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#1
04-22-2015, 04:22 AM
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Flipping the 6 to the 7
Celebrating (not at all sure that’s the correct verb) turning 70 on Saturday ended up a week-long affair. The son flew into Geneva on Monday, picked him up early morning, back to the house, lunch, went for a ride. A local loop on the slopes across the valley. An anonymous road except to the few who use it. A climb of course, sometimes steep, sometimes mellow, a few places just plain rude. Something to shake out the son’s legs after flying, around 30K, maybe 750 vertical, all on narrow roads, no traffic, finish a fast, twisting plunge.
Tuesday a lazy morning, put the rack on the Sub, drive south to Bédoin, arrive mid-afternoon at the hotel in Ste-Colombe, small village on the road to Ventoux. Time to ride. Mat hadn’t done Ventoux. This would be my sixth visit, three times from Malaucène, twice from Bédoin, the last time on 23 December 2014. Not quite four months later I’m back and worried. The winter wasn’t one that had encouraged lots of riding so my form was off the back. Tackling Ventoux probably wasn’t a great idea but at this point in life, good form seems to be a permanently elusive affair. I cheated of course. Told Mat he’d probably want to ride back to Bédoin to do the climb correctly. Meantime I’d head up the road. I mean I’d already done the beast twice and felt no need to be correct. Besides, he’d catch me quick enough. The good thing about the climb was that it showed me my memory was still functioning. I remembered it had been hard, like way hard and way sustained. It was, in spades. Also hot, like close to summer hot. Actually on that I don’t really know because all the other times up Ventoux had been in late autumn so what the temps are during the summer I don’t know, other than way hot. What I did know was that the sun was burning down out of fine, blue sky and I was sweating buckets. In December the road had been mostly in shade until Chalet Reynard with the fringes frequently white with frost. Definitely no frost Tuesday. The sun was hammering straight down on my back, nicely transforming the road into your basic pizza oven ride. The road had also been closed to cars (after Chalet Reynard) in December so I was pretty much alone. This time the road was open only to the summit, still snow on the north side apparently, but traffic was light. Off-season. From time to time cyclists would come flying down carrying big speed. An impressive sight and sound. Well, not all of them flying, quite a few brake draggers too. Didn’t see riders going up. This is not one of my favorite climbs. Sort of the equivalent of an up-hill drag race course shooting straight up the mountain’s slopes. Okay, an exaggeration, the road’s not straight, lots of wiggling and squirming plus part way up there are even a couple or so switchbacks, but still, in the end it’s pretty much just following the fall line up the mountain, like the road builders picked out a stream drainage and slapped the road down in it. Then doubling up the mental pain factor is there’s nothing but a forest to look at most of the time. That’s why I love the ride from Malaucène, views off both sides of the mountain. But not on this side. From the switchback to the left in St Estève until Chalet Reynard 10 K later is pretty much nothing but forest and sustained steep, as in average grade over 9%, at least according to the profile I’ve seen. The first (brief) view of the summit after St Estève arrives after some 5 K of hard effort. There is one section in the forest that I love, the piece where the road is right in what was once (and maybe still is sometimes) the stream bed. Curls through a series of shallow S-turns past slightly undercut cliffs. Coming down through here is outrageously good. I was smiling going up through there thinking about the two times I came down the road and hit those beautifully linked S-turns. Kept looking behind me expecting Mat to be closing on me but still no sight of him so I pressed on as hard as I could. The effort was maxed but unfortunately my forward advance was considerably less impressive than the sweat streaming down my back but I was also pretty happy because I was getting up the mountain better than I had feared would be the case. The heat was intense. Gave me a mild taste of what it must be like for the peloton in July. Between the heat radiating off the mountain, the heat radiating off the crowds of people and campers and cars parked along the way, the waves of noise crashing down on the riders’ heads, has to be an insane experience. Hell, I was feeling slightly insane just for wanting to ride up that crazy road. I mean all I was going to do was get to the top, look around, then ride back down. How nuts can we be! Came around a bend and suddenly realized I was almost to Chalet Reynard. Looked behind again and spotted Mat back there. All right, I was going to get to Chalet Reynard before he caught me! Hadn’t expected that. Turned out my cheating start had gained me a twenty minute headstart, as in by the time he got back to the hotel I was already twenty minutes up the road. I didn’t feel bad about it. He was soaked with sweat. Made me look almost dry. He also looked just about as fast and strong as he had at the hotel. I didn’t but what can I say. Okay, less than 500 vertical meters to go, a wind but nothing excessive, big sky overhead, and my legs were still functioning. Off to the summit. My headstart on him was good because from there to Col des Tempêtes we pretty much rode together, him stopping for photos, me pressing on, him catching me, then stopping again. Sometimes the wind was in our face strong enough to have cost me a couple of teeth if I’d had any more cogs to shift to, which I didn’t since I’d elected to ride a one speed up the mountain, as in 34/27 from St Estève. Then we’d slowly swing around into one of the series of basins on the ridge leading to the summit and the wind would be on our backs and the air would go completely still and the temperature would instantly ratchet up something fierce. Then around the far side of the basin and into the wind again which was instantly refreshing. Col des Tempêtes, the wind all excited and blowing from three different directions at the same time. Had to stop for some photos. Hadn’t taken many to this point. The sun was too high overhead, the light harsh. Decided it was better to keep going than having to whip the body back into the saddle after photo stops. But up here the light was better and I must say I do love those wind-swept slopes below the summit with the road arcing up. While I was shooting a rider came by carrying an