pale in comparison with the Meribel side, used in the 2020 and 2023 editions of Le Tour. It will be very different to get rid of everyone from your wheel on such slopes, Drafting at speeds higher than 25 km/h saves a lot of energy if you can follow the initial attack.
Unlike Col de la Loze via Courchevel, the Col de la Madeleine from La Chambre is a much better climb for riders who are strong enough to make the difference. Its average gradient of 8% over 19.3 kilometers rightfully makes it one of the most feared ascents in the Alps and a strategic point where, many times in the past, some big champions tried to reverse the fate of Le Tour. The most recent and famous ambush happened during the 1998 Tour de France when Jan Ullrich attacked from the bottom, desperately hoping that the Yellow Jersey Marco Pantani would crack, suffocated by the hellish pace. That didn't happen but at the top, they both set a climbing record which still holds today: 52 min 40 seconds, 22 km/h average speed, one of the best ever performances recorded on such long climbs. 27 years later, Jonas Vingegaard is in the same position as Jan Ullrich was that day. In order to gain 4 minutes on Pogacar, he can't afford to wait for the final, easier climb with just two mountain stages left to Paris. Visma Lease a Bike will have to send again satellite riders for their leader in the breakaway and Jonas has to go all-or-nothing with a thermonuclear attack on Col de la Madeleine. If Pogacar shows any weakness, he will definitely pay for it on the Col de la Loze. If not, at least Vingegaard knows that he tried everything like he did on Mont Ventoux. In such a case, they will certainly beat Pantani's and Ullrich's climbing records, maybe even by a full minute.
Hopefully, nobody will be "gone" or "dead" this time on the Col de la Loze, but it will offer us an exciting ending to Le Tour.
Course Details: 19.3 km at 7.9% average gradient
52:40 - Jan Ullrich & Marco Pantani (21.99 km/h) 🏆
54:54 - Piepoli, Escartin, Julich, A. Merckx, Boogerd, Riis (21.09 km/h)
55:54 - Robin, Rinero (20.72 km/h)
56:12 - Roland Meier (20.60 km/h)
56:39 - Massi, Salmon group (20.44 km/h)
56:59 - Santiago Botero (20.32 km/h)
57:32 - Virenque, Armstrong, Herve, Moreau, Ullrich, Escartin, Pantani, Heras, Beloki (20.13 km/h)
58:13 - Mancebo, Beltran, Guerini, Hamilton, Livingston, Piepoli (19.89 km/h)
54:52 - Riis, Ullrich, Escartin (21.11 km/h)
56:05 - Richard Virenque (20.65 km/h)
56:40 - Laurent Dufaux (20.44 km/h)
57:26 - Francesco Casagrande (20.16 km/h)
58:32 - Pantani, Lino, Jimenez, Luttenberger (19.78 km/h)
59:25 - Romain Bardet (19.49 km/h)
59:20 - Pierre Rolland (19.52 km/h)
1:00:58 - Ryder Hesjedal (18.99 km/h)
1:02:56 - Rui Costa group (18.40 km/h)
1:04:08 - Peloton (18.06 km/h)
1:01:07 - Michael Boogerd (18.95 km/h)
1:01:22 - 35-rider peloton (18.87 km/h)
56:40 - Ugrumov, Riis, Rodriguez (20.44 km/h)
57:48 - Indurain, Virenque, Zulle, Pantani (20.03 km/h)
57:58 - Leblanc, Poulnikov, Van De Laer, Conti (19.98 km/h)
58:43 - 15 riders group (19.72 km/h)
Note: The 1998 ascent by Jan Ullrich and Marco Pantani remains the fastest recorded time up Col de la Madeleine, averaging nearly 22 km/h over the 19.3-kilometer climb.
