Currently in France on holiday and decided to visit Mont Ventoux
to see about riding up it. It's one of the "classic" climbs in
the Tour de France cycle race and climbs to 1,900 metres. It's
very exposed at the top and renouned for its harsh weather
conditions in the form of wind and snow.
I didn't do any research on routes (there are 3 road routes to
choose from) so we found ourselves in Sault on Sunday afternoon
(the "starting" town for one of the climbs). Had I done some I
might have started at Bédoin as it's shorter but steeper.
Anyhow, with the campervan recording the temperature as 31C (but
probably not quite that hot) I decided to leave the bike and go
for a run following the road instead. Plenty of footpaths but
it's not a place you want to get lost if you're on your
own.
It's 26km to the top and quite a few metres elevation.
Success depended on pace control and temperature control. I've got
pretty good at grinding away steadily up relatively gently graded
hills for a long time so I reckoned I could do it but the heat
stress was an added "training bonus". Normally I don't cope well
with the heat but during our holiday I've been gradually getting
better at coping.
I carried about 1.5L of iced water (that was tepid after just two
miles!) and soaked my cap and my buff in cold water before I
started. I kept both of these wet and my wife met me twice during
the ascent with more water.
For nutrition I had to improvise not having any gels etc. It was
slices of Nutella filled baguette that did the job. A bit chewy
but went down well!
My route started off dropping downhill slightly to an altitude of
about 700 metres before rising gently for the first four miles or
so. The sun was pretty strong and there wasn't much shade so my
pace was very much dictated by my ability to keep cool (enough).
The hill rises to about 4.5% and pretty much sticks to that
gradient to the 20km mark, a long slow grind.
At 20Km the gradient steepens appreciably and whilst it slowed me
a bit I didn't feel too fatigued (to begin with!).
Fortunately with the increasing altitude the temperature had
dropped to more tolerable levels so the heat wasn't a problem any
more.
There are kilometer stones to tell you the distance to the top
which is nice and they also have the altitude on them all. When I
reached the 2km stone it said I was at 1700 metres. Unfortunately
this meant I had 200 more metres to climb in 2Km, that's a 1 in
10 slope for 2Km at altitude. :-0
Head down and keep tapping out the steps is all you can do and
after 3 hours and 22 minutes I summited.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/dU0xPb0cN8dXjXB02
I found my wife who had been waiting at the top but somehow failed
to see me coming up and we parked the motorhome up for a night on
Ventoux.
All in all pleased with how it went. I still want to ride up it
but that will have to wait. Training for the Devil O' the
Highlands so running takes priority.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1098063979/shareable_images/map _based?hl=en-US&v=1500829641
Tim
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