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Cingles - Crazed or mad

Tuesday 18th October 2022

A Trip to Mont Ventoux - from Andy Bone

After declaring we'd do it three years ago, four postponements, two Covid, one wrist fracture and one work commitment we finally made it to Provence and the base of Mont Ventoux. At 1,909m, it is the highest mountain in the region and has the nickname the "Beast of Provence". It has gained infamy in the cycling world as a Tour de France climb and as the name suggests the wind can blow at over 90 kph for 240 days a year.

The plan was to cycle up it once but we heard about the Cinglés du Mont Ventoux Club where you climb the Mont three times in a day, how could we not?

137 km with 4400m of elevation, three ascents and three descents. Starting at the town of Bédoin you have a 22km climb to the summmit through forest averaging 7.5 per cent. 6 km from the summit you pass Chalet Reynard which is essentially a big grey car park with horrible looking café. From there trees are replaced with a moonscape although our climb for the first summit was in cloud which helped as you couldn't see how far you had to go. Past the Tom Simpson memorial (who tragically died on the climb in 1967) surrounded with cycling offerings is an ominous reminder.  No view at the top  so we quickily put on our extra layers for the descended to Malaucène. In thick cloud the 21 km descent took about half and descending was so cold it took two coffees and croissant to stop shivering.

From Malaucène the toughest part of this climb was the middle with 4km of over 10 percent. The last 2km the sun came out and we were treated to iconic view of the Ventoux tower whilst negotiating the last few hairpins to the summit. Two done and we had a celebratory Coca-Cola before leaving for Sault. Again painfully cold on the hands despite thick gloves.

Descent and return to the summit is a 52km trip but only 1220 m of ascent but still the top 6km from Chalet Raynard at 9%. The fromage baguette in Sault was massive and hit the spot. Compared with the morning ascent where there were no other cyclists this afternoon it was much busier and it helped having bikes ahead to pick off. The last 2km were so hard but the summit views worth every pedal stroke. It was all down hill from here.

Jim and I completed the challenge in just over 9.5 hours (7hr:52mins cycling time)
Suzanne Romney moving 10hrs12mins
Phil Grabsky and Ginny Ponsford  moving 10hrs:39mins

https://www.clubcinglesventoux.org/