impressive pace. Mat looked up, saw him whip by, took a few more shots with his i-phone camera, then took off after him. So did I, only my take-off was definitely not one that was going to make many ripples in the air with my passage. I wasn’t looking forward to this last bit. Nothing but pain right to the summit with the steepest pitches at the end. Hell of a finish. But I got there. That had been my mantra the whole way up, I’ll get there. I did. I was dead but I got there. With my son, four days before turning 70, had to like that. No, had to love that. Parking lot all but empty. Not like in December when I was the only one up there, but not much more than a handful of people scattered around. We propped our bikes against the summit sign, shot some pics, then used it for a back rest while we sat and drank and soaked up the views. Four riders arrived, turned out to be Brits, full of energy and fast words. I swear I had a hard time understanding them. They’d just arrived from England, twenty of them in all though only four had ridden up. There for the week with some race up the mountain organized for Friday. Their enthusiasm was impressive. I kind of wanted to hang out on the summit until the sun was setting. Thought that could be pretty sweet watching a sunset from the summit but the air had cooled and we finally decided we’d better roll off before too much longer. But not quite yet, a little more strolling around looking out over the world. Outrageous place up there. Wonderfully silent without cars and motorcycles and hordes of people talking and shooting pics of each other. Enough, now down. This I was looking forward to. This is one fast ride down. I was off first, Mat behind. About halfway to Chalet Reynard, he blew by on a wave of humming tires. Apparently as far as physics is concerned a heavier person isn’t going to descend any faster than a lighter rider. I won’t argue that; I’m not a physicist. On the other hand I know that my son who weighs 34 kilos more than me and rides the same gearing is always faster in the straights. Always. No idea why, just the way it is. I can be in a tight tuck and he’ll be sitting up and going the same speed as me. Or faster. Anyway, he went by with a big grin on face. Down through the long swingers on the upper slopes, around the bend and down to the chalet, hard right and into the drop off the mountain, the tires singing. A pure speed run, like jumping into a totally crazy steep water slide. Coming up the road’s pretty straight; going down hard and fast straight it isn’t. And we were flying. Pure sweetness. Down into the forest, through some long linked sweepers, a straight, on the brakes shedding speed for the hard right coming up that drops into a hard, round left, out of the left, out of the saddle accelerating then tucked in letting the bike go. Here they come, the linked S-turns where the road imitates a steam bed. Starts off with a hard right that was sharper than I’d thought and I came in too fast and had to brake hard before diving through it then letting the bike go and following gravity down through the back and forths. Unreal, just unreal. Mat maybe twenty meters in front, a beautiful dance between bike and gravity, leaning left, leaning right, back and forth, everything flowing together into one smooth, effortless movement. On and on, my hands screaming for a break, the rest of me telling them to shut up. Good fun. But still not my favorite drop, too easy really, just hold on and go. Nothing technical about it at all, except a bit in the twisty section where the road pretends it’s a streambed. Back to the hotel where we stop at the bar next door. Two beers on tap, sweating coolness, so good. Shower, change, down to Bédoin for dinner, by car, not by bike. Park ourselves at a table outside a small Italian pizzeria. Felt like we were in Italy what with all the Italian we heard. Made for a terrific end to the day, hanging out next to the plaza in shirt sleeves, eating, drinking well, thinking about tomorrow’s ride through Gorges de la Nesque. Didn’t know that road, just a little of what I’d read and heard. We were looking forward to even if we didn’t know what was going to be served up. Might have been less excited if we’d known what a little shortcut road I’d seen on a map had in store for us. Then again might have been even more excited if we’d known about the downhill we had on the way back, super fast, technical as hell, a screamingly fun wild mouse ride descent. But all that was in the future. For the moment we just sat back and savored the evening and being together in south France (and me savoring that I’d managed to do Ventoux from Bédoin once again). A few pics, I didn’t shoot many plus everyone’s seen Ventoux a lot already 
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#2
04-22-2015, 04:38 AM
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I hope I can ride there before I die. I was watching TDF stage 12 in '00 just yesterday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Oql3qMNOqo
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#4
04-22-2015, 06:01 AM
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You always seem to have amazing stories and incredible photographs to accompany. I really enoy reading them and bet many other forumites do as well. Congrats on the big milestone too!
__________________
Some Parlee’s, Serotta, Moots, Litespeed, and Specialized.
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#5
04-22-2015, 07:12 AM
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Happy Birthday Hank
And hello to Mat..I just don't get to the shop as much as I used to..
Remind him that shoes are black...Good enough for Eddy....
__________________
Chisholm's Custom Wheels Qui Si Parla Campagnolo
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#7
04-22-2015, 08:09 AM
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Happy freakin' birthday, Hank.
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#10
04-22-2015, 10:01 AM
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Hank, Happy Birthday! And wishes for many more miles and years ahead.
Your prose and photography are always a highlight of this forum -- thank you for sharing so freely with us. I turn 61 in two weeks, and you continue to give me hope and inspiration about my cycling future.
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#13
04-22-2015, 11:55 AM
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Velo pal, awesome man!
Btw, if you would like to celebrate your birthday more often, and have someone from this forum fly in, say, once every week, to visit and ride with you....I am sure that can be arranged.  
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