Tour de France 2009

When the 2009 TdF route was announced and I saw that Stage 20 would be climbing the legendary Mt Ventoux the day after my birthday - 25 July 2009 - I knew that's where we were going to be. Mt Ventoux has always held a fascination for me - and many other British cyclists - and I wanted to experience the climb and pay homage at Tom Simpson's memorial.

I hunted around for somewhere to stay and found a beautiful hotel on the outskirts of the small town of Monteux, just a couple of km from Carpentras - from where Tom had set off on his fateful journey on 13 July 1967. The booking was made before Christmas last year and then it was sorting out the Eurotunnel and route. We finally left Cambridge on 21 July with the bikes and bags packed in the car, hit the tunnel around 7:00am and were heading for our first stop at Dijon.

Rolling into Dijon that evening we stayed at La Flambee on the outskirts of the town and made it to our room in time to watch the last few kms of that day's stage on TV! Up early the next morning we were heading south and watching the temperature soar to 30 deg C in a cloudless blue sky. As we turned off the main Autoroute du Soleil towards Monteux we saw it - towering over the flat farmland - Mont Vonteux "The Giant of Provence" - remind me again, who's bright idea was it to try climbing this thing on a bike?

Having upacked at our charming hotel we went for a run and (after cleaning up!) had dinner on the terrace while we waited for Steve & Sue to make it. They eventually arrived at nearly 9:00pm but that was no problem for our host, Penelope, and we enjoyed sitting in the warm air drinking the local wine.

Thursday was to be a "get our bearings" sort of day with a ride through Carpentras to pick up the old D942 route through the Gorges de la Nesque towards Sault. Traffic in Carpentras was awful and meant we had to walk the bikes through the town (same on the return) but we eventually made it out onto the open road and got to ride through the first part of the Gorge.

Lunch was spent at the Cafe de Soleil in Villes-sur-Auzon before heading back the way we had came. Everywhere we cycled we could see the towering presence of Mt Ventoux with the old Observetoire at its summit ... it looked forboding.

Friday was my birthday, 24th July, and the day set aside for cycling up Mt Ventoux. It was a perfect day for it, clear blue sky, temperature expected to reach 32 deg C, little wind, unlimited visibility. There are three roads which lead up the mountain and we chose the road from Sault, it is longer but not as steep as the "classic" route from Bedoin which the TdF riders would be riding the next day. It joins the Bedoin route at Chalet Reynard and from then on it is about 6km to the summit - this is the part which is likened to a "Moonscape" as you ride through sun-bleached limestone rocks via several hairpin bends to the summit.

We decided to make our own way to Chalet Reynard, meet there, and then tackle the final climb. I set off smoothly and found myself climbing easily with three cogs left to go on my 12-25 10-speed cassette, having a 50/34 Compact chainset is a great help - thankyou FSA! Steve and Jack climbed steadily behind me but we were separated fairly soon and worked our own ways up, with nothing but the sun, the mountain and the butterflies for company ... apart from dozens of other cyclists with exactly the same idea as us!

As you swing right around the final hairpin to Chalet Reynard you get your first clear sight of the observatory and speed up as the road gently descends. There were cyclists, cars, camper vans, people everywhere. The Chalet is a small bar/restaurant which is perfectly positioned for anyone interested in viewing proceedings on the mountain as it is located at the junction of the roads from Sault and Bedoin. It was packed with cyclists - a fantastic place to meet, rest, eat and drink.

From there the road to the summit averages 7.7% and climbs into and through the classic Mt Ventoux limestone peak. With the Tour going through the next day it was total chaos! Every camper van in Europe must have been parked on either side of the road, people were everywhere, the road was covered in names painted or chalked by spectators and as you settled into a steady climb they just cheered you on. There were hundreds of cyclists out on the mountain that day, all of us with just one aim - get to the summit.

As I climbed past Tom Simpson's memorial I said a silent "Chapeau Tom" to myself and pushed on towards the observatory ... which didn't seem to be getting any closer. The final two kms are at around 10% and as I swung into one hairpin I decided to take a breather and stop for a few minutes. Luckilly the TdF organisation had placed the barriers out on either side of the road, without them to hang onto I'm not sure I could have clipped in and got going again!




The last section is straight across the face of the mountain beneath the summit and is followed by a 90 deg hairpin which kick up - you must have seen Lance and Pantani crest it a million times! It looks wicked but in fact it's not that bad - as I approached there were a bunch of stalled 4x4's there so I thought "What the ****" and put on a surge which to my surprise propelled me to the top and there I was - 1,912m above Provence looking down on the World.

Steve & Jack joined me at the summit and we agreed it was one hell of a way to celebrate my birthday. All we had to do know was descend through the madness which was a story in itself!











25th July - Stage 20

With road closures and forest fires to contend with on Saturday we decided to make our way to Villes-sur-Auzon, settle ourselves in a cafe-bar and wait for the Tour to go by. We had another great day (if you watch the video there is a helicopter shot of a rounabout on the road with the "LiveStrong" logo written in yellow chalk around it ... that's where we were. After the race went past we took a Tour direction arrow as a souvenir and made our way to the local winery where they had a huge Jumbotron TV set up with live commentary for everyone to watch the climb to the summit - perfect!