Overview

All,

Shortly I set off for southern France to climb a few slopes on my bike. In particular the intent is to ascend Mont Ventoux "The giant of Provence" and the Col de la Bonette, the highest paved road in France.

A few details on the trip itself - it is organised by the excellent Bike Adventures with whom I did Lands End -> John O'Groats last year. The itinerary is herewith: http://www.bikeadventures.co.uk/suppholinfoprovence.html

So what is it about Ventoux? Ventoux is a legendary Tour De France climb - the Tour rider who hissed “assassins, assassins” at the race organisers as the leaders crossed the summit; the evocative quote “no mother should ever have to watch her son climb Mont Ventoux” - the mountain achieved worldwide notoriety when it claimed the life of Britain’s most successful cyclist Tommy Simpson who died climbing the mountain in the Tour de France - he began to wildly weave across the road before he fell down, he was delirious and asked spectators to put him back on the bike which he rode to within a half mile of the summit before collapsing dead, still clipped into his pedals. There is a memorial near the summit which has become a shrine to fans of cycling, who often leave small tokens of remembrance there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Mont_ventoux_simpson_memorial.jpg

Mont Ventoux is 1909 metres high. The climb begins at 300 metres, the vertical distance climbed is thus 1,600 metres, approximately 1 mile vertically and takes around 5 hours of continual "out of the seat" climbing (OK, it will take me about 5 hours, the Tour riders rather less...).

The Col de la Bonette is the highest paved road in France. Whilst less famous than Ventoux it is alas just as hard to climb, the Col is 2,800m high (more than twice the height of Ben Nevis) with the climb starting at 1,100 metres so again a vertical climb of over 1 mile. Disregarding the 24km long continual climb you've already done to get to the lower summit, the last kilometre to the upper summit is by far the hardest part of the climb, a continual 12 to 15% climb in fairly thin air.

Whilst this is not an organised sponsored event it feels appropriate to try and raise a little cash for charity - here is my justgiving page: http://www.justgiving.com/ventoux2007

My goal is to "do" Ventoux and get to at least the lower summit of Col de la Bonette, ideally making it to the upper summit. How I will get on will depend upon a number of factors not least fatigue levels and weather conditions.

Love to all.

Chris.