Climbing Mont Ventoux

Posted by Mark on September 5, 2007 under climbs | Read the First Comment

As a thirteen year old lad I had a science teacher at school who was into cycling. I was just getting into it as a sport, joining a local club and poring over cycling magazines looking at expensive components (not a lot has changed in that respect). I can remember physics lessons being more about the sport of cycling, and it was from this teacher I learnt about the Tour de France, and our fallen hero Tom Simpson. This set up a long held fascination with me of Mont Ventoux.

Fast forward a little over 20 years and the wife and I vacationing in Provence. We stayed in Mormoiron, about 10km from Bédoin – and the base of the climb up to Mont Ventoux. Of course, it was too good an opportunity to miss, this would be my first alpine climb by bicycle.

Living in London doesn’t exactly permit one a great deal of cycle hill training. Save for constantly hitting some of the hills around North London, you’re never going to find a climb to give you up to two hours of effort. So, it was with great trepidation I took the right turn in Bédoin and started the climb.

Being out for a gentle ride with the wife, and a spot of lunch in Bédoin, I’d decided, on this particular day, that I’d go for 45 minutes, then turn around and head back into the village (there was no way Sally was joining me on this escapade).

The start of the climb, before you reach the forest, isn’t so bad. In fact, with the gentle tail wind I had that day it was positively swift. I can’t say I’ve ever started a climb at 26kph before, so it was quite pleasing on this occasion to do so. To my left, and much higher up, I could see the observatory at the top. I felt good. Then I hit the forest.

Mont Ventoux in July can be like an inferno, I’ve read. Well, I can say that in early September it’s hardly chilly. I was toast! As my pace slowed to a 11kph grind (I was running a 39×27 for this effort) I wondered how long I could take the pain. I kept on pushing, and checking my watch. Dammit, 30 minutes. I figured I ought to head back into the village and meet Sally for lunch.

Two days later and I decided it was The Day. I was going to go for it, the whole lot. It started much the same as before, a nice tailwind pushing me up the first part of the slope. Then came the forest. And the heat. And the flies – I’d hate to imagine what the forest section of Ventoux is like in summer, you must get eaten to death by the flies. For a while there I pushed on, grinding away, surrounded by a cloud of black buzzing. I felt like Pig-Pen from Charlie Brown. The half hour point I’d turned around at before came, and I hit the 10% section. My heart rate was over 170 bpm at this point – bearing in mind my max at the time was in the mid 180′s, I was pretty much on the rivet. It did occur to me how long could I stand this sort of effort? But stand it, and push on, I did.

To press on I’d look at a point up the road, not too far, and decide that was my ‘goal’ for the moment. When I reached that point I’d decide what I’d do next – would I take a break, or press on? Each time I reached the goal, I decided I was feeling too good, in a bad way, to stop and that pressing on was the only option. After just over an hour I recognised the bend [I'd had some sense to recce the climb in the car a few days earlier] I was approaching – I knew it wasn’t far to Chalet Reynard now. As the road flattened out and Chalet Reynard came into view I got out of the saddle and sprinted. I’d done the first, and majority section, of the climb and I felt fantastic! It was time for a coffee and an energy bar. In fact, that turned into a double espresso and two energy bars

A 15 minute break and I decided it was time to go – and nail the 7km to the summit. This last section starts off pretty much where you left off, at around a 7% gradient. But it winds around the mountainside a lot, and every now and then I’d turn a corner to be hit in the face by a strong wind that almost stopped me. Getting down as low as possible on the drops, at sub 10 kph, seems a bit daft, but you have to do it to keep moving. As I ground past the Tommy Simpson memorial I thought I’d pay a visit on the way back down – and took solace in the fact I knew it was only 1km to the summit from this point.

Rounding the final, really rather steep, hairpin at the summit a passer-by jovially commented ‘nearly there!’. I got to the car park, and slowly coasted to a wall at the observatory to take a moments rest. As my heart rate slowed I realised how much colder it was up there, and put my jacket on, before heading over to a sign to get some pictures. I’d done it. A little over 1 hour and 40 minutes in total. My first alpine climb.

Here’s a couple of graphs from my heart rate monitor – the first one is the climb from Bédoin to Chalet Reynard, the second is the last part of the climb to the summit.