My friend Michael and I had ridden the Alps in the 1990’s when bikes were made of steel and gears were restricted to a 23 tooth sprocket on the rear!!
Earlier this year, the talk went on about Mont Ventoux, the ‘Giant of Provence’ where the great British cyclist Tom Simpson died on its slopes in the 1967 Tour de France.
‘We haven’t climbed Ventoux’ was Michael’s statement
‘We’re 20 years older’ was my reply
‘We could do that easy’
‘Mmmmmmmmmm?’
After my London to Paris ride, I was feeling good, so I contacted Michael and we arranged to cycle over to Sudbury (he lives in Ipswich), catch up, drink coffee, eat cake and discuss the possibility of a Mont Ventoux expedition.
A date was set, tasks were delegated and a flying visit was planned!! Drive there (760m) on Saturday, do the ride on Sunday, drive down to the Alps on Monday, a possible ride in the afternoon and drive back on Tuesday, nothing like a tight schedule!!
After returning home after our meeting, Michael had sent me an email with a link, ‘take a look at this’ was his request. The link went to a website run by Les Club Des Cingles du Mont Ventoux, which roughly translated means ‘The Crazy Club of Mont Ventoux’. This club listed the 3 roads up the Mountain, starting from the villages of Bedoin, Malaucene and Sault. Distances were 21.5km from Bedoin, average gradient 7.5%, maximum 10.7%, difference in height 1610m (thats 1 mile!). Malaucene was 21.0km long, average gradient 7.5%, max gradient 10.5%, difference in height 1570m and lastly Sault, 26.0km long, average gradient 4.7%, maximum 9.5%, all three routes were difficult in themselves, but the plan was to join the club and to become fully fledged members, we had to climb all three routes in a day!!!
Bikes were prepared, compact chainset (50/34) and a 12-28 cassette for me (some may say wimp!), Michael goes for the roadie option of a 53/39 chainset and a 12-25 cassette (some may say nutcase!!).
The drive was uneventful, although I would say that as we couldn’t sort out insurance and Michael drove the whole way there (and back!).
The hotel was 4 km outside of Bedoin up the main road to Ventoux. You might think this is an advantage, but one of the rules were to get a card stamped in the villages and the summit when they were visited meaning we had to ride down in the morning to make out start. Another pleasant surprise was the proximity of the church to our hotel and its bells that rang out every 15 minutes, ear plugs would have to be the order of the day, and night!
Sunday morning came, fairly bright, a little breezy but the forecast was good so loaded with drinks, energy bars and gels, gillets and big gloves (its a bit chilly on the descents) we set of just after 8.00am. Down to Bedoin, into the Boulangerie, avoiding the cakes, get our cards stamped and off we set.
The beginning of the ride is a bit of a shock to the system, we’re just not used to climbing 5-6% gradients for mile after mile but we soon got into a rhythm and sharing the work on the front made decent time although not as fast as we originally thought. There are some real steep parts through the trees, but after 15km, the tree cover clears, Chalet Reynard appears and what we thought was difficult was the easy part..the last 6km to the top are on done in a lunar landscape, steep, very hot with the reflection of the sun from the rocks and the km markers by the side of the road giving distance to the summit and average gradient for the next km, something you try to ignore! The weather station at the top is always there, but seems to take forever to get to, the last hairpin ramping up to 12% doesn’t do the legs or lungs any good either! We had shared the last couple of kms with Swiss guy who was over the moon at completing the ride, we still had two ascents to go. After getting off the bike, I had a really bad pain in my hip joint and Michael was suffering with being over-geared, this could be a short day!! A descision was made to carry on with the second ascent and see how we felt, so cards stamped then off on the downhill bit.
The down hills are a challenge in themselves, 35-45 minutes of descending at 30mph + needs concentration and faith in your tyres when you round the hairpin bends, but what a buzz, we topped 50mph going down to Malaucene!
Once there, it was case of getting our cards stamped again, turn around, then uphill for the next 21km! This ascent was as difficult as the first and after a while Michael kept dropping off the back to a point where he wasn’t visable. I stopped a couple of times to see if he turned up as normally he is a very strong rider, I assumed he was picking wild flowers or taking scenic photos. With 6km to the top (there’s a restaurant on a hairpin) I waited and he turned up looking very poorly, he had run out of drink and food and had suffered ‘the bonk’, the cyclists word for running out of fuel! We stopped at the Restaurant, filled our bottles, filled our faces and rested up in the sunshine. When he felt like he had recovered (and he had!!) we carried on to the top, 2nd ascent covered, just one more left! Just as an aside, although the weather can be very hot, the wind at the top on the exposed slopes is very strong making it difficult to cycle uphill and even worse when descending at speed.
It was now 4pm, the next descent to Sault would take 45minutes, the final ascent would take 2 1/2 hours making the fading light a factor with only one small rear light between us. We decided it was a long way to drive to not complete the challenge so off we set.
Into Sault, cards stamped, bottles filled, pockets filled with energy bars, turn around and off we set, only 26km uphill left (with the final 6km the same as the first from Chalet Reynard). This ascent, although longer, has a much more gentle slope (mmmmmmm!!!) according to the profile but still kicks up to 9.5% in places. We got into a rhythm and even managed to get into double figures at times! “This is a piece of cake” was Michael’s comment, I’d like to agree but he was lying through his back teeth. Chalet Reynard appeared, only 6km to go, dusk was now falling and the ride was on. That last part was still hard, but with each pedal stroke, the top got closer and closer. Eventually we made it, everything closed, the market stalls nearly packed up and the wind blowing a serious ‘hooley’. A manly hug was enjoyed, the hard part was over (or so we thought), just 21km downhill and a cold beer would be enjoyed.
The final descent was difficult, side winds buffering the bikes, failing light and the drop in temperature (long fingered gloves and gillets on) made the going tough with total concentration needed. As the church opposite the hotel came into view being lit as only the French can do, I breathed a sigh of relief but was mortified when Michael rode straight past and claimed that we needed to go back to Bedoin to complete the challenge, “but that means we’ll have to ride uphill again for another 4km” I told him as he sped on at 45mph, he was on a mission and I had no option but to follow.
We returned to the hotel in darkness at 8pm, totally worn out, everything aching but with a huge feeling of achievement. Beer was consumed, we were the only ones in the hotel but they got the Chef in to cook for us especially. The usual banter over food, the owner asked if we had ridden to the top but was mortified and impressed to find out that we had done it 3 times.
I would recommend anyone to have a go at this, it is tough, very tough and some serious training would need to take place prior to the ride, but the feeling of achievement is indescribable. For the more insane of you, you can chose to do 4 ascents, the last one on a mountain track, or even worse, 6 times, doing our rides, twice!!!
Personally, although I may do one ascent in the future given the opportunity, I certainly wont be doing the 3 ride challenge, my name is on the books and both Michael and I are now members of Les Club des Cingles du Mont-Ventoux.
Mark