Le Géant de Provence

steowen

Afternoon all,

I've been off the bike since early September after being diagnosed with a triple (count em) hernia. I'm now close to full recovery and three months of boredom and slow weight gain has given me renewed focus.

Therefore this year I'm going to attempt Mont Ventoux - probably early Sept. I'