<Tommy>
Illegitimi non carborundum
- Location
- Camden, London
Yesterday me and whippet managed to ride up ventoux. The day didn’t really start as planned. We wanted to leave around 6am but in the end got out around 10am. It gets to around 28c at about that time so not exactly ideal for two pasty faced Brits!
The idea is to ride all three routes up the hill in one day. We started off perfect to our plan. Me spinning at around 230 ish watts, Lee around 200. Not going to set the world on fire but really all we’re thinking about is survival! And getting up 3 times when you look at the hill from the ground is bloody daunting to be honest. It’s huge! I know that sounds obvious. But I’ve stood next to a few of these hills now looking up at them, and this one is an absolute monster compared to anything else I’ve attempted. The summit is so so high and the ridge appears ever ending.
That’s ventoux from the distance. If you look closely you can see the weather tower on top. The picture doesn’t really do it’s majesty justice really. We’re on another hill looking across at it when I took that shot. And I think it’s hard to get a sense of just how bloody huge it is.
Dunno what the h I’m smiling at there!
We’d just been tootling about the few days before the ‘big day’. Wanting to get our moneys worth but trying to to expend too much energy. It’s a really beautiful area. It’s a lot more hilly that I thought it was. Nothing in distance like the alps or Pyrenees climbs but loads of really nice very picturesque short ones
Anyways… back on topic!… as I say the plan was to just get up the hill basically. Not trying to set the world on fire, getting up 3 times is all the challenge we needed.
It’s amazing how broad the smiles are at the start of a day isn’t it?! 😄
Our first look at the weather station at close quarters. Coming up from the Malaucene side.
So… 230w spinning I think is manageable. Nice one Whippet. First time up, no problem, one down, 2 to go!
It’s a really really long climb. It was much more interesting than I thought it might be. Varying, lots of scenery, great views of course, and many more twists and turns than we were expecting. And the turns really help to break a ride up into a more bite sized package.
So we descend down. And it’s then that you really realise how far you’ve climbed 5000ft + change to be precise. But the descent takes ages and ages. And it’s on these decents that you have to contemplate just how far you’ve got to go up again once you’ve turned the bike around at the bottom!
The second climb is from the town of Bedouin. This is the one they use most in the TDF. And it was about a mile into this climb I realised I was fukced! I suddenly got really breathless to the point I had to stop. And I could find any power really either. I think tiredness and the 30+ degree heat kicked in to push my heart rate though the roof. And my breathing was the main victim. It really was pretty tough on the head. We had so much more to do. And I couldn’t go more than a mile without stopping. It made the climb mich slower than we’d hoped. Honestly quitting was never an option. But the slow realisation that this was going to be a long long day was settling in to both our minds. You’ve got a lot of tile to think when your going up a never ending hill at 5mph. And we both tried as hard as possible to keep the demons at bay.
It’s so true what people say about the Bedouin climb. You see the tower a good 4km before you’re really near it. So you’ve kind of got to try not to look at it too much as there’s still a lot of climbing to do. But we get to the memorial, and we leave something behind to represent all the boys from CC.
Hello Tom Simpson, goodbye itchy nipple jerseys! 😁
Next stop the summit to chalk off ascent number 2!
To be continued…
The idea is to ride all three routes up the hill in one day. We started off perfect to our plan. Me spinning at around 230 ish watts, Lee around 200. Not going to set the world on fire but really all we’re thinking about is survival! And getting up 3 times when you look at the hill from the ground is bloody daunting to be honest. It’s huge! I know that sounds obvious. But I’ve stood next to a few of these hills now looking up at them, and this one is an absolute monster compared to anything else I’ve attempted. The summit is so so high and the ridge appears ever ending.
That’s ventoux from the distance. If you look closely you can see the weather tower on top. The picture doesn’t really do it’s majesty justice really. We’re on another hill looking across at it when I took that shot. And I think it’s hard to get a sense of just how bloody huge it is.
Dunno what the h I’m smiling at there!
We’d just been tootling about the few days before the ‘big day’. Wanting to get our moneys worth but trying to to expend too much energy. It’s a really beautiful area. It’s a lot more hilly that I thought it was. Nothing in distance like the alps or Pyrenees climbs but loads of really nice very picturesque short ones
Anyways… back on topic!… as I say the plan was to just get up the hill basically. Not trying to set the world on fire, getting up 3 times is all the challenge we needed.
It’s amazing how broad the smiles are at the start of a day isn’t it?! 😄
Our first look at the weather station at close quarters. Coming up from the Malaucene side.
So… 230w spinning I think is manageable. Nice one Whippet. First time up, no problem, one down, 2 to go!
It’s a really really long climb. It was much more interesting than I thought it might be. Varying, lots of scenery, great views of course, and many more twists and turns than we were expecting. And the turns really help to break a ride up into a more bite sized package.
So we descend down. And it’s then that you really realise how far you’ve climbed 5000ft + change to be precise. But the descent takes ages and ages. And it’s on these decents that you have to contemplate just how far you’ve got to go up again once you’ve turned the bike around at the bottom!
The second climb is from the town of Bedouin. This is the one they use most in the TDF. And it was about a mile into this climb I realised I was fukced! I suddenly got really breathless to the point I had to stop. And I could find any power really either. I think tiredness and the 30+ degree heat kicked in to push my heart rate though the roof. And my breathing was the main victim. It really was pretty tough on the head. We had so much more to do. And I couldn’t go more than a mile without stopping. It made the climb mich slower than we’d hoped. Honestly quitting was never an option. But the slow realisation that this was going to be a long long day was settling in to both our minds. You’ve got a lot of tile to think when your going up a never ending hill at 5mph. And we both tried as hard as possible to keep the demons at bay.
It’s so true what people say about the Bedouin climb. You see the tower a good 4km before you’re really near it. So you’ve kind of got to try not to look at it too much as there’s still a lot of climbing to do. But we get to the memorial, and we leave something behind to represent all the boys from CC.
Hello Tom Simpson, goodbye itchy nipple jerseys! 😁
Next stop the summit to chalk off ascent number 2!
To be continued…
