Day 3: Glorious Gorge

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 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, eventually rolling into Malaucene. 

First priority was to find some lunch. It was after all Sunday, and Mother’s Day in France to boot. We found somewhere and endured an internal  wait for food to arrive. Hangry. 

When it did arrive it was superb. A “cyclists crepe”, with chips & a coke soon filled us up and we were ready to tackle the last 30km home in the heat of the afternoon.

That had to wait though for us to settle the bill, the restaurant, which had already told us that they had no bread (?!) also had no working card machine, so having turned down the offer to make an international bank transfer I scooted off to find a cashpoint and settled up. 

The ride back was as fantastic as the ride there; up and over the Col de la Madeleine (no, not that one) before dropping down to Bedoin and hammering home the final 15km. 


One back home, the pool at the villa beckoned, as did the beer fridge. The plan was to eat BBQ however thanks to the vagaries of French life, finding charcoal was a step too far. Fortunately we found a healthy stock of wood and set about creating some heat. Happy days.



It had been an epic first day, with beautiful weather to boot. More of that please!!


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