Mount Ventoux climbed

Postby **Stuart** » 16 Jun 2008, 18:47

Some of you may know that Jo & I are in France and have just finished a week of cycling in Provence, including a day where we did Mt Ventoux (1912m) from the Sault side (25k to the top) , being the easy side as the start altitude is 762m and the hardest gradient is 11%. The day was sunny but with gusts up to 30kph down low but pretty still up top as we were sheltered by the ridges.

Will report more on the trip later but here's Jo & I up the top.

And Jo with Tony, one of the guys on the trip, who`s just a little taller!

weiyun · Postby **weiyun** » 16 Jun 2008, 19:00

Trust that you guys are enjoying the trip there and keep having fun!

There's an extra "?" at the end of your URL above and is an error. Problem fixed below. Otherwise MikeC has already posted a photo of Jo in another thread.

PS: Looks like there's a block on having this photo linked.

Postby **Stuart** » 16 Jun 2008, 19:06

Fixed it by moving the pics to Flickr as Google pics doesn't seem to work too well

williamd · Postby **williamd** » 16 Jun 2008, 19:20

Great photos Stuart and Joanne

I'll have to watch you on the hill climb to Waterfall from now on.

micklan · Postby **micklan** » 17 Jun 2008, 07:41

Top shots - looks really hot and dry - excellent training ride ...

geoffs · Postby **geoffs** » 18 Jun 2008, 10:33

Well done on the Mt Ventoux climb.
How is the rest of the holiday going?

Geoff

lindsay · Postby **lindsay** » 18 Jun 2008, 12:55

Thay's got to be the record for DHBC jerseys... Well done guys, I knew you'd do it. Where's the wine bladder??

Postby **Stuart** » 20 Jun 2008, 20:47

Here are some pics from a sports photographer who was near the top. The bikes are Trek Hybrids. The wine bladder was deemed to be too heavy to carry all the way to the top.

mikesbytes · Postby **mikesbytes** » 21 Jun 2008, 00:02

Nice Pics

Postby **Stuart** » 09 Jul 2008, 08:23

So for anyone who's interested here's a link to lots of pics from the 6 days of riding on our French Cycling Holiday. It was a fantastic trip and highly recommended although for lots of club members it mightn't be hard enough, for Jo & I it was perfect with several long and hard days riding. We also thought it was great value for money and are already planning next years trip - more on that in the coming months as we look for starters for June 2009.

Jo & Stuart's Cycling Photo's

BTW, the posted photos don't include any of the scenery shots or photo's where only Jo or I or both appear as they were posted for the benefit of the other tour participants.

mikesbytes · Postby **mikesbytes** » 09 Jul 2008, 09:07

Can see from the photos that you had a great time.

Did one of the girls have drop bars? Did she bring her own bike?

See that some of the riders were wearing runners, that must of been hard work.

Postby **Stuart** » 09 Jul 2008, 11:29

Mike wrote:
Did one of the girls have drop bars? Yes, so did one of the guys.
Did she bring her own bike? No - we could have opted for a road bike (Trek) but they failed to tell us they had triple chain rings so we went for the hybrids as we wanted the triple rings for Ventoux. If we had known we probably would have gone for the road bikes as they were considerably lighter and of course better rolling ability etc. Still, the hybrids were comfortable but there was a lot less flat riding than we anticipated! In fact, days 2 & 3 seemed to be non stop climbing over long distances.

See that some of the riders were wearing runners, that must of been hard work - indeed - about half the riders didn't have cleats and most were faster than me!! The women on the road bike had Teva sandles with SPD cleats in them!

BTW, the posted photos don't include any of the scenery shots or photo's where only Jo or I or both appear as they were posted for the benefit of the other tour participants.

lindsay · Postby **lindsay** » 09 Jul 2008, 11:36

That looks fantastic... Was it cold or hot up there?

mikesbytes · Postby **mikesbytes** » 09 Jul 2008, 15:28

Both you and Jo are use to riding both drop bar and flat bar bikes, so it probably wasn't a biggie. Cos of my dodgy shoulders the thought of riding all day with flat bars sounds rather unappealing, as I would suffer discomfort.

Did you bring your own pedals, or did you need to use shoes with a specific cleat?

BTW, post the photo's of you and Jo when you get the chance.

Postby **Stuart** » 09 Jul 2008, 16:45

That looks fantastic... Was it cold or hot up there?

I assume you mean on Ventoux? Very windy down low, up to about 1200m where every time we'd turn towards the South West (I think). the wind was cold and gusting strongly (just about stopped me dead on one stretch before we got into the tree line). But once we got to about 3 k's before The Chalet Reynard we were fairly protected. We both had on Merino Wool undershirts as well as it was fairly cool but too hot for a wind jacket, if that makes sense (although Jo wore hers from the Chalet onwards with the sleeves taken out as we were expecting much stronger winds up top but there was none). I saw Jo twice during our climb from Sault - once at the Chalet @ 1440m and then again at the top! I was at least 15 mins behind her (using the photographers times as a guide) but I stopped at the Tom Simpson Memorial for about 5 min! I think she was at least 15 min ahead at the Chalet.

Postby **Stuart** » 09 Jul 2008, 17:44

Did you bring your own pedals, or did you need to use shoes with a specific cleat?
BTW, post the photo's of you and Jo when you get the chance.

They supplied either normal pedals with or without cages or standard Shimano double sided SPD Pedals If you wanted something else you needed to bring your own. You can also take your own seat if you want and they encourage you to bring your own helmet, although wearing one was not compulsory and indeed our oldest rider (at about 60 something) refused to wear one. He also called Hybrid Bikes "girls bikes" and was fairly "traditional" in his approach to life! He also didn't use any type of cleat or toe clip and was first of the riders up Ventoux.

timyone · Postby **timyone** » 10 Jul 2008, 13:47

Man heaps good to see that its going well!!
Man ive looked through your pics and totally want to tour now!! keep up the pics of the crazy bridges, buildings and all that! Maybe i should give you a request list of pics

Are there any crazy old churches along the way etc?
But yeah man it looks like fun! Totally some time for touring!

Postby **Stuart** » 11 Jul 2008, 14:38

We will soon post a new topic with a wrap up of the whole weeks tour and Map My Ride routes. Plus, due to overwhelming demand from at least one person, we will post ALL the pics from the weeks ride, excluding those of Stuart in the bath!

Meanwhile, here's some that another participant took.

Stuart near the Ventoux Summit

Jo trying to imitate Dave's (on of the guides) no hands downhill style, except she still has one hand on the bars! Watching Dave go fast downhill with both hands behind him was scary I can tell you.

Jo on day 5 after a 2:00AM finish the night before - possibly a little hung over!

The two guides, Dave (Pommy cross country MTB star) and Chris (Kiwi) with the backup van

mikesbytes · Postby **mikesbytes** » 11 Jul 2008, 14:42

excluding those of Stuart in the bath!

Thank goodness for that

Postby **Stuart** » 18 Jul 2008, 08:31

I've posted all of the photos and trip diary here >> http://www.dhbc.org.au/forum/viewtopic.php?t=722

Dulwich Hill Bicycle Club

Mount Ventoux climbed

Who is online