Mont Ventoux - The Giant of Provence
At 9.40 am on Wednesday 14 May 2008, with my cycling partner David Lawson, I commenced the assault on Mont Ventoux. This climb, a favourite with the Tour de France, was a long held dream of David's and he asked me to accompany him. I agreed and decided to do it in aid of the French breast cancer charity, Odyssea, that Karen and Linda do so much fund raising for.
We arrived in Provence on Tuesday evening, later than planned, and only had time to drive up one of the three routes to the summit. This route is accepted as being the most difficult and referred to, in cycling circles, as 'the killer'. The road surface was excellent and as this was the only route we had inspected, we decided to go for it in the morning.
We set off, in warm sunshine, from the village of Saint Colombe, some 18 km and 1,524 m(5,000 ft) from the summit. We made good progress for the first kilometre and then the gradient quite suddenly steepened. We were in a densely wooded part of the route, which was extremely pretty and very quiet. Unfortunately David punctured after a few kilometres but urged me to carry on alone. It was impossible to repair as we only had one support vehicle, ably manned by Julia and Linda, and if I was to carry on I would certainly need support later on. David retired, but completed he climb the following day. I pressed on, catching and ridding with an elderly French rider who was on his fourth ascent of the great mountain. We parted at Chalet Reynard, about 6 km from the top, when I stopped to have a drink with my support team. I started off again whilst the support team had a coffee break at the Chalet Reynard restaurant. I caught and stayed with a Belgium cyclist for the next 5 km. passing the memorial to Tom Simpson who died on Mont Ventoux during a Tour de France. My support team said they were amazed to catch up with me just one kilometre from the summit as they had only stayed a short while at the restaurant. I pressed on and reached the summit in 2 hours 7 minutes. A feeling of immense pride and achievement washed over me and I was presented with a Mont Ventoux cycling top and medal by my excellent support team.
That afternoon, with the help of the Mazan cycle shop, David's tyre was repaired and he decided to try again the following morning. David, sensibly deicide to take the longer but not so steep route and completed the climb in just under 3 hours, in atrocious weather conditions, cold low cloud and a howling wind.
On behalf of Odyssea, I would like to thank all of my sponsors, the current total standing at 562 euros with more to come. Many thanks to those who have already paid, to the others, I will be coming for my money and to anyone else, there is still time for donations.
I attach a picture of the summit of Mont Ventoux, hopefully with more photographs to follow.
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