May 2, 2025
Two nights in Sault
Mt. Ventoux
In order to avoid holding you in suspense:
Dave rode up Mt. Ventoux!
So, to backtrack: Dave awoke refreshed and after eating a bunch of bread with excellent jam and yogurt and granola at breakfast he decided to give Ventoux a try. I was not surprised. He went off at 10:30 am after a bit of the usual dithering over what to take. His thinking was to begin the climb and see how he felt. I will leave it to him to report.
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Dave here: As Jill noted, I ended up deciding to take a shot at climbing Mt. Ventoux. I didn't know when I'd ever have the opportunity/ability to do so again, so my plan was to go as far as I felt comfortable. Once I got to the tree line, I would make a go/no-go decision about trying for the summit.
It was an incredibly beautiful day. It was pleasantly cool with a cloudless sky which is just right for this kind of effort. You read so much about how brutal this climb can be on warm days as you're completely exposed for the last few kilometers, but I was optimistic that the coolness of the day would mitigate that problem.
The traffic on the way up was fairly sparse but was punctuated by groups of motorcycle riders who were racing up the road. Their speed and motor noises were an unwelcome distraction. Otherwise, I came across numerous bike riders. I would guess that maybe 15% of them were like me and on e-bikes.
As you can see from the map above, the alternative return route was about 2/3 of the way to the top. I thought that would be a good place to take inventory of body and spirit to see if I wanted to proceed. I also wanted to take a look at that alternate route as it involved a lot of gravel and given the steepness of the climb, I wasn't sure if it was something I wanted to tackle. As you can see from the photo of the start of the trail, it was very steep and had gnarly gravel. I decided then and there that a) I wasn't going to take this route and b) I was feeling really good and wanted to proceed, at least to the tree line.
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Yeah. I know. I've been showing a lot of Mt Ventoux shots, but as I approached the final climb, the now unused meteorological tower, which is topped with a 50 meter telecommunications mast, was looming larger and larger, making the pending final climb look more and more imposing.
As I reached timber line there was a merger with the road from Bédoin which brought more riders and many more vehicles, and the two roads converged onto an extremely busy Terasse du Chalet Reynard, a bustling cafe. When I reached the restaurant, I was feeling really good and decided to go for the summit. I rode past the café and joined the throngs heading to the top. And here the already steady semi-steep incline, dropped any pretense of being "semi". The climb got serious and I was so glad we had cool temperatures because this final leg of the climb was going to be a serious slog.
Just before reaching the summit, there was a cut out at the Col de Tempêtes which provided amazing views.
Finally I reached the summit. I along with dozens of others, both cyclists and those who drove up to the top. It was quite the scene with cyclists celebrating their efforts and others milling around gawking at the incredible views from the summit. I enjoyed an apple before heading back down.
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The wind at the top was howling and since it was coming from the north, quite chilly. Part of the "dithering" Jill teased me about in her intro to this entry, was my internal debate about whether I should bring my rain jacket. It was such a a beautiful warm day down in the valley but it turned out to be cold at the top due to the wind. In the end I took the jacket, along with an ear band and gloves, and was really glad I had them all for the extremely fast descent. Even with all of that gear, I was really cold coming down. I topped out at 55 kph which is really fast for me on this hurky bike of mine and the wind was biting.
It was an awesome day!
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