Controls: Bedoin, Summit, Malaucene, Summit, Sault, Summit, Bedoin.
After completion of my first Diagonale in 2015, a new target was set; to complete a Cinglé du Mont Ventoux ride – that is, to ride up Mont Ventoux 3 times in 1 day (24hrs), once up each of the roads which ascend the bald mountain.
I chatted with my friends Mick and Duncan, who were very receptive to doing the ride with me, and in December 2015 we met in London for a beer and a burger to discuss. I had prepared some info for them to digest and we set a date of the first weekend in June 2016, also opening up the ride to some more mates.
Getting it Sorted
Mick sorted out the accommodation, he had a family friend with a holiday home just 6Km from our starting point of Bedoin at the foot of Ventoux so we decided to rent that place out. Next up was logistics for bikes, getting there and getting back.
It was going to be pricey flying to Marseille, a Thursday outbound flight from Gatwick returning on the Monday was £248 including bike space. Similar story with Montpellier, but came in around £214.
Eurostar can go direct from London to Avignon, but the trains were seasonally limited, but suiting our timing. Eurostar was £129 return + whatever the bike reservation would cost if taking a bike. Bike services were a little complex with some station and service restrictions so, I mailed them and they explained that Eurostar do not accept bikes on the London to Avignon service, due to the long journey time and the space needed for food which, on shorter journeys is freed up for bicycles. They referred me to a Euro luggage service which came back with a piss-take of a quote to transport bikes down to an address in Avignon.
Another train option was the TGV run by SNCF as you can take fully assembled bikes on the TGV, and driving would take around 12.5 hrs excluding Eurotunnel (£112) and stops, so in total would be somewhere in the region of 15-16 hours.
Tom and Bill opted to drive with their bikes (and mine and Mick’s), that allowed me and Mick to get the Eurostar with Duncan and Jeremiah flying in from Scandinavia and Steve making a last minute reservation on the same Eurostar as us. Me and Mick met up in London on the Thursday night, had a very pleasant evening with some food and some beers before retiring to the Travelodge in Kings Cross ahead of an early start on the Friday morning. Everyone would be arriving at the destination, Domaine des Anges at points throughout the Thursday and Friday. Duncan, Jeremiah and Steve had decided to rent bikes from Bedoin and would collect them upon arrival on the Friday.
Application
I offered to be the point of contact for everyone’s application for the ride, meaning I would be the intermediary between us and the Club association for application and validation of the ride. This worked out fine, and was much easier for one person to do it. If you want to do the ride yourself go to www.clubcinglesventoux.org/en/ where you can learn more about how to apply and the 3 rides managed by the club; The Cinglé (3x), The Galérien (4x with some VTT) and The Bicinglé (6x).
I submitted applications for us all at the end of March and by early April all the documentation – Carnets, Frameplates and additional information had arrived through the post to me. I would take them with me to Ventoux, and then hand out to everyone.
Provence
We arrived to Avignon train station after a very pleasant journey from London on the Eurostar, if only complete or boxed bikes could be taken on the service, it would be fantastic. Rental car picked up and we were driving off to the accommodation. Tom, Bill, Duncan and Jeremiah had all arrived ahead of us and had taken a ride out up Ventoux on the Friday. We arrived at the accommodation and upon the boys returning from the ride Bill was suffering from some leg cramping and I think he was concerned for the challenge ahead.
It was great for us all to be together in France and looking forward to the challenge. We got bikes assembled and took them out for a quick shakedown. All ok, no dramas. Back to the house and we were impressed with the vibe, there was also a pool – nice. The advanced party had been to the supermarket and got some supplies in for dinner and some pre prepared ride food for the following day, so we ate a nice dinner and chatted together before agreeing to take the ride on in 2 groups. Duncan, Jeremiah and Steve would ride together taking the later start, leaving myself, Mick, Tom and Bill to leave a little earlier and get cracking first.
Cinglé Time
Up early, breakfast done, tolieting taken care of, kit on and we were on our way to the start point. It was wet to begin with and descending the hill from the house to the main drag Mick noticed a lot of pink sludgy dust on his front fork, seemingly coming from his brake blocks. This was odd and we continued onwards to Bedoin. On the way there Mick’s brake blocks had pretty much turned to dust, there was very little pad left on them and these were new brake blocks. Something was not right. Unfortunately, Mick had changed his wheels pretty soon before the trip (in favour of some lighter wheels), a situation that is normally avoided if at all possible. The lighter wheels had some kind of coating on them that didn’t seem compatible with the type of brake blocks Mick was running. We found a café in Bedoin and grabbed a second breakfast along with our first stamp in the Carnet whilst we pondered what to do with Mick’s bike.
