Spring and Mt Ventoux

Two landmark days have just passed; the clocks have gone forward so I can cycle after work and the North East spring has prompted my first ride in shorts.

Both are essential to my efforts to get in shape to tackle Mont Ventoux in a couple of months. At the moment I am working to a specially devised Lance Armstrong/ Jeffrey Bernard training schedule which perhaps needs a little fine tuning....

If anyone has done Ventoux - or failed! - I'd be interested to hear from them.   

Comments

[samantha Wilcox]

North-East Spring?! Surely that's a contradiction in terms ;)

[Philip]

Sam, the glaciers are receding... I think it is global warming. If I was a true North Easterner (rather than a soft southern immigrant) I would have been wearing just a t-shirt and shorts all winter, wouldn't I?

[Marc]

The only time I was in the French Alps and had a bike was when I was about 12, so my dad had to push me up the hills.

I did ride the Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse in Austria a couple of years later though. About 5,000 feet over 19 miles, with many hairpins. All I can say is ride your own tempo and don't dare to get off the bike before you're at the top.

If you have the chance (and interest), you should also ride Tilff-Bastogne-Tilff, it's the biking enthusiasts’ version of Liege-Bastogne-Liege. The hardest, but best, ride I've ever done.

[Philip]

Thanks for the advice - I will try and find someone to give me a push. Anyway, I am off to the Netherlands for some training soon...

[Andrea Weckerle]

I see you are following in Serge's cycling footsteps :-)

[Richard Millington]

I did 400km cycling through Kenya recently. My advice would be to tackle hills. Lots of hills, and push yourself slightly further and harder each time.

Also if it's a very windy day, go training. It's the best preparation you can do.

[Philip]

Good advice, Richard. Living in Northumberland I don't have much option but to follow it - plenty of hills and it always seems to be windy (said 12mph on the weather forecast today but it felt a lot stronger!).

[Serge Cornelus]

@Philip: Marc is right about Tilff. I'm not riding it this year since it is our Joppe's communion. Besides, my goals lies on September 1st: the Claude Criquelion classic in La Roche (www.velomediane.com). And Mt Ventoux shouldn't be a problem for you - even our minister of sport (only by title!) managed to climb it. Check out www.cyclingcols.com to see how easy it is... :-)
@Andrea: great to see you are back among us nobodies! :-)

[Simon Collister]

My only advice is don't follow Tom Simpson's training regime!

But Netherlands for hill training... Shurely shome mistake?

[Theo]

I am down in Aix en Provence tomorrow. Plan on hitting Mt.Ventoux with my Trek racing bike around May 1. Hope the weather is not too cold up top.

I have just done a 200 km brevet for the PBP and have a 300 km and 400 km brevet coming up fast. Using Mt.Ventoux as part of my training. I'll let you know how it goes.

[Philip]

Good luck, Theo. Will be interested to hear how you got on.

[Theo]

I ended up being lucky with the weather. It rained around Aix en Provence for much of my holiday, but cleared up for my cycle to Ventoux on Sunday May 6. It took me just under 3 hours to make it to the summit, starting from Bendoin. I spent much of my time in my "granny gears", the smallest of my three chain rings in the front and easiest 4-5 gears at the back. The ride was fun, the messages painted on the road ammusing, and the summit damn cold. So cold I ended up shivering uncontrollably for much of the descent. With so much time on my hands after my morning ascent (I was up top by noon), I opted to cycle to Sault, and then on to St.Saturnin and the beautiful hill top village of Gordes. It was a 120 km trip with over 2000 meters of climbing in all. It was a trip I will never forget.

I wish you luck in your trip and recomend you have a change of warm clothes to change into up top.

[Philip]

Brilliant - and well done. I got hit by a stomach bug that really knocked back my preparations but I managed 800km in six days carrying a heavy backpack in flat but windy Holland at the weekend. Going out in the Northumberland hills tonight to see if it made any difference.