How hard can it be?! Anyone done it? Recommendations for accomodation round the venttoux?

Ventoux is bollocks out hard not just altitude but distance to ride. Recommend this place to stay, it really nice with English owners. http://www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/p414427 There are 2 bike shops in Bedoin but both expensive

“Realman” off here has done it and he’s about 12 so can’t be too tricky.

Like all big hills it’s unlike anything you’ll find in the UK. If you realise this it’s fine.

Harder than a hard thing on a hard day when you feel bad, only harder.

There are three routes up it. The Tour goes up from Bedoin, so should you. The first few kms are easy until you hit the forest and it kicks up. there are no hairpins to catch your breath on. You look up and just see the road going relentlessly upwards above the tree tops.

It gets a little easier as you come out of the forest at Chalet Reynard, then it climbs again. The landscape this high is featureless and exposed. No shelter whatsoever. If its windy you get blasted, if its sunny you get fried. There are steep sections all the way to the top. How the pros ride it flat out I’ll never know.

I went at Easter a couple of years ago and the road was still closed above the snow gates. No problem to get around on a bike. The descent is awesome.

Ride it!

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42rPptJdBGM[/video]

he did it twice as his dad could only manage it once iirc why not try yourself 😉
bit steep and quite long

It’s on my to do list 🙂

Did it a while ago .We stayed just outside Bedoin .
I found it hard as I was way over geared at 39-24 :roll:.
Expect any type of weather at the top,we had lightning and hail on one ride up(in July). The Malaucene side up was hardest IMO .Good loop out from Chalet Reynard to Sault ,taking in some roads round big gorges.
Great area.
Gets mobbed at weekends with all sorts of types having a go.

Don’t try it with your knobblies on unless you like extra pain. I suspect it’s more fun to rent w nice bike for the day if you don’t already have one

How hard can it be?

One of the hardest things you will ever do on a bike that’s how hard. My coach reckons its the hardest of the famous climbs and has sworn never to do it again. I’ve done it in a couple of hours from Bedoin but it was the hardest thing I’ve done on a bike. Fortunately I’d hired a Trek Madone with a triple chainset from these guys who are based in Bedoin and I spent most of the ride in 30 x 27.

From Bedoin once you hit the forest its unremitting 8-9% with no hairpins to give any respite until you get to Chalet Reynard then it “eases off” a bit to 7% then kicks back up again. In summer once you get past Chalet Reynard you’ll probably have the Mistral to contend with as well.

The Malaucene side up was hardest IMO

I was thinking that side looked harder as I was descending it at 80 km/h.

I did it when i was about 16, on my ’92 Marin Eldridge Grade, knobbies and all. Middle of August, middle of the day by the time I got to the top. Remember spinning up the exposed upper part in the granny ring.
When I got off at the top, I could hardly stand for a minute or two! I was too tired to ride down, luckily my parents were there with the “team car”!
Definately the hardest climb I’ve done. I’ll have to go back at some point to get the ride down.
The best thing is the enthusiasm of the French as you ride up, everyone leaning of car windows cheering you on!

Paul

I found it tiring driving up and the hire car was never quite the same afterwards…

The offroad route straight up from St. Leger du Ventoux is brutal, and makes the road ascent look like a rest day. The same height gain in less than half the distance, on forest trails, rock then scree.

I have to go back and complete it one day.

I lived there for a year, many moons ago, right at the foot of the mountain, helping to convert an old farm into a gite. I am of course biased, but the best place to stay is:

This Place

I’ve been up it twice now, the last time being finishing up it in the 2009 etape. It was a hot day and the heat just made me want to puke during the last half of the climb, despite feeling great and well up for it as I came through Bedoin. It is a great climb, and drugs or not I take my hat off to the pro’s that can go balls out up it. The only good news for me was the first time I rode it I was only 24 and that was in 1999, and in the intervening decade it hadn’t got any harder.

Did it 1 1/2 years ago ascending from Bedoin. Begin with a good ride in, say from Malaucene, via col de Madaleine (not THE Madaleine)and into Bedoin then ascend through Chalet Rennard. Thats about 30 mile round trip and should do you fine.

Did it a few times in on a big biking trip a couple of years back. First day we rode up from Bedoin and watched the tour stage finish the day before the Champs Elysse. With a rucksack it wasn’t much fun (though after a few hours on the summit we wished we’d carried more clothes and food, the wind was savage!) The following day we rode around to the North side from Bedoin, then approached down some amazing valleys between Nyons and Ventoux climbing from Malaucene, incredible ride and the only time I’ve ever seen my mate Rob bonk completely (I then followed shortly after on the last hairpin), around 100 miles with a summit finish just in time to see Cav win on the Champs in the bar at the top. Incredible descent back down to Bedoin overtaking every vehicle going! Crazy day but well worthwhile.

A couple of first hand accounts:
L’Etape du Tour 1
L’Etape du Tour 2

Did all three routes up last year. It’s a great area. Superb GR footpath down to Malaucene, took the kids down the lower section.

