Le Tour de France on Le Mont Ventoux - Chris Handel guest writer

Our plan was brilliant. The tour would climb Ventoux from Bédoin and finish at the summit. We elected to stay in the beautiful village of Malaucène, drive up the back road to the summit of Ventoux and we’d see the finish of the race without having to battle with the huge crowds on the front side. We had done this successfully in another situation.

Ventoux is a legendary climb in the Tour de France. Altitude of 1911m, 1639m vertical gain during a 21km ride/drive from Bédoin to the summit, average gradient of 7.6% and maximum of 12% at the summit. The entire top section is rocky and devoid of vegetation and the winds are ferocious. I love it!

The lunar landscape of the summit of Mont Ventoux

We have so many Tour de France experiences but I choose to fast-forward to today, 9 July 2021. It is a long way from seeing my first team presentation in Trafalgar Square in 2007 to Mont Ventoux in 2016. I have just watched the double ascent of the Giant of Provence, ‘Le Mont Ventoux’, in this year’s Tour. Lance Armstrong reputedly stated that it is the toughest of the Tour climbs. My experiences riding up Ventoux and other ‘cols’ compel me to agree. Our last Tour de France adventure, on Ventoux, is the subject of this post.

So, we left early and began the drive with hardly any traffic. This was going to be great! Six kilometres from the top, the road was closed. No problems, we’ll walk … it will be downhill back to the car at the end. There were other walkers too.

Route Barrée … looks like we’re walking to the top

As we climbed, some French workers in a truck stopped and explained that the finish had been moved back further down the road to Chalet Reynard due to the high winds and that we should go back to the car and try Bédoin. “Thank you but, no, we’re okay ... we’ll keep going.” Other walkers ‘soldiered on’ likewise.

The temperature was dropping, and it was dismal, but the wind wasn’t too bad in the shelter of the mountain. We continued with determination even though we were starting to tire already.

Nearly there … well, to the summit anyway

Upon reaching the top, we were perturbed to say the least. We had never seen the summit so barren and cold … and the wind was howling!

“Do we give up? No, we’ve come this far and don’t want to miss out! It’s only, maybe, 3km to the chalet.” Turns out that it was 6km … oh, and another 6km back!

On the way down, the wind was pushing us so hard that we were forced to crouch to avoid being blown off the edge. Not a cliff but decidedly inconvenient and a painful eventuality none-the-less! By now, we were committed so on we went.

We were rewarded with a position at the barrier looking almost directly at the finish and even closer than the official photographers. I had carried my biggest camera with biggest lens and biggest flash and had the time to experiment to work out the perfect settings!

We’ve seen a lot of the tour, including starts and finishes, but nothing like this. Sunny, protected from the wind, close to every rider as they crossed the line, exhausted, and passed right by us on the way to the podium that was close to us at the side.

Memories of a bygone era

Thomas de Gendt … le champion du Mont Ventoux

We saw Thomas de Gendt raise his arms in triumph as the winner, Richie Porte still looking good after running into an official motorbike in the throng and Chris Froome, head bowed and looking dejected. I wondered if I could read his mind … “Why did I run? … Did they see me? … Is there a penalty?” It seemed that it had been a lovely day out for the sprinters, too, as they dragged themselves across the line.

Richie Porte … I feel pretty good … considering!

The bunch … and the legendary André Greipel (the ‘gorilla’)

Peter Sagan keeps the green sprinters’ jersey despite the difficult climb

Heaps of great photos of the finish and podium awards. Time that we headed back. Oh dear … the sky was darkening, the wind had increased and the summit seemed so far away.

As we battled the wind, I was concerned about our ability to return to the car. We were making very slow progress. We tried hitch-hiking but no luck. All of the cars were full and no one even glanced at us. On the verge of giving up and walking down to Bédoin with no idea of how to return to Malaucène let alone retrieve our car, our ‘Guardian Angel’ arrived. A lone old gentleman in a campervan with no passengers pulled over and motioned for us to join him. He happily drove us, campervan swaying, through the 100+km/hr wind over the top, past the overturned caravan and gendarme, almost horizontal, directing traffic and down to our car.

There was little conversation as he spoke no English and we didn’t realise that he was German until the end. Still, our German language skills were pretty much long-forgotten anyway. He refused the 50 Euro note, to buy a nice dinner, that I feebly waved at him in a pathetic attempt to show the depth of our gratitude but he was overjoyed to accept Carole’s genuine yellow souvenir Tour de France cap from the finish of the race. It seemed to ‘mean the world’ to him!

The whole day was one of our most intense Tour experiences ever and being at the finish on Ventoux was unforgettable. We will also never forget our nameless rescuer.

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