[Closed] Anyone cycled up Mont Ventoux?

Well, its an iconic climb which you should do. My advice is that regardless of the weather at the bottom, which at this time of year will be hot, expect it to be windy and cold at the top. Take arm warmers at least. You will be with many other cyclists but ride at your own pace and when you break out of the forest look left and see the summit, you will recognise one of cycling's greatest climbs...

Agreed. Good day out, but the top section is pretty bleak.

You won't be able to resist. It stands out on its own tempting you. Spent a few days there this year. Did it once on the Saturday and three times (three routes) on Sunday. But there are loads of beautiful rides in the area which I never did. Some sounded amazing.

Took me about 2 hrs each time. Places to stop and take pics on the way. I had perfect weather, but here it can be awful. Noticeable temperature difference from top to bottom. Stinking hot at the bottom. Chilly at the top.

Hilly?

Not ridden it myself but a mate has very recently, he's a steady rider and no climber by his own admission.

Would be rude not to if you're in the area...

There are a couple of routes too, think the one from Bedoin is the most well known. Quite an easy climb in a sense because reasonably steady gradient. Smells fantastic in the forest. Descent is amazing but watch out for idiots on wrong side of road. And Dutch people having a charity techno party at the top.

Proper hard climb(I thought the Malaucene side was the worst).
Enjoy,and as above,prepare for all seasons in one climb.

Thanks all - I'll report back

I rode up from Bedoin last July, the sun was relentless with the temperature in the mid 30's at the bottom but it dropped as the altitude increased. The shade of the forest was welcome and it's spectacular when you rise above the tree line into the 'moonscape'.

Chalet-Reynard near(ish) the summit will refill your bidons for you if you're running low and give Tom Simpson a nod as you pass by his memorial.

Enjoy! 😀

Great ride, just take it steady unless you're looking to get some kind of strava thing.

Cafe Reynard is *very* welcome.

Oddly enough, I'm staying there next week as well, about 40k away.

If you have the chance to rent a nice carbon bike rather than cranking up on your mountain bike then do it :). It's utterly relentless and never lets up but the vibe is brilliant as people toot and wave all the way up. Got to be done

Did it a couple of years ago, lucky with the weather. Did the Bedoin ascent, back down to Chalet Reynard and down to Sault and the Gorges de la Nesque- lovely long gentle downhill along the gorge. Did a few day rides in the area and the gorge was the highlight.

My mate did it 6 times in one day last year for charity he is fit as a fiddle and mad as a box of frogs tho

It was just after some mad triathlon called thr brutal double iirc

its been done by boris bike...

There's some good mtb trails in the area too. By all means do the road climb if you like that sort of thing but personally I'd be playing on the mountain bike.

Yeah ive done the three routes in a day this year, u will be fine. +1 for maucelaine being hardest and approx 2 hours each climb being a 'good' time. Worth it for the views but i was ruined for a few days afterwards!

I prefer Malaucene to Bedouin,at least you get a few easier sections to have a rest.Ok its steeper but Bedouin in the forest is 10km at 10% with one small switchback.I have done it maybe 6 times in total from all 3 sides and its never easy.The first time i rode it i had 39/25 as my smallest gear and for the last 1.5km from the memorial to the top i couldn't feel my legs,not that they were hurting i just couldn't feel them they had gone numb!!All good fun.

The Mrs and I did it from Sault: two hours up, twenty minutes back down 🙂

It's just steady, nothing mentally steep until the very end. Amazing though, riding up the the top bleak section towards the weather station I was saying to myself "I'm climbing Ventoux!" with a massive smile on my face 🙂

Fantastic bit of France for a holiday 🙂

I've only driven up it but even that was tiring. The Punto hire car wasn't quite the same after that - the descent in particular...

The views from the top are amazing given the way that Ventoux kind of stands out in the region without the other mountains/foothills you usually have around something that high.

Other tip - Ventoux wine - tends to taste quite green but very distinct and always now brings back memories of the area.

I'm jealous. Bedoin and the surrounding area is lovely, and you really must do the climb. Bedoin has plenty of decent bike hire options too, I went for a titanium lynskey (with carbon Centaur groupset) and was glad of the huge weight saving over my mtb.

All of the variations in gradient, terrain, temperature and wind are what makes it a difficult and iconic climb. Anyone should feel proud of making it up, no matter the time.

Which ever way you decide to go up, descend to Sault then drop down through the Gorges de la Nesque, it is absolutley one of the absolute best cycling roads ever, a gentle descent that you still need to keep pedaling to keep up a nice speed.

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nickjb - Member
There's some good mtb trails in the area too. By all means do the road climb if you like that sort of thing but personally I'd be playing on the mountain bike.

Any directions on where to look? My folks have a place in Lafare and keep encouraging me to go down. I went there years ago and struggled to find routes.

One option is to look on Strava (heatmap) to find where people are riding then use stava to explore those segments from where you can find the routes people actually ride.

I rode up it one day in July 2000 on a Marin hardtail.
There seemed to be some kind of event happening that day. We met lots of people on the way up including a smelly man in a devil costume and some drunken orange people.

Other people on bikes were riding up that day too, including two fellas that I got this picture of. I'm not sure why they were riding together as they didn't seem to like each other very much...
[url= https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3179/2706838428_237d5d0250_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3179/2706838428_237d5d0250_z.jp g"/> ?zz=1[/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/58cfL5 ]i was there[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/78164632@N00/ ]placid casual[/url], on Flickr

Smell the EPO! 🙂

I'm not sure why they were riding together as they didn't seem to like each other very much...

I thought that the one behind was the Elephant Man?

Couple of mates did the Cingles (3 ascents) last weekend

http://www.clubcinglesventoux.org/en/club.html

Completely second MSP's mention of Gorges De La Nesque. Try and descend it from the Sault end.
If you're there for a few days then you should really try a ride up to Gordes, across to Murs, and then down to Carpentras, really stunning views and twisty roads.
In terms of MTB, there's the bike park on Ventoux which is very freeride and jump focused. There are some AMAZING trails in the Dentelles and La Roque Alric. Technical XC-ish, with some pretty steep detours!
My in laws live in Beaumes De Venise, so I cycle there a lot, drop me an email if you need any more detail on the MTB stuff. Otherwise most of the bike shops sell 'Vaucluse VTT' guides which all have maps of trails. If you need to rent bikes, Benoit Igoulen in Beaumes rents basic Cube Acid 27.5s and Cube Agrees. Cycles Ventoux in Malaucene have a wide range of Pinarellos and Scotts; from low to very high-end. DON'T rent from the gut in Bedoin, as he's rude and ****ing useless - normally doesn't prepare any bikes until people turn up, and then takes an hour to do it.

Tried twice - failed twice. When I say failed I mean I didn't manage to do the climb without stopping. Both times from Bedoin - the second time in the 2009 Etape du Tour. It was hell - very hot. Long procession of people pushing bikes through the forest section. From Chalet Reynard, it gets easier as at least the end is in sight. Would I do it again?? Definitely. Do it - you simply won't regret it - such an opportunity. Don't forget to stop at Tom Simpson's memorial either. Both times rented top end bike from ventouxbikes.fr in Malaucene - great shop, great service.

placid_casual - Member
I rode up it one day in July 2000 on a Marin hardtail.
There seemed to be some kind of event happening that day. We met lots of people on the way up including a smelly man in a devil costume and some drunken orange people.

I'd ridden the Etape a few days before, 155km Carpentras - Ventoux. Being young and fit 😉 I managed the first 130km in 4 hours exactly. (Not overly difficult as I sat in the biggest groups I could find and let them do the work!)

As I rode into the last feed area before Ventoux I got talking to a rather grumpy old bloke from up North about why he had an Olympic badge stitched onto his club jersey. (Coventry Wheelers, maybe?) Turned out he'd competed in them and been on the same team as Tom Simpson back in the 60s.

2 hours and twenty minutes later I crawled over the summit. I was so exhausted that I barely noticed that it was just about to snow. (It had been over 25 degrees at the bottom of the hill.) The wind after Chalet Reynard was so strong that it would stop me completely at points. I had run out of energy so completely that I stopped to eat three times between the Simpson memorial and the top. The drop down the other side was fantastic because of the temperature increasing with every corner. 🙂

I'll go back and ride it again soon.

I rode up from Bedoin last July and will be again in September.
Just over 1.5 hours of constant pain followed by a fantastic 23 minute descent (from memory) 😀

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the Gorge de la Nesque, it is absolutely one of the best cycling roads ever

+1

I fancy trying the Cingles next year. Looking to fly to Carcassone from Prestwick then making my way to Bedoin from there. Hire a bike and stay for a few days, then back home.

Shouldn't be too expensive. Mrs burnsybhoy has given me permission.

To the guys who have done it or knew people that have done it, how fit do you need to be?

Nice photo^

Well I did it! I rented a bike and headed off early in the morning and went up via Bedoin. The biggest climb I've done before this was Macclesfield to The Cat and Fiddle (~400m), so the 1778m ascent from where we were staying was new territory. It proved not to be as hard as I expected - just find the right gear (34 x 28(!)) and keep spinning. It took 1hr 43m to summit and I felt fine. The descent and then the road from Malaucene to Bedouin was sublime. One of my best days cycling ever.

[url= https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3898/14998150956_2cda12c854.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3898/14998150956_2cda12c854.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/oRkrKA ]Ventoux Summit[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/84134869@N08/ ]HowarthPWL[/url], on Flickr

Congratulations!
Mt.Ventoux is on my list of proper climbs to do,next year,next year..

Thanks for posting this. Good to know that you didn't die halfway up since I've not climbed anything much bigger than the Cat & Fiddle myself and I'm going to be riding the Ventoux two weeks today.

Also did it as part of the 2009 etape. Mechanicals earlier in the day, plus heat meant I was more tired than I should have been- the climb from Berlin was pretty brutal in the heat, so when I go to the chalet Reynard I sat down for a bit... And almost didn't get back up.

Made it to the top, but I was pretty knacked- I do remember hitting 80+ kph on the descent, which in retrospect and considering how tired I was- probably not a sensible idea...!

I rode up there to watch the Tour last July and then again a couple of days later when it was quiet. Great climb both times. I didn't time myself as I had to do quite a lot of 30-second stops to ease the teeth grittingly awful pain in my back. Still enjoyed it though!

johnny - Member

I do remember hitting 80+ kph on the descent, which in retrospect and considering how tired I was- probably not a sensible idea...!

My computer was showing that as well with me constantly feathering the brakes to keep the speed down. It was so cold that if I had moved my hands off the brakes they would have been too frozen to move back. People were riding off the side of the road, presumably through cold and fatigue rather than poor handling, and there were several ambulances picking riders up.

Oh, and I only had one contact lens in due to losing the other on the first descent about 90km before! 😆

MrNice reporting back:
I did the Ventoux on Sunday and I didn't die 😀 Not as fast as howarthp but I was happy with under 2hrs. The descent was awesome, swooping through the switchbacks felt like carving turns on a ski run. I'm sure it's damn cold on top at other times but it was 30C as I ground up the last steep bit and I was glad I'd fitted the bigger cassette (12-30 instead of 11-28) for this trip.
Gorge de la Nesque is highly recommended too - I did the climb in the next valley south then rode it as a long cruise downhill. Next time if I'm fitter I want to do the Gorge as a climb then turn left at Sault to take that route up the Ventoux.
I think this trip has reset my expectations of what counts as a climb. It appears a cat 3 (according to Strava) which was the biggest climb I'd done before is now the hors d'ouevres before the big climb 8)