I did the Etape in 2000, Carpentras to Ventoux.

The first 130km to Bedoin were nice and straightforward, even with 2 2nd cat and 1 4th cat climbs on the way.

I stopped for some food at Bedoin and caught up with a guy from England who was wearing an Olympic ring patch sewn on to his jersey. It turned out that he’d been in the same team as Tom Simpson in the 66 Olympics. We were riding on the anniversary of Simpson’s death, iirc. Anyway, I asked him how long it would take him to get to the top. About 90 minutes he reckoned. He was right, but it took me 50 minutes longer.

The gradient has been described above – steep and unrelenting. Coming out of the trees at Chalet Reynard we found a savage, freezing wind that stopped me completely at several hairpins. From the treeline it looks like a 10 minute ride to the top. In reality it took me 45 minutes.

I was so blown by the top that I had to feed myself twice in the last 1km or so.

At the top it was 2 degrees, and started snowing shortly after I dropped down the far side. (Which was interesting because frozen body parts weren’t something I’d considered when planning a ride in Provence in July!)

An 85km/hour descent with fingers frozen to the brakes wearing only short sleeve lycra top/shorts and a lightweight windproof. There were lots of crashes in evidence, and lots of ambulances driving up and down.

I’ll go back and ride it again one day!

Rode it Summer 2009. Started from Bedoin (only did it as an up and down) and went up via Chalet Reynard – on my Cannondale Synapse with a triple.

First couple of km is fine, then it starts to kick up to its steady 9-10% as you go into the forest. Really a case of settling into a steady climbing rythym up through the forest to Chalet Reynard and keeping the pedals turning. It’s weird as the gradient is so consistent (as it is pretty much straight up with very few hairpins) and you can’t see very far as it is quite dense woodland with few breaks to give you any sort of view – as long as you can keep the legs turning over it’s fine. I found that quite hard towards the top as I was used to using the gradient to determine seated or out of the saddle and you can’t really do that on Ventoux. After Chalet Reynard you pop out into the open and it’s just weird – landscape, altitude, scenery. The wind can be a mega factor and the gradient fluctuates all over the place. And you can see the summit observatory and you don’t realise how big it is so it never seems to get closer. Last couple of km were a killer as they are after the relatively easy bit after Chalet Reynard so feel all the steeper, plus you’ll have close to a vertical mile in your legs. Very glad to get to the top, so I was.

It’s hard, but it’s not the hardest climb ever. Thing about it is, if you do MTB stuff then it’s not too bad at any one point, and there are worse, if shorter, climbs in the Alps (Col de la Joux Plan from Samoens to Morzine is harder IMO).

Top tips
– set off early in summer. We were riding at 8 (the bars in Bedoin are open at that time). Was 20C when we set off and 40C when we got back – it was like descending into a hand dryer.
– take extra layers. I took a gilet and armwarmers and was glad of it.
– have a bike you are very comfortable with, and with gearing you can pull it off on. A triple with a 27 in my case, though I only used 30-27 at the very end.
– drink and eat when you can (mainly bottom and Chalet Reynaud)
– the observatory is really f*ing huge. So if it is small, it is really far away.
– watch the wind. We did it on a windless day at the bottom and it was still pretty breezy at the top. Proper wind will kill you.
– be really, really careful on the descent.

Most of all, enjoy it. I rode it in a oner, without stopping, or crying, or being sick and I am well chuffed by that (though clearing the Moronne climb out of Braemar on a heavy bike was, I feel, a bigger achievement for a fat lad). I think I was about 1h 50 – 1h 55.

Mont Ventoux – summit pic by Stu_N, on Flickr

Mont Ventoux – summit from Tom Simpson monument by Stu_N, on Flickr

I’m in reasonable nick (43, and not the fittest) and did it twice last year. First day, we took the ascent from Bedoin, probably the hardest ascent. The next day, we climbed from Sault.

First 15 or so K are up through a fairly cool forest section, with a fair gradient. From there, you emerge onto a plateau at Chalet Renard, where you can stop for a Coke and a photo op, and watch the Ferrari’s tear up to the top. The last 7 or so K to the top is exposed, with amazing views. The gradient ramps up a bit.

Its very doable, just hunker down into a lowish gear and go for it. I think I averaged about 10 or 12k per hour- no great speed, but it got me to the top in 2 hours with time for stops and photos. You’ll get passed loads of times at that pace by racing whippets, but will also pass loads of leisure cyclists. If they can do it, so can you!

Tips:
-take your time from the outset
-use a roadbike
-take a couple of litres of fluid at least (more if its really warm) -arm/leg warmers for the chilly, fast descent.
-Don’t let it’s reputation faze you, its just a big, steep hill.
-Let the whippets try and get their best time!
-Ride strong and look fierce when you pass the photographers
-FFS, use an anatomical saddle. I couldn’t feel my c*ck for 2 days

(Where we were staying, a Lancashire lad- Jenson?- was doing it 3 times in the one day.)