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#1
04-20-2018, 03:42 AM
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Cool! Celebrating my birthday on Ventoux, gotta love it.
Major fun! Friggin tiring too but if it hadn’t been, I wouldn’t have been there. Figured 73 merited something different. Like Ventoux, but not the normal way. The ol’ been there, done that story, maybe 6, 7 times between the 2 roads up. My favorite is the road from Malaucène, better views on that one. Toss-up which is harder, they’re both painful.
So naturally this time I want something even harder! Must be nuts. I’d heard about some dirt road on the south-facing slopes. Didn’t know much about it, other than it joined the regular road somewhere around Chalet Reynard. Wouldn’t be easy of course. I mean it’s a road up the Ventoux already, has to be hard, the mountain’s character. Spent the night in a small hotel in Ste Colombe. Good place, also 4 K up the Ventoux road from Bédoin, less distance to ride. Figured the dirt would make up for the missing 4 K. It did. Gorgeous morning, no wind to speak of, a vault of blue overhead, fruit trees exploding color, I’m off. No map, wanted to buy one but didn’t happen. The mountain’s there, can’t be that complicated. Rolled through St Estève where the road turns left and heads pretty much straight up the mountain. Instant steepness. A K or so later saw a dirt road going left. Wasn’t sure that was the one. Kept going for another K. No other dirt road. Turn around, drop back down, take the road. Easier than I expected but I knew that wouldn’t last. Got to a junction, straight ahead dropping down, right going up. Went right. Road got steep and rocky. Too rocky. Didn’t like the look of it. Turn around, back to the road, do the normal climb, not what I had in mind for my birthday but what the heck, good fun anyway. A slog of climb, sustained steepness, in a forest, nothing to see but the road rising up the mountain. Settle into a pace I’m hoping has a bit of style, as in not too slow. Pass a guy, only because he’s slower, not because I’m faster. All of a sudden there’s my road! Even some signs with names I remember seeing on Google maps. Swing left and I’m laughing and carrying a good pace. Completely crazy because the road is smooth going on easy grades. And no wind. The paved road pretty much just goes straight up the fall-line. The morning cold air up high flows down that line. More breeze than wind but on steep grades that breeze can feel like a headwind. Or it did to me. No wind here. And the road’s paved! Or sort of. Used to be paved a long time ago then abandoned in the asphalt maintenance department but still a lot of blacktop left. Road swung right and started climbing with more energy, the blacktop now scattered remnants surrounded by gravel and dirt. Moderately hard going but mostly because of the gravel’s looseness. Lots of line picking, weaving around, searching out the solid lines. Then things got serious. Over 4 K of 9, 10% grades, the surface a mix of rocks and gravel. Made me think I really need to change my crankset to one with a 32 or maybe even a 30-tooth small ring. I’m right at my limit with a 34/32 low gear. Easier to change cranks than drop 30 years. Fortunately my salvation is in my backpack, my camera, a real one, a DLSR, means I have to stop to shoot. Amazing how those quick stops refresh the legs. But I’m also stubborn and don’t stop very often, just keep forging up the mountain. Somewhere above me there’s supposed to be a dirt road traversing the mountain. I’m starting to wonder because I’m pretty high on the mountain and still no sign of it. Plus the road’s getting steeper and rougher with no indication of that changing. The riding’s too intense to look around, have to stop if I want to see anything. No way can I lift my eyes off the lines I’m following. Great views too, the sprawling, rolling expanse of Provence to the south and above me the white tower and it’s red and white mast on the summit bright against the blue sky. Perspectives of the summit I never imagined. And always this track of rock and gravel rising up the slopes. The crazy thing is that I’m thoroughly enjoying myself. Hadn’t seen a soul since I passed that rider on the normal road. Surrounded by silence and vegetation creeping into springtime. A gorgeous setting. At last, the junction with the traverse. To the left connects to the road from Malaucéne somewhere, to the right heads towards Chalet Reynard. A small sign announces Chalet Reynard is like eight and a half K away! Obviously I hadn’t paid much attention to the google map because I was thinking maybe only a couple of Ks at most. Break time, eat a fig, empty the second water bottle, and I’m off, and moving down the cogs! Amazing, I’m riding across the high slopes of Mont Ventoux on this gloriously smooth dirt road and flat ripping along. I’m even halfway contemplating