Ventoux for Idiots – advice wanted

So, family holiday next week, vaguely near Ventoux. Can wangle a free day  – fancy riding up from Bedoin ‘classic’ TdF route. Will take my road bike but too late to muck about with gears (semicompact chainset, will swap to a 32 tooth cassette)

Do I just start straight uphill? is it worth adding 10km of local roads to ‘warm up’?

Nowhere near full fitness, but stubborn levels are quite high so reckon 20km uphill with no respite, in 30+ degrees and possible headwind should be doable.

Any advice gratefully received (but not necessarily adhered to) and I’m not up for the Cingles this time

Thanks

We did it from Sault, just rode straight up, had a sandwich, and rode back down again. I did it on 34/25, and just ground it out, it was great.

From memory, from Bedouin, it’s a fairly gentle start so I don’t think a warm up is warranted

I think the traditional climb from Bedoin is the dullest. going from Sault is nicer, and from the other side (can’t remember the name of that climb). Other than the achievment of a famous climb, it isn’t a good ride IMO, do it once but there is much nicer riding in the area than just beasting the mount.

From Sault to Bedoin is the Gorges de la Nesque which is a lovely pedaly slightly down hill road along the gorge with rock arches over the road, if you only have a day, I would recommend you make that part of your route..

I did it from Chateauneuf du Pape so had a few km of warm up, but from Bedouin you should be fine. As above it’s pretty gentle to start with, and gradients are fairly constant, so you can warm up rather than be straight in to massive ramps.

Bedoin is the “traditional” TdF route (the one used most often at any rate), it starts off pretty steady, you’ll see the summit off to your left. There’s a cycling cafe right on the corner literally “the start line” for the climb as you hit the edge of town.

Took me about 2hrs from that side but there was one hell of a head/cross wind towards the summit. So bad that people descending were having to walk. Still, I was only about 40 minutes slower than Pogacar on one of the main segments (a 7.3 mile segment midway up, I took 1.08, he did it in 35 minutes). Go me.

Bedoin is probably the toughest side. I really like the Malaucene climb, that was stunning. Sault is probably the “easiest” although the last few km from Chalet Reynard are the same as Bedoin.

Second the comment about Gorge de la Nesque, that was stunning. Super quiet, way better than Ventoux. If you start in Bedoin, do Gorge then up to Sault, climb Ventoux from there, get to the summit, turn and descend to Bedoin. If the weather is crap, you’ll still have reached Chalet Reynard and can just descend from that.

Edit: no matter what the weather is doing in Bedoin and no matter what the forecast says, take a waterproof and maybe a Buff, warm gloves etc. It can be absolutely baltic up the top and in the 2hrs it’ll take you to climb it, the nice cloudless skies that you’ll see up the summit when you start can change to mist and drizzle in minutes. September last year when I was there, it was high 20’s in the valley for us and about 6 degrees up the summit.

We quite often use the campsite in Villes Sur Auzon, which is right at the bottom of the Gorges de la Nesque.  Great spot.  Anyhoo, back on topic, from Bedouin you’ll have a little warm up, but it’s a grippy soab from that side.  Malaucene is a bit steeper but nicer I think, but from Sault after the Gorge is my favourite ascent of it, however the last few time we’ve been in the area I’ve been nowhere near Le Mont, there’s tons of super nice riding in the area.

is it worth adding 10km of local roads to ‘warm up’?

Not really, I would because it’s a nice area so why not and a longer warm up coming in from the Gorge de la Nesque makes a truly great ride if you have more time.

From the S, Sault is easier, from Bedoin is the classic. Both have that amazing change as you ride past the treeline at Chalet Reynard. I think it’s a wonderful landscape and road. The decent down the N side is so good.

There is a lot of great riding in that area but still I’ve ridden over it 3 times, every time I’ve been in the area on a bike tour. Can’t resist it.

Oh, nip to Nyons and bring me back some olives, my stash has nearly run out!

The decent down the N side is so good.

That has to be one of THE great road descents in Europe. Summit down to Malaucene. Best done either crack of dawn or in the evening once the crowds have gone cos some of the driving along there at weekends can be hairy – mix of motorbikes and flash cars ragging it and motorhomes getting stuck on corners!

As above, +1 for Gorges de la Nesque.

THE great road descents in Europe.

Now there’s a thread.

Plus a mention of the gravel route up from Bedoin to Chalet Reynard, that’s great too.

Do you have any gpx of gravel routes in that area? I will be going later in the year, and my gravel bike doubles up for road duties, so it would be nice to explore some gravel.

