Saturday 13 July 2013

T14: Mont Ventoux from Bedoin

What a great, great day. A little bit of everything was enjoyed. 

Sun and warmth. 
Beautiful little villages. 
Superb summer riding. 
No wind. 
Really noisy crickets. 
Small climbs.
Medium pace flat through vineyards. 
Reasonable coffee. 
Texts from friends at home - Allez!
Biggest single climb. 
Shady forests. 
Litres of sweat. 
Meeting other riders. 
Hundreds of campervans lining the road. 
Getting cheered and clapped. 
Luna Ventoux landscape. 
Cool at the top. 
Fastest descent speed ever: 92kmh. 
15km of -10%!
Long flowy corners.
Massively long straights. 
Tight fast hairpins. 
...and landing right at your hotel doorstep/pub without turning the peddles for 10k!

It was a great, great day. 

The only thing missing was my usual riding posse - but they were in my head. And you boys rode strong today...but I was stronger!!! *winky face!*


I met a chap from Poland and rolled up Ventoux for about 30 minutes with him...(till I dropped him - but that's another story). Arangoor rides for Brave Bike Team. He was a lovely chap who had a much better command of English than I had of Polish. He was kind enough to complement me on my climbing, an essential basic skill of cycling he told me - and that's about the time I showed him a clean pair of wheels! I waited for him up the top though. 


Ventoux is a 21k-ish climb with an 8k section in the middle over 9% - just relentless. I can see how Tommy died up here - sure the alcohol and amphetamines probably had a bit to do with it - but the exertion put the lights out. The landscape is amazing. From the bottom it looks like snow, but it's all white rocks. T-Bird, GT and AZ will be getting a rock each from Tommy's memorial. Their mission is to put them back. 




The effort of the day goes to this chap. Big ups to you buddy. 


Now tell me, as a cyclist is there any better sign to see than this one?


Problems with internet here so will upload the ride data tomorrow. See below for more Provence:




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Cav redeemed himself today. Sagan is strong, but not that strong. And how awesome was the move by Saxo in the crosswind to blow the peleton apart and just as awesome that Cav and Sagan could go with it whilst Froome got dropped. This Tour has been so good for action. Froome lost over a minute today - let's hope that continues and that the attacks remain massive to blow Sky apart. Can't wait to see the pro's on Ventoux on Sunday. We climb it again tomorrow from the other direction. 

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