le Mont Ventoux (1609m)

One of the Johns is spending the month of June working as a cycling guide for VéloSport Vacations in France at its Provence Cycling Camp. You can find regular updates here about his experiences.

Why do I look scared? Why am I on the back of a tandem? What happened after this photo was taken? All good questions that I will answer in a second.

First, let me give you some Ventoux statistics. The route we took up today, versant sud (south approach), climbs from Bedoin (330 meters elev.) to the top (1909 meters) in 21.1 kilometers. It is considered the second hardest face - hardest is the Malaucene side, easiest is the Sault route. The first 5k aren't bad really. Average grade no harder than 6%, but then you come into the "forest" where it averages 10±% for the next 8 k's. There are few hard turns or switch backs plus you can't see the top. Once you exit the forest and start to clear the treeline is not so bad until you reach about the last 3 k's where it kicks back up and can be super windy. Today was not so windy.
The signs along the way tell you your current elevation, distance to the top, and the average grade for next kilometer.

Here's the view just past this sign.

And here is the Tom Simpson memorial. He was an English pro who died while climbing the Ventoux during the Tour. People leave their offerings at the foot of the stone.

Anyway, the climb up was quite nice all the tandems made it, one of them really climbed well and did it in a respectable 2 hours 15 minutes. The real hero of the day though is this guy.
This is Mike. He climbed the three faces of the Ventoux today in about 12 hours.


To prove the feat and to claim membership in the Club Des Cingles Du Mont Ventoux you must take this card and get it stamped once at the summit and once at each base town, fill in your times, and send it off. Mike rides a lot. He will eat a big dinner tonight.



Ok, so why was I on that tandem at the top? Because one of the stokers was not looking forward to going down for 22k at 50+ mph. I thought, "no problem, I'll just put my bike on the car, mount my pedals on the tandem then coast back to town." It took me a millisecond of downhill to realize my mistake. Now the pilot, Dean, has been tandeming for 15 years. I have seen him for almost an entire week. He is a compitent cyclist. It wasn't him, it was me. I haven't ridden on a tandem for a long, long time. I have never ridden on the back of a tandem. You have NO control from the rear of a tandem. NO brakes, NO steering, NO NOTHING. The first 2k were terrifying. I opened my eyes once to see the edge of the road flashing by my right shoe at 45 mph. We made it down. Dean said he was "taking it easy." Thanks Dean.