moving up onto my big ring! But don’t, Too comfortable where I am. Huge views to the south, the wind-ravaged summit to my left. The summit doesn’t even look all that much higher anymore. Sublime! I come storming around a bend and that’s it, dirt road finished, I’m on the blacktop, heading to the top. My legs are feeling a bit finished too but they’ll get to the top. No choice in that. It’s my birthday, and a fabulous day to stand on the summit of Mont Ventoux. After what I’d ridden to get to this point, have to say the regular road doesn’t feel nearly as hard as I remember. Not that I’m moving fast, just steady and smooth and enjoying myself. Stunned by how many people there are up here. Regular parking lot of cars before the gate closing the road to traffic and after that lots of walkers on the road. And cyclists, lots of ‘em. Three years before I rode this with my son four days before my birthday and there was hardly anyone up there. Today it’s a regular circus of people. An exaggeration, at a guess I’d say that between the time I hit the blacktop and when I arrived on top, I saw maybe 20 riders and maybe 10-15 walkers. Just before Col des Tempêtes I got passed by two young women. They flew by me. E-bikes, looked like regular road bikes but with some major electric assistance. Couldn’t believe how fast they were going. Didn’t tempt me at all. If I need help getting up the mountain, I think I’d rather do drugs than an e-bike. That could change of course. The summit, I love being up here. What a cool place. I’m hanging out, shooting pics, watching people doing selfies. Get asked by the two young women, brits as it turned out, if I’d shoot them standing on the summit. Then one of them shot me. Followed by an older french gentleman who asked if I’d shoot him. Life on the summit of Ventoux for cyclists. Hung out a long time, soaking it all in, then time for the plunge. Did a straight through drop all the way down the blacktop to the hotel. There was no way I was interested in riding down that gravel road I’d come up. Up was more than okay, a gas in fact, but down, no way, not with all that gravel, not without some mountain bike with those super fat tires. Besides, I love the south side plunge off Ventoux, a wild mouse ride. A perfect ride to showcase the beauty of a properly designed fat-tired road bike, up via a rough rock and dirt road, followed by a screamer of a speed run down the pavement. Sweetness! And another year in the books. 
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#3
04-20-2018, 05:51 AM
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Wow! Great trek and pic's. Happy Birthday!
With all the gravel rides, who knows. A major stage ever going up that route. That would be cool. Have the vehicles meet them at the top and let the riders on their own...maybe just photogs on foot to document the climb.
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#4
04-20-2018, 05:59 AM
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Bravo and Happy Birthday!
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#5
04-20-2018, 06:04 AM
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Leave it to you to find a gravel road up Mt Ventoux. What a great thing for a birthday- a discovery and then follow through. We’ll have to reframe our thinking: there are (at least) four climbs up Mt Ventoux. Happy birthday!
On a different topic, things are moving forward on the house...
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#12
04-20-2018, 07:26 AM
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Nice going. I'm definitely envious.
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#13
04-20-2018, 07:41 AM
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Stupid Question
First, congratulations.
I'm planning a trip next year. I noticed only a little snow. Does the mountain close for snow in the winter or only for the wind? If it does close for snow, when does it normally open? Thanks.
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Natural Born Domestique
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#14
04-20-2018, 07:49 AM
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Happy Birthday sir...
Talk to Mat(T) and Jim about getting a modified triple..lose the big ring, use the middle and small ring position to 'make' a crank with a 30 or 32t small ring...then a 48t, say, big ring in the middle position..cannot do that with the crank you have. Or...with a little finesse and adjustment, use a triple with those shifters.. . Just need a 2006 or older triple front der..
__________________
Chisholm's Custom Wheels Qui Si Parla Campagnolo
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#15
04-20-2018, 08:15 AM
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Quote:
Belated Happy Birthday! Great post.
__________________
Old... and in the way.
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