Mont Ventoux
: km m ascent
Rob, master of puns, made us go all the way to southern France this year. Why? Because we Ventoux. Not once, but Ventoux three times. The other reason to do something bigger this year is that Rob turns 50. With his outstanding capacity for friendship he assembled a crew of no less than twelve lovely people to stay in a gorgeous house within view of the mighty Mont Ventoux.
If you are not familiar with this icon of cycling, it has featured in many classic Tour de France battles. I wasn’t sure if I would like it. The top looks more like a luna landscape, than an alpine peak. Bleak rock. In fact it is an alpine peak, just a bit detached from the others, it appears somewhat randomly right in the Provence.
Friday: Malaucène ascent
It doesn’t really matter what side you approach Mont Ventoux from, the height is the same: 1910m (1912m according to some merch). And yet, the Malaucène approach feels particularly challenging with a lot of 10-11% gradient, especially in the middle bit. It doesn’t help that for Andy Perfect, this is a doddle. We met Tim from Belgium who also is a gifted climber. They chat away while I get hotter and hotter and my heart rate soon reaches the level that no longer counts as a gentle warm up climb. I have to let them go. Andy is ever so generous later and puts it down to me capping my heart rate - far from it. I was not slow, they are just faster.
One of the things that makes Ventoux special is that it is not surrounded by mountains. It just towers over the rest of the Provence, making the view a bit like looking out of an aeroplane.
Where I excel is the downhill, where weight is more helpful. My new bike turns out to be a dream for descending. I am not a hell raiser and it feels perfectly safe going into the turns while planted solidly on the road. The average of 55km/h for the descent was safe and fun.
Saturday: Bédoin ascent
The only reason I got to the top first was that Andy helpfully faffed around with his power meter before setting of. Nonetheless, we had a cracking final kilometre.
The Gorgeous descent via Sault
Sunday: final a-Sault
Only Tim, Jez, Rob and I are left. By far the friendliest approach is from Sault. For one, we start from higher up (thank you Steve for driving us to Sault!) and the gradient is positively gentle by recent standards.
