We rode Lance Armstrong’s favourite climb

Today we are riding the Col de le Madone, famous for being Lance Armstrong’s climb to test himself for the Tour de France.

Join us for epic views and banter along the way!

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Bonjour. I’m Alex from Mulco. Welcome back to my series where I get to ride and ride some of the most epic and iconic climbs in Europe. Today I am in Nice with some friends in the south of France and we have chosen to go and ride called the Lamadon but the different way. First things first, breakfast. I’ve got my friends with me and we’re super busy to go cycling. Hello. So, we’ve got Alen. We’ve got who’s been searching all the fact about Kamadan today. He’s going to educate us. We’ve got Phil just looking pretty. Thank you. And here we’ve got Emri, the root master, the man who makes all the magic happen in this. I’m sure he’s going to have a lot to tell us about as well. I will. Where are we going today? We’re going to Madon the classic way. We’re doing the classic way. We’re doing the one where Lens Hamstrong used to train. Exciting. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Hey, the way you chosen to take us to K Lamadan is via cold, right? Yeah. And we’re doing uh we’re doing the local road, meaning my goal is to not see any single car today is is not so hard. runs about I think 5.5 kilometer at 6 6 and 12%. Nice. It’s quite famous because you can get on cold days right outside your doorstep as you leave Nice. Yeah. Um it’s quite famous because every year it’s being used for the Parinis race and then um on the tour of France as well. So, we’re going to go up there. Then, we’re going to go back down and start the Madon. And I’ll tell you more about the Madon later. You’re going to This is going to be a chat between you and Yan cuz uh Yan has been doing lots of research last night. All right. So, we ready to hear it all. But first, you’re drunk. Now you drunk. And now you drunk. And now you’re drunk. And now you’re drunk. You’re drunk. Now you drunk. You drunk. And now you drop. You drop. And now you dr. Now you drop. And now you Jesus Christ. Come on. If you had some coming out right now, I’d be like cracking up. The reason why I knew called Lamadon even though I’ve never done it before works on the floor was because of Lance Armstrong and all the training that he did there. So before the time of power meters and fancy bike equipment, he would use it as his training ground because it was very gradual. It’s long enough. Um and the benchmark that he always had in his mind is if he could do it below 30 minutes and 45 seconds, he knew he was going to win the tour to France. What’s your time up, madam? What’s your best time? Uh, it’s definitely not 30 minutes. I don’t I don’t know. I think it’s 44 or something like this. Well, that’s not bad. Um, but yeah. And then another fun fact about the Madon is that um so Len Armstrong used to uh write for Trek and they’ve named all their bike lineup after the Madon. So the Trek Madon is coming from that famous climb. And um as we’ve just talked about on the way here, uh it’s actually the entire lineup is is an anagram of the word Madon um the tamanda and what’s the other one do and the domain. So all using the same amount of uh the same letters that we have in Madon. Okay, Phil, after all of those facts, what’s your plan of Madonna? Are you going to smash it? Chill. So, I’m chilling, but my whole plan for today is to I’m praying that I can bump into Vrias. That is all I want today. So, please Very be at the top of Madon when we get to the top of Madon. That would make feel such a happy boy and he deserves it. Thank you. So, Madan, ready to go? Ready to go. First time doing this climb. How are we climbing? Uh, chilled plot in classic Ellen fashion. What’s the tune we’re going to play? Stephanie, obviously. Can you give us an impression of that song? Absolutely not. [Music] Woo. that this scent was lush. So fun. [Music] We’re about to climb Madland. We’re in that really cute village. It’s called Gormu. GMO, I think. Um, we’re excited to climb, but we’ve been here a while now. Our legs are going to get cold. It’s been probably like 15 20 minutes. Yeah. Just been at the font. I think we’re subconsciously procrastinating. Had some drinks. I think we’re just having a lovely time and procrastinating. Alice. Alice. Alex has been bathing in the um fountain. Nothing like cold water. I wanted to go for a dip, but the water’s face a bit small. I don’t think I’m going to fit. Madame, we coming for you. Where’s the space? No rest. Pull up on your shorties in a friend next. House call no text. I’ve been up all night, baby, no stress. I call no rest. Pull up on your front next house, no text. I’ve been up all night, baby, no stress. I was call. So, we’ve officially passed the half an hour time climb and we’ve got another 5k to go. So that really put into perspective what uh Lance was doing. We’re doing a zone to climb, but still, you know, crazy. [Music] 40 m to go. Let’s do this. Bravo. And [Applause] [Music] boom. [Music] Completed. How was that? [Music] Right. Okay guys, so the game is we write the climb, but then we need to rate the climb. So think about all the climbs you’ve done before. Why did you love them so much? What was it about this one? You need to give it a score out of 10 and justify that score. Yan, we go with you. Okay. Definitely an eight out of 10. Mhm. Because it’s nice and gradual. It’s not easy, but it’s also not incredibly hard. Mhm. You start in a beautiful place, you end in a beautiful place, and in the middle you have good company. A today was a solid eight or nine because it was a lovely group and it was a good pace with and a nice very nice push at the