The thing with the Ventoux is that it's quite kind to you. It gives you plenty of time at
the start to find your rhythm and warm up. The opening 3km are little more than a false
flat, only averaging 2%. The following 4km pitch up slightly, averaging 5% and it's at
km 7 where the fun really begins.
However, over those opening 7km, there is a constant reminder in the distance of where
you're going to. It's one of the few mountains where you can see your finish point pretty
much from the start.
As you might expect, some of cycling's greatest names have won up here on the Ventoux. Amongst
them: Charly Gaul, Raymond Poulidor, Bernard Thévenet and the great Eddy Merckx. However
back in 1994, it was the unlikely figure of Eros Poli, 1m94cm and 86kg, who crested here
first en route to stage victory.
My speed's been hovering just above and just below 10km/h for quite some time now. It doesn't
take a genius to work out - luckily for me - that a 22km climb at this speed is going to take
a long time. Further down on the lower slopes I had a bit of cloud cover, but that seems
to have disappeared now and with the sun directly on my back, it feels like I'm in an oven,
it's really quite difficult at this point. 11km in though, almost half way now.
With about 3.5km to go, you come above the tree line and into this very open, lunar-type
landscape which no doubt will be familiar to you even if you've never climbed Mont Ventoux
before. It really feels here like you can pretty much reach out and grab the tower that sits
on top of the mountain here, but don't be fooled. There's still a deceptively long way
to go before you actually reach the top. And of course, being open like this, this section
of the climb is very susceptible to the weather conditions. Speeds as high as 320km/h have
been recorded up here at the top of the Ventoux. Nothing like that today. There's a bit of
a breeze, but thankfully for me it's a tailwind!
When you reach the Tom Simpson memorial here, you'll know that there's less than 1km to
go before you reach the top. Tom was the first ever yellow jersey wearer from Britain who
tragically died here all the way back in 1967 under tragic circumstances. As you can see,
lots of people pay their respects to Tom on here en route to riding up this iconic climb.
The next series we make should be 'Iconic Descents'!
Well I've finally got my breath back here at the top. I have to say that it certainly
is a very very hard mountain to climb, but as the old saying goes: 'what goes up, must
go down' - this is the fun bit!