Richie Porte has confirmed to Cycling Weekly that he is the person who set the record time for the ascent of the Col de la Madone climb near Monaco.
The Team Sky rider confirmed that he set a 29-40 time up the climb prior to the 2014 Tour de France, beating his teammate Chris Froome’s time of 30-09 by nearly thirty seconds.
The climb had been made famous by Lance Armstrong, who would train on the climb when he lived in Nice. Armstrong’s record time on the climbs was 30-47, which he set prior to the 1999 Tour. He beat the previous best time of 31-30 which had been set by Swiss rider Tony Rominger.
The 13.1km climb starts outside of Menton at an elevation of 41m, and rises to 916m for an average gradient of 7%.
According to ammattipyoraily on Twitter, the following are the best times set by various riders:
Richie Porte 29-40
Chris Froome 30-09
Tom Danielson 30-24
Lance Armstrong 30-47
Tony Rominger 31-30
Tyler Hamilton 32-32