If you are bored you can watch my video of the Malaucene descent, there are some fast bits and some car overtakes to keep it interesting:

https://youtu.be/qh0FUA0TcrA?si=u6nQJyosBZOq97Ji

About 10 mins in for a fast overtaking section

Thanks everyone. It’s a bit of a bucket list thing, so feel I should do Bedoin route  – would love to do more around there, so will hopefully come back. (I drove up from Malaucene some 20 yrs ago, haven’t been back in the area since).

https://i.postimg.cc/K8H6d1gL/Screenshot-2024-08-19-18-21-03.png

If that works, a rough loop from Sault to Bedoin down the Gorges, up Ventoux and down to Sault again…

50 miles is ok given around 30 of it is downhill.

Is that the gorge road mentioned above?

I have very limited time to plan a route as I am  off tomorrow!

Yes it is from what I can see

If that works, a rough loop from Sault to Bedoin down the Gorges, up Ventoux and down to Sault again…

It’ll be UP the Gorge but yes, that’s the one. Can’t go wrong, it’s signposted Bedoin via Gorge de la Nesque.

Then from Bedoin, follow the vast hordes of cyclists. They will all be heading up Ventoux!

Technically it’s up AND down the Gorges from Sault as it climbs for a little bit then descends down to Villes Sur Auzon, but the decent always feels like more pedalling needs to be involved than it should.

It’s down the gorge to Bedoin I’m sure, if not it was very easy for an up!

Given the ‘bump’ on the profile from Ventoux itself, I’ll take the gorge as downhill from the Garmin elevation graph.

Pretty sure I’ll just follow the hordes as Crazy-Legs says, just need to pace myself…

If I survive, I’ll let you know how I got on

Thanks again

Just expect at least 1.5 hours of grinding your lowest gear thinking I will be able to rest a bit when the gradient slackens just round the next corner, until you get to the top 🙂

Just expect at least 1.5 hours of grinding your lowest gear thinking I will be able to rest a bit when the gradient slackens just round the next corner, until you get to the top 🙂

That’s pretty much spot on actually! 😉

I went to ride it one year, but Easyjet kept hold of our bikes until we got to the UK.

Probably for the best.

Idiots you say?

1994.

I had a Fisher Hoo Koo E Koo with spesh fatboy slicks. My mate had a classic Pinarello  steel framed racer from the 80s adapted to take panniers (!)

We’d cycled from Cambridge to Barcelona and back towards the Alps – After a bit of a party with some girls from Rodean I’d left my helmet on the ferry, him his cycle shoes so he’d done the whole ride in deck shoes and me helmetless.

Ventoux was ours for the taking!  We got to within about 3km of the summit in glorious sunshine and then the mistral hit …..we battled on in t shirts till I was blown over  even though my bike must have weighed 20kg with panniers. We took shelter behind a massive rock with a Dutch guy on a fancy road bike whilst the wind absolutely howled around us. He said he was going for the summit and off he went……we waited and were just thinking that we couldn’t chicken out when he came back bleeding. He’d got about 500m when he’d been blown flat – not only that but he’d been shredded by the gravel that was being blown about. His shorts and top were literally peppered with embedded gravel and cuts.

We all turned around and cycled back down., me getting up to 70kmh with no helmet obvs..where it was all serene and as if nothing had happened. That night in the campsite bar as we all recounted the story all the non cyclists simply didn’t believe us.

Very interesting mountain….still never got to the very top!

One of my favourite road bike memories from a few years ago now. As a <bucket list> thing to do I also went up from Bedouin. After a 30km “warm up from Peres Les fontaines which definitely wasn’t needed but wife wasn’t very accommodating when I suggested a lift at 6am would be helpful.

did summit down to Sault (great descent) then refuelled and did gorge de la nesque which was epic. Certainly didn’t feel pedaly once over the initial hump to the viewpoint but then I was racing down with a frenchie cyclist who knew all the lines. Great fun.

Very unfit getting on for 10 years ago, it took me 3 hours. That’s with a long stop at chalet Reynard.

It was bloody hot in the trees. Try and be doing it early. Take 2 bottles minimum.

Good atmosphere though, seams like it’s permanently busy with cyclists, lots of chat, lots of road paint, photographer, etc.

Had to stop on the descent to rest, it’s scary fast, not as bendy as most mountain roads.

Any way up will be good. I did it with a friend anticlockwise from Sablet, southwest from Vaison la Romaine. Descending to Malaucene was one of the best 40 minutes of my life. Only drove through the Gorges de la Nesque though, but wished I had my bike. Enjoy, there’s nothing quite like it.

Yes go straight up.
The climb from Bedoin is nice, done it a few times. The descent into Mallaucene is bonkers- hit 54mph, but the roads are perfect, they even sweep them!
The descent to Sault is really picturesque and it’s by pretty steady. At Sault you can have lunch then do the gorges, whereas you don’t want to come up from Mall. it is horrendous.
If I could only do it once, I’d leave early go up from Bedoin, down to Sault, have breakfast, do gorges and back.
There’s a little swimming lake nearby for the family.