end. And when I do this by myself, I’m enjoying it. Sometime I do it with friends where I just die for half an hour. So it’s that’s a five in that. So for me it it’s impacted by the company very much. But the climb itself is is a lovely climb and it’s um Yeah, that’s it. Nothing else. It’s iconic, isn’t it? And good views, good tarmac. It’s pretty when you ride it. Yeah. And it’s not too hard. And it’s a lovely descent as well. So excited for that. Yeah. Mercy. You’re welcome. For me, it was a seven out of 10. Okay. Yeah. Tell us. Um it was very beautiful. Um, unfortunately we were climbing away from the ocean, so I couldn’t see the blue waters the whole time. That would have changed it. But I think the thing that could make it a 10 out of 10 is if I see Vriatas. I would say 8 out of 10. Okay. I don’t have too many dramatic climbs to compare it to personally, but that considered, I still think it’s an 8 out of 10. I think the views were really consistent the whole way. So there wasn’t much time where you didn’t have a good view, which was great. Uh we had a really consistent pace. Good tunes. Great tunes. Great company. You love climbing now, don’t you? You’re a change woman. I’m a changed woman as of this week. I’ve been doing more climbing and now I think I’d have withdrawals without it. So you know, I will for sure sort her out and find her some climb so you don’t worry. Yeah, that’s me. And I would rate that climb a seven out of 10 as well. I think it’s very nice. It’s easy. The distance is great. You’ve got good views the whole day. The tarmac’s beautiful. It’s actually not busy at all. We’ve seen like maybe three cars on the web which was very nice. And obviously thanks to Emir’s lovely route that we missed the carnage of the bottom in in Monton. I just think the three missing points would be maybe for a bit of more of a dramatic view at the top. Um that said, when we came last last time in January, we had a view on all the mountains covered in snow and that really added to the vibe. Now it’s summer, so we don’t have that. It’s still mountains is nice. The little truck is lovely, but if we had a lake, some mountains, if we could go for a beep deep, something a little bit like or even an epic sign at the top. There’s a sign, but it’s a bit Yeah, just just the arrival could be a little bit more dramatic, but lovely. Can I comment on this? Because you you can you you’re saying this like you’re asking the municipality of Nice to do some heavy work to put a lake out there to put some new montine out there to make the climb better. That’s not how it works. You know, you have to take the nature for granted. Yeah, but I just read the nature. What the hell is this all about? What the hell is this going to be on YouTube? Oh my god. That’s it. I just rate the N seven out of 10. Then give me a lake with me leg. I’m joking. I know you are. Can you tell everyone you’re joking? I’m not joking. We can we can do Chin now if you want. You want that leg? Let’s go to 2000. You’re going to get that lake. I am definitely have to do start doing a different type of video, Alex. Yeah. Did you mean bike cleaning videos? Exactly. Bike pouring. Well, yeah, I know it’s a bit embarrassing. My bike’s a bit disgusting, isn’t it? Phil made a good comment earlier. Yeah. Um I was shocked to know that Shimano make black chains. Yeah, but I’m busy. No, Paul’s busy. Excuse me. Oh, sorry. But like it’s very important here to know that yesterday Yan cleaned everyone’s bike but mine just for the record. And then yesterday Emry cleaned his bike. Didn’t clean mine, did you? No, I was out of baby wipes cuz that’s what I do. I use baby wipes. Uh but the the baby wipes would not do anything about your chain. Your chain I don’t think it can even be clean. It should be even it should be replaced. I have a question for you. Why would you have a wide bike knowing that you’ve always been the dirtiest rider I’ve ever I’ve ever This is so rude. Why you stepping away from me? Look, this is the guy abusing me. Okay, please let us know in the comments if you have any idea on how I can sort this out because yes, my bike is dirty. By the way, I’m thinking, but I’m busy at Turn your camera here because you’ve been bitching about my climb earlier saying it’s just seven out of 10. Can you just look at this? Does that Does that is that seven? It’s a car park. No. Okay. Tomorrow, baby, you and I, we are having a bath. [Music] We take it down. [Music] Let’s spice it up, baby. Right here and now. Hey, nothing could be better. So high up in the clouds forever. [Music] And now we’ve got 12K all the way down descending into your knees. So sick. Woohoo. Start again. Laughing to the end. Screaming at the top. Oh, it never stops. We could do it all over. Please bring us closer. Superstar. You like no. Oh, so regs. [Music] What a ride. That was epic. Epic 10 out of 10 day. So we might have rated this climb seven out of 10, but the route to that climb and everything together as an experience straight out of Nice was pretty special and pretty epic. I I’m actually going to put the link in bio to download the route so you can have it as well and try it when you when you come to N. But called the Lamadan. Definitely recommend. It’s iconic. You got to see it. You got to ride it. And then you can finish here on the deong in N on the seaside. We’re now going to go for a beep dip uh a last bip of the trip because then we’re heading back to the UK tomorrow. And I hope you enjoy finding out a little bit more about Kamadon, NEZ, etc. Thank you so much for watching and see you in the next video. [Music] Oh no, tears when I’m tripping slow. Wishing it was the season. Wish me got me facing left, right, backwards, right, backwards, forwards and back. stressing.