Day 7 – Le Mont Ventoux

Authors Dave Dyroff, left, & Greg Ellis atop Alpe d'Huez after completing  l'Etape

 (Click Images For Larger View)

Eventually, we emerged from the trees into the famous “moonscape” that marks the top of the mountain. Luckily, the often-tough wind wasn’t blowing here and we “only” had to contend with the steepness of the slope. The famed tower atop the old weather station at the summit served as our beacon, but – while it constantly got closer – it seemed to do so awfully slowly! We made the summit in just over two hours, still earlier than the souvenir shop opened.

(click images for larger view)

As we descended toward Malaucene, we saw something you’d only see in France – a street sweeper coming up an isolated mountain road just to sweep off the debris for cyclists and other tourists, less than 24 hours after a storm – perhaps our descent back to Bédoin would be clear after all!

The climb from Malaucene is another brutal one. It’s a toss-up as to which is harder between it and the Bédoin approach. The Malaucene climb deviates more from the average grade, so you get longer sections of less severe punishment, but also longer sections of the most severe. One section in particular -- in excess of 10% for four solid km -- was especially tough. But we made it, this time finding the souvenir and candy shops open.

We then descended back down the “moonscape” section of the first climb and stopped at the memorial to Tom Simpson (below left). Coincidentally, we were visiting on the anniversary of his death on this climb in 1967. At the fork in the road, we veered off toward Sault, which is surrounded by fields of lavender (below right). After a lunch stop at a creperie (again, only in France), we began our final climb of the day. The route from Sault is much easier than the other two for the majority of its length. It is longer, but much less steep, until you emerge from the forest and return to the fork in the road where it rejoins the route of the Bedoin climb. From that point, the final 6+ km features the same steep, open moonscape as before, only this time in the afternoon heat and sun. Luckily, though, as in the morning, the wind wasn’t a factor. This was easily the hardest part of the day but again we made it to the summit. And, as in l’Etape, neither of us ever set a foot down during a climb.

We then needed only to safely descend to Bédoin to complete our journey, and what a descent it was. The street sweeper had indeed been through, the pavement was great, the scenery was gorgeous both “on the moon” and in the forest, and car traffic was light. This descent also features perfect curves – frequent enough and sharp enough to be fun, but not so much that you had to brake too heavily. It was a blast, and we are now officially “Cinglés” members 1647 and 1666.

Following the descent, we walked in to the bike shop where we parked just in time to catch the tail end of the day’s Tour de France stage  on which Floyd Landis first took the yellow jersey. He had finished before we arrived, but the yellow jersey was still on the road on the back of Frenchman Cyril Dessel, and it was a matter of whether he’d finish in time to keep the jersey or lose it to Floyd. His final time gap was almost exactly equal to his previous lead, but Floyd had earned a time bonus for his finish on the stage and so moved into the lead.

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