Mont Ventoux in France

D E T A I L S WHERE: south- eastern France START/FINISH: Façon, Provence DISTANCE: each ascent 13+ miles PICTURES: Getty Images, Mark Jolly MONT VENTOUX | GREAT RIDES Great rides Mark Jolly pausing a mile GIANT OF from the top PROVENCE Mont Ventoux is a regular ﬁ xture of the Tour de France and a mecca for cycling enthusiasts – Mark Jolly among them ou can’t miss Mont Ventoux. Drive or The Tour didn’t visit Mont Ventoux this year, Do it yourself take the train down the Rhône Valley, but has done three times in the last decade. Y and there it is, on your left, perhaps G E T T I N G 40 miles away, rising out of the plains as if A MOUNTAIN TO CLIMB THERE it were the only mountain in the world. From I wasn’t planning on winning any races on I flew to Marseille where I almost any part of Provence, just look up: my visit, and certainly not riding myself into was picked up by Veloventoux. with its bare limestone peak that looks like trouble. The reason I keep going back is There are flights from all over the surface of the moon, it’s impressive to simple: it’s a great ride for the reasonably the UK to Marseille, Avignon any viewer. To a cyclist, it means even more. fit, and the whole area has some of the best and Nîmes, then it’s a transfer The most fabled of all the climbs in the Tour cycling I’ll ever find. to your hotel by taxi – or car hire. In France, taking a bike de France, races and even lives have been The first time I rode up Mont Ventoux, in on a train is more complicated lost on it: the Giant of Provence. 2000, it was easier than I had imagined, at than it should be. It is possible, I went, for the seventh time, in May. I met least for a while. It was the most northerly via Eurostar and TGV to some other British cyclists in the baggage point of a week-long tour of Provence, so I Avignon, followed by a local train to Orange, 23 miles from hall of Marseille airport. There was only one stayed an extra night in a town at the bottom, Malaucène. The TGV takes question: who was going to ride up Ventoux? and rode up with just one small pannier on my only boxed or bagged bikes We were already nervous at the prospect. Roberts Roughstuff not-so-lightweight tourer. on this route. Another option It has a particular place in the hearts of About three-quarters of the way up, I was is the European Bike Express British cyclists, because it was here in 1967, starting to think these professional cyclists to Orange. Driving from Calais will take more than eight hours. only about half a mile from the top, that Tom were not as tough as they make out. It was Cycling there and back will take Simpson died in the Tour de France. He fell almost easy. The road emerged from the at least a couple of weeks. off his bike from exhaustion, insisted on being trees and passed a café, the Chalet Reynard. Quality bike hire is available in put back on, and collapsed again a short while I could see the tower at the top of the Malaucène, Bédoin and Sault. later. Three years later, Eddy Merckx was so mountain, less than four miles away. I was overcome after his stage win there that he feeling so good, I thought I could even pick was given oxygen. the pace up for these last few miles. There In 2013, Chris Froome won on Ventoux on was a rider struggling about 200 yards ahead. the way to his first Tour de France win. Two ‘I’ll have him,’ I thought. years ago, Froome found himself without a That was the last I saw of him. bike after a crash and continued on foot… As I came out of the trees, into the bare, THERE WAS A RIDER STRUGGLING 200 YARDS AHEAD. ‘I’LL HAVE HIM,’ I THOUGHT. THAT WAS THE LAST I SAW OF HIM CYCLINGUK.ORG CYCLE 51 MONT VENTOUX | GREAT RIDES Above: The Gorge de la Nesque Far left: Malaucène ascent Near left: Quench your thirst at Chalet Reynard windswept landscape that Ventoux is so well- gone, but there was a telltale pool of watery all in, and then tried to get back on his bike. known for, the temperature went up 10°C, liquid in the road. He ignored me. the gradient became harder, the wind picked A little further up, one of them was slumped ‘I told him to take it easy, that I’d put the up, and I learned an important lesson