Mt Ventoux

There is this little known mountain just up the way from me called Mt Ventoux. You might have heard of this hill because it is occasionally one of the legs in this small race that happens here every year called the Tour de France.

Somehow I got roped into climbing said mountain this morning. What was I thinking?! It was a pure statement of stubbornness and pride. This climb is about 22km long with an average gradient of about 7.5%. No big deal except there is NO BREAK. At all. You know how most climbs are steep then flat then steep then flat. Not here. No mercy. Not to mention the last 16km of which the gradient is about 9% with several sections in the 10-13% range. That's about 5000 ft elevation gain in 22km (about 13 miles). This "mileage" is also not including the 20km it took to get to and from Bedoin the town at the foot of the climb.

French style clif bar

If you are not a cyclist think of it like this: in the U.S. they post warning signs when you are descending a hill steeper than 6%. I can also tell you that on the way down I was consistently accelerating despite my super-human grip strength pressing down on the brake levers. FUN!

As per my french lesson with my roommate Jessie earlier in the week, I learned that "ventoux" means windy and apparently this mountain can sometimes see gusts of up to 200mph! Furthermore, according to wikipedia 240 days a year see gust of over 56 mph. Fortunately for me "le mistral" (which literally means master and I found out why last week as she blew me all over the road during our training rides) finished dishing out her wrath Saturday so today was fairly calm and I didn't get blown off the mountain.

At the summit

Jessie also finished the climb in about 1hr 45min. I finished just after her at 2hr 45 min :) I blame the extra 11 pounds or so that I was carrying in that Backroads bike I bragged about last week. That and the (no exaggeration) 40 extra pounds I carry in my body.

Jessie slaying a section of the climb

No matter how long it took to get up there the views were AMAZING. You could see the Alps! One of the other cool things was seeing all the writing in the road cheering on the Tour riders. Some of it I could understand and some of it I couldn't, but the feeling was still there!

Overall it was a GREAT day and I'm happy that she twisted my arm. Definitely an experience that I will look back on with pride, or maybe a little more immediately with some soreness.