T1me to Ride

 A quick reminder: the plan today is to ride up (and down) Mt Ventoux 6 times; twice each on the 3 roads leading to the summit from Bédoin, Malaucene and Sault. That’s 274km in length and climbs a total of 8,800 metres, coincidentally equal to Mount Everest. I’ll start in Bédoin and in order to complete the challenge I need to have done all 6 climbs and get back down to Bédoin by midnight.  And so it was that, as if this was an entirely normal thing to do, which drove 3 of us to get  up at 11pm, make some coffee, get ourselves sorted and drive the 15km to Bédoin for the start.  I should explain, the 3 were me, Drew (fellow cyclist and awesome athlete) and Badge, our enthusiastic and all round legendary support driver and DS.  Ascent no. 1 - Bédoin (1st climb) From the website:  The southern gateway of the giant via Bedoin extends over 6,300 hectares of forest on the Ventoux, which ranks the village among the largest municipalities in France. It is also the ...

 Headline: we got wet.  The breakfast bell tolled once again at 7am with granola, scrambled egg & another half gallon of coffee.  The peloton looked slightly depleted, with a couple choosing to sit the day out and everyone else knowing full well that we were going to get wet.  We made a decent enough start, rolling off at 8:30 and enjoying a beautiful 15km climb up another stunning gorge.  Ventoux was sat to our left, and the further we went on, the less and less visible it became, until eventually it was covered in cloud. Rain was coming. We managed to get half way up the next climb before the heavens unequivocally opened. Fortunately it left off in time for the descent into the village of saint saturnin-les-apt.  I was by this stage getting moderately concerned that “French Monday” would be in full swing with nothing except hairdressers being open. It was then with some considerable relief that we found a cafe and got stuck into some well deserve...

 Today started very well indeed. Although somewhat rudely awoken by the breakfast bell, it was fit for kings. Porridge & lots of trimmings, with enough coffee to sink a ship.  With surprisingly minimal faff we hit the road at 9am and headed on a circuit around Ventoux. There were very few moments in the day that we couldn’t see the big weather station at 1900m altitude staring down at us. Intimidating it most certainly was. After a handful of km’s we turned to ride up the awesome Gorges de Nesque. I’d ridden it in 2022 on my tour through France, but that time I had a bike loaded with panniers and it came at the end of the day. With fresh legs, it was no less stunning but was a lot easier. Stopping for a coffee in Sault, we then started an epic 20km descent around the eastern flanks of the mountain. The valley road had a cheeky headwind which our peleton made light work of.  After 65km we encountered a series of short but sharp climbs through the desert landscape, even...

 I’ve officially learnt French camping!  Successfully ordered morning pastries last night, ashed down with a coffee. Lovely Last nights rain was long gone and with a warm looking blue sky I headed off for a quick loop up the Doux valley to St Felicion and back. It was glorious. The road climbed from the start, up numerous switchbacks and into remote countryside with wonderful views of the Doux valley and also more far reaching across the cloud covered Rhone valley.  After 24km of mostly steady climbing, I rounded the small village of St Felicion and headed back down the valley. The tarmac was fresh and smooth (Le Tour is obviously coming), and the 24km back down were easily despatched.  Back at the campsite I sat on the sunny terrace with a coffee, had a shower and packed the car ready for the final 200km to Ventoux.  The inevitable messages started coming in warning of French air traffic control strikes jeopardising the inbound flight of my travelling companion...