Page 76 - RADC 2016

Mount
Ventoux
Cycling Trip
Paul Mannering
So there I was minding my own business, sipping coffee and not paying attention to the conversation when I agreed to cycle up Mont Ventoux with a couple of friends. Top Tip – Pay attention lad!!
Some say Mont Ventoux at 1,912m high is the hardest of all the mythical Tour de France (TdF) climbs and rightly so. As the name might suggest (venteux means windy in French) it can get windy at the summit, especially with the mistral; wind speeds
as high as 320 km/h (200 mph) have been recorded. The wind blows at 90+ km/h (56+ mph) 240 days a year. The 2016 TdF route to the summit was cancelled because of the high winds on that (Bastille) day and the race nished at Chalet Reynard 6km short of the
summit. The mountain achieved worldwide notoriety when it claimed the life of the great English cyclist Tom Simpson, who died there on July 13th 1967 from a combination of
a stomach upset, heat exhaustion, alcohol and amphetamines. A memorial to him
is about 1,5km from the summit and it
is traditional for passing cyclists to leave memorabilia there.
So the culprit of commitment was Ray
Evans (87) formerly of the Welsh Guards and the RADC partner was Rob Carew. 87 had been contacted by a former colleague (Ben Parry) who said he’d cycled up Mt Ventoux. Subsequently 87 found out that Ben had done so not knowing he was suffering from lung cancer and so probably did it on one lung. Not to be outdone 87 decided that it was a challenge that could not be missed and recruited partners for it. Sadly Ben passed away before he could be told of our achievement. He was there in spirit though as he’d purchased a Mt Ventoux cycling top during his trip and his widow asked 87 to wear it on the day and so he did.
There are three cycle routes up Mt Ventoux from Bedoin, Malaucene and Sault. The classic TdF route up the mountain is from Bedoin. The length of the climb from Bedoin at 300m above sea level to the summit at 1912m is 21.5km. This gives an elevation of 1612m and an average gradient of 7.5%. This doesn’t sound too bad but when you break the climb down into its 3 obvious sections it paints a different picture. From Malaucene at 360m you have early steeps from 4% to 9% for the rst 9km
then for the remainder it ranges 10% to 12% and all you can see in front of you is
74 RADC BULLETIN 2016
ASSOCIATION