about over a crash barrier, trying to force a gel into bike in the van, we’d go down to the bottom, cycling up a mountain: don’t even think about his mouth. His bike was discarded on the get a cup of coffee, and then he could decide attacking it. By the time I got to the top, ground. I asked him if he was all right. He what he wanted to do. “I’m going to get to the far from overtaking anyone, I could barely gave me a limp smile and the thumbs-up, so I top even if it kills me!” he said in a Scottish push the bike, let alone ride it. I’d stopped carried on. accent as he climbed back on his bike, countless times in those last few miles, drunk Craig Entwhistle, who runs bike-specific pushing me away. I thought he might be right – all my water and eaten all my food. accommodation called Veloventoux in but he did eventually get there, I think. I didn’t There’s a memorial to Simpson near the nearby Façon, said: ‘Once, I was driving up hear otherwise.’ top, and from that point I virtually crawled to the mountain, and on one of the steepest the summit. I realise there are steeper climbs, sections I saw a man lying in the road, his RIDES IN THE REGION and there are longer climbs, but there are few bike by his side. I thought this was it: you hear Ventoux itself is the challenge that draws as tough as Ventoux. of people dying trying to climb Ventoux, and cyclists to the area, but if you do only that, you after 15 years living here, I had finally seen are missing out. You can’t get a decent view PACE YOURSELF OR ELSE it. I got out of the van and looked at him. He of the mountain when you are on it, and the Last year, a group of three Dutch riders wasn’t moving. His arms were above his head; whole area of northern Provence has endless overtook me. I could sense they were going it didn’t look good. But suddenly, and this quiet roads of tough but rewarding cycling. too fast, and a few minutes later, I heard the frightened the life out of me, he jumped off A road clings to the side of the sensational sound of retching a little way up the road. the ground and stood to attention. I jumped 22km Gorge de la Nesque, south of Ventoux, When I got to that point, the cyclists were nearly as high. He had a look around, took it where short tunnels mean trucks and large vehicles cannot use the road. I usually ride down the gorge rather than up it to give me THE BIG CHALLENGE ON VENTOUX IS TO DO time to appreciate the scenery. Les Gorges de Trente-Pas, 25 miles north ALL THREE ASCENTS ON THE SAME DAY of Malaucène, is equally stunning, and at CYCLINGUK.ORG CYCLE 53 GREAT RIDES | MONT VENTOUX Above: (L) The Fact file summit and, not far below, the observatory (R) GIANT OF Far left: PROVENCE Simpson memorial DISTANCE: Bédoin ascent: 13.3 Near left: miles, climbing 1,620 metres. Rider on the Malaucène: 13.1 miles, 1,570m. Bédoin ascent Sault: 16 miles, 1,210m. All three for the Cinglés: 85 miles. ROUTE: Bédoin is the toughest, starting at 4%, kicking up to a six- mile stretch at close to 10%, but easing off after Chalet Reynard for the final 3.75 miles. Malaucène has a two-mile section halfway of 11-12%, least the road runs along the valley bottom. on Ventoux is to do all three ascents on the the steepest on the mountain, but The Dentelles de Montmirail, in the shadow same day. If you do this, and you pay the 30 also sections of 5% and 6%. Sault is less steep. Sault and Bédoin routes of Ventoux, lives up to their name – the sharp Euro fee, you are entitled to join the Club des merge at Chalet Reynard. peaks really do look like teeth. Cinglés du Mont Ventoux – the madmen’s club. ACCOMMODATION: Part of the reason While Ventoux and the surrounding area Almost 13,000 have done this, and British I keep going back is Veloventoux is a mecca for the ever-increasing number of riders are the third largest group, after Dutch (veloventoux.com), set up entirely for Lycra-clad sportive riders, many from Britain, and French, with more than 2,000 riders. cyclists and run by an English family plenty do it in their own way. There are three Plus there’s a few of us who have done it at Façon, six miles from Malaucène.

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