Sault to the summit is fine on 42:17 fixed ….admittedly beyond Chalet Reynard there might be the occasional grimace. The descent to Maulacene is probably the hardest bit doing it like that.

Being a few hours drive from me, I only ride Ventoux at night. It’s purely magical like that!

When in Bedoin pop in to CafeduCycliste and have a chat with Luc, and tell him Dan says hi….My Head Shepherd of lots of great long distance adventures.

So much great riding in the area. Gorges de La Méouge is one of my fave swimming spots.

Bedoin to summit

Summit to Sault for some food

Sault to Bedoin via Gorges de la Nesque

Classic loop.

l’Etape de Tour, year 2000, Carpentras to Ventoux, 155km.

I rode the 80 miles to the food stop at Bedoin in exactly 4 hours, over 2 Cat 2 and a Cat 4 mountains, stopped and had some food. I’d been chatting to an old bloke who had Olympic rings sewn onto his jersey, and who said he’d been on the same team as Tom Simpson in the 60s – Simpson died on Ventoux in 1967. This guy said it would take him about 90 minutes to reach the top. Great, I thought, he’s ancient so it should take me similar or less. (He did it in 90 minutes, I checked later.)

On the road out of Bedoin, with Ventoux on the left, I was cruising along at 16mph, gradually climbing, wondering by how much I’d break Pantani’s record. Then we turned left at Virage d’Esteve, and the road ramped upwards for hours. It is completely relentless, until you break out of the trees at Chalet Reynard, and get hit by a wind so strong it completely stops you, which isn’t helpful because it seemed to disappear when it should have been pushing me along after the next hairpin.

I stopped at the Simpson memorial, to take a quick photo, about 3/4 mile from the top. I stopped again about 300m later, completely blown. Then again another few 100m later. Three stops for fuelling in 3/4 mile! The last hundred metres are cruelly steep. At the summit it was about 2 degrees, gusting heavily, and would snow just after I rode away. The rest of Provence was basking in summer temperatures, so everyone was wearing summer lycra. I could feel waves of heat hitting me as I descended., people crashing everywhere because they were so frozen and ambulances tearing up and down the mountain. An 80m/hr descent with one contact lens – I’d lost one on one of the Cat 2 descents – and fingers frozen to the brakes. I’d have descended faster if I could have peeled my fingers off.

It was a memorable day. The climb took me 2 hours 20 minutes, with several stops for pics, food, suffering, temper tantrums, and complete bonking.

(Sorry for the mixed metrics!)

The Pizza airstream caravan in Sault shouldn’t be missed……hmmm actually maybe that’s my weekend plan with my 2 teenagers. Could do with some southern evening chilling.

Did it as a rest day activity on a climbing holiday in march a few years back. Snow on the road for the last km or do and the road down the north side was a green piste.

Those were the days….

Did the Cingle a few years back, usually ride one or two ascents each year, this year it was up & down Bedoin round to Malaucene up and over to Saut then back via the Gorges, i’m working on up, down & all the way round for next year. The obvious advice is keep hydrated and fuelled and ride within yourself

The climb from Bedoin is relatively steady to start with and providing you are starting reasonably sensibly you should be plenty warmed up by the time you get to the start.

What I would say is check the weather very very carefully. The top of Mt Ventoux has some of the highest recorded wind speeds on earth. Check the weather and if it’s forecast windy – reconsider it! Ride the Gorges de la Nesque instead, it’s beautiful. Also the loop around Mt Ventoux is a great ride.

I did the Cingles 2 years ago. We started in Bedoin and had a lovely ride up to the top in cool early morning airs. There were shepherds with their flocks near Cafe Reynard and it was a lovely ascent. Not a breath of wind at the top. Half way down to Malucene it was blowy – holding tight onto the bars stuff and then back up. Malucene has some tough 13% stretches. I used my 34t x 34t bottom gear here. Second time at the top it was really blowing and it was a bit shaky down to Cafe Reynard. Riding up from Sault was great until we rode into a thick fog just above Chalet Reynard. Coming round the corner in the fog were 3 angry Pyrenean mount dogs belonging to the shephard (first ascent). He was nowhere to be seen. Think 100-120lb pissed off hounds, iron spiked collars and me alone in the fog. After a about 5mins of shooing and trying to get past them. One went for me and grabbed my arm. Cue even more shouting and throwing stones (I’m normally a dog lover!) before they cleared off. I got to the top with one arm covered in blood. I got in my fiends van and didn’t ride back down. Beware of the dogs!