We decided to press on with the first ascent from Bedoin, the bicycle rental store didn’t open for another couple of hours and Mick was going to chance it on the descent. Had Mick decided to rent a bike it would have caused some additional expense, and logistical agg, but he was confident that he could cope on the descent and then we could find an open bike shop in Malaucene. Not the start any of us were looking for.
The climb up from Bedoin was lovely, a consistent gradient which was shrouded in trees and dappled sunlight, my strategy for the whole ride would be to ride at a pace I knew I could handle for the climbing, so as I watched the rest of the boys slowly eke out away from me I took confidence that I would be riding as strong at the end of the day as I was at the start, and just kept to my own pacing. We rode past people and others rode past us, and we saw other riders with Cinglé frameplates on too – for those we gave a knowing “bonjour, et bon courage”.
Summit #1
2.5hrs later we were at the summit for the first time. Beautiful swirling clouds were present at the top, offering an ethereal feel to the whole place which began from the road upwards from Chalet Reynard – all above the tree line with a desert-like resemblance. I was feeling pretty good, and had paced evenly up the climb. It was noticeably harder from Chalet Reynard as the accumulated distance and lack of respite at hairpins meant you had to keep pushing. We got the required stamp at the summit, and me being a sucker for a summit trinket got a badge from the gift shop.
Bike Trouble
We took the descent on, and like the rest of us, I was concerned for Mick’s brakes. I made sure I kept behind Mick, should anything happen, I’d be able to be on hand quickly to help. Well, it wasn’t long before he suffered a puncture, we were maybe half way down when it happened. We could find no reason for the puncture, there were no shreds, cuts or piercings of the tyre or inner tube, so we assumed it had been due to the heat generation of braking on this strange wheel and brake block combo.
We got it repaired quickly enough, but it wasn’t long before we were stopped again for a second puncture, same thing again. This happened a total of 4 times on the descent! Mick was cursing himself for the delays the mechanicals were making and for the changes that he had made to the wheel set up just prior to the trip. I was just staying with him and making sure to keep things calm and just focus on working round the technical issue. Tom and Bill had pressed onwards to Malaucene as it didn’t make sense for 4 of us to be hanging around pondering this thing. I stayed with Mick and we finally limped into Malaucene. First off we found a boulangerie to get our required stamps and a quick pastry, then we went in search of a bikeshop that could help Mick out.
We found a bikshop pretty quickly in Malaucene, and Mick went in with his bike to await some help, there were a lot of people in the shop and things seemed to take an age. I got us some more food and waited outside the shop. Mick would pop out every so often and give an update and have a quick bite of food.
It seemed that the bike shop guys eventually settled on the brake block incompatibility with the rim, and sold Mick some compatible brake blocks along with more innertubes as back ups. Mick was hopeful and he took the lecturing from the bike shop guys on using non-factory rims pretty well. Tom and Bill had sensibly taken the decision to press on with the second ascent, there was no point in all of us waiting around. I stayed with Mick though as its not fun to be facing these mechanicals on your own when knowing all your mates are up the road.
After what seemed like an absolute age, Mick wheeled his bike out of the shop and we made for the off, only to pedal less than 10 metres before another bloody puncture! Mick was straight back into the shop, where there was now a lot of head scratching going on. All that could be done was for the puncture to be fixed, (which the bike shop guys did) and for us to take our chances. A theory had been that the rims were particularly susceptible to pinch flatting the inner tubes. No ides if that was the case or not. We couldn’t hang around forever though as we were under a time limit for the ride and had to get moving.
It must have been nervy for Mick with this wheel and brake bullshit going on, but finally we were rolling along successfully, and taking on the second ascent from Malaucene.
Summit #2
A lot fewer hairpins were encountered on the second ascent, and the road surface was much worse than the first climb up from Bedoin, the road also felt pretty steep. These factors along with having been stopped for so long and the rising heat of the day made this ascent quite a challenge. I again kept to my own pace and saw Mick head off and then yoyo back with me occasionally. We took a brief stop around half way up and necked some cold cans of Coke – one of life’s luxuries when climbing mountains in the heat.
Mick’s wheels and brakes had held together and we weren’t troubled by any more mechanicals – which was a relief. We hadn’t seen Tom or Bill either, and assumed they would be well on their way on to the third ascent by this time. A second brief stop at the summit, the required stamp and another shop trinket were purchased before darting down the mountain in the direction of Chalet Reynard and onto Sault.
As we arrived into the control town of Sault, We found Tom and Bill sat next to a pizza truck with a couple of beers on the go! They had chilled for a while eating pizza and were just finishing off their liquid refreshment before setting off on the last ascent. We chatted for a while explaining the mechanicals and the delay – hot food was needed and we very much enjoyed a few large slices of pizza too. After eating we got our carnets stamped and took care of tolietting, Tom and Bill had already started off in the direction of the final ascent whilst we took some time out to get ourselves sorted out in Sault.
Summit #3
Leaving Sault we were heading back up the climb we had just descended down and after passing through some lovely lavender fields we were into wooded climbs – of which the gradient was more gentle than the previous 2 ascents. I was feeling good after having food and was climbing at my decided pace for the day, not fast but reasonable and sustainable. My pacing tactic was paying off as I was feeling that my legs still had something in the tank, which I would need later.
The climb was really nice, me and Mick chatted a lot and there were far fewer other riders on this side and at this time (late afternoon). We caught up to Tom and Bill at Chalet Reynard, where they were taking a break before hitting the last desert like section. It was nice to all be back together again for the final section.
After a brief stop all 4 of us hit the road again, this time my legs were protesting, but I knew that I just needed to maintain my pacing and we would make it fine. I flagged us to make a brief stop at the memorial to Tommy Simpson, the British cyclist who died on the upper slopes of Mont Ventoux during Stage 13 of the 1967 Tour de France. It is somewhat of a tradition to pay your respects here by leaving something at the memorial, I decided to give him a flapjack.
A couple of Kilometres further uphill and we had made the 3rd ascent successfully. We were all very pleased. We got our carnets stamped and I was just in time to buy a final trinket from the shop. It was now pretty chilly up the top, so we agreed on a plan – get back down the mountain to Bedoin quickly then find a bar to celebrate in.
We went for it down the very fast descent, it was one of those descents that you could take at speed because you could easily see the upcoming sections, it was great fun and a really nice way to finish off the challenge. We arrived in Bedoin and found a bar, got our stamps and relaxed with a Grand Leffe each. The perfect beer to celebrate our achievement with. We were full of satisfied banter and chat, catching up on each others rides for the day, more beers were had before we decided to head back to the house. The ride back was a bit ropey due to the beers, but it was fun to take it easy and horse around a bit up the last little hill to the house.
Arriving back at the house, Duncan, Jeremiah and Steve had completed the ride already, were washed and were prepping dinner for everyone. Strong boys indeed. After we’d got changed and showered we were heading over to the other boys apartment, and as we walked past our bikes at the foot of the stairs Mick’s wheel punctured again with a loud bang! We couldn’t believe it. He had been very fortunate that no more punctures beset the rest of his ride, but with the last puncture happening in this way it still meant that he had a mystery to solve.
We spent a fine evening together, exchanging our stories of the days ride. This was Jeremiah’s first time riding in France and he was loving it. We made a plan for the following day – a kind of recovery ride around the Gorge de la Nesque.
Recovery Day
The following day Tom and Bill opted to stay at the house and enjoy the pool, whilst the rest of us went out on the gorge ride. It was very beautiful and made for a fine days riding.
Wrapping Up
The next day we were all heading off back home. Tom and Bill loaded up our bikes and hit the road first, then Duncan and Jeremiah were off to drop off rental bikes and head to the airport. Me, Mick and Steve headed into the local market in Bedoin and had a mooch around, before wrapping up at the accommodation and heading back to Avignon to drop off the rental car at the Eurostar station. We had a good look around Avignon, taking in some nice sites and a decent meal before boarding the train in the mid afternoon. The Journey back on the Eurostar was good, but of course felt longer and less exciting than the journey down.
A few weeks later all the paperwork was returned with the rides validated and with a little medal.
