Amateur tales from the big three!

[esoxlucius]

I love watching pro cycling, especially the grand tours. If my understanding is right each tour has it's ultimate "nightmare" climb. The tour is probably Mont Ventoux, the Giro probably the Zoncolon and the Vuelta, possibly the worse of the lot, the Angliru. Opinions of course may vary as to which are the hardest climbs on each tour but I can't be far off the mark with the three I've listed.

Now I must confess I have never been cycling in any of these countries, though I suspect many of you guys go on these cycling holidays. And I wager that a fair % of you have actually tackled these three climbs on your travels.

I thought it would be interesting to hear about your experiences. I know I'd love to hear about your "Amateur tales from the big three".

 

[Sharky]

Mont Ventoux

Certainly a killer, I remember the day Tom Simpson died. Was listening to the tragedy on the radio and couldn't believe what was happening.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Now I must confess I have never been cycling in any of these countries, though I suspect many of you guys go on these cycling holidays. And I wager that a fair % of you have actually tackled these three climbs on your travels.

I'd highly recommend it.

This year I had a short hol in the Pyrenees. Train to Lourdes, stayed in Luz St Sauveur and hired a bike there. It's all very beautiful, and there is so much nice (but steep) cycling just in the little villages and valleys around. Main event was "La Montée du Géant" when they take the statue (some say it's of Octave Lapize - it's nicknamed Octave anyway) out of winter storage and drive it on the back of a lorry up to the top of the Tourmalet. Festival atmosphere, lovely weather (for the most part), brass bands, closed roads up to the top, lots and lots of cyclists and much bonheur.

My friends who joined me did it a bit more seriously, rather than getting the train all the way they cycled/drove across France. Each day one would ride the morning and one would drive, and they'd then swap over.

 

[Paulus]

I was on a CTC cycling holiday in May 2004 from Montpellier, the highlight was the climb of the Ventoux from Bedoin. Fortunately on the day the weather was warm but not hot, with a light breeze, not the howling gale that can blow up there.
It took 1hour 58 minutes to get to the summit on my Dawes Audax bike. At one point i was going just fadt enough not to fall off. My son who was also on the trip beat me up there by around 20 minutes unsurprisingly.
On the decent to Malaucene I clocked my maximum speed of 56mph.
We regrouped in a café bar at the foot of the mountain for a few beers, and a mixed omelette and frites.
There was a sports shop next door that sold cycling shirts, so I just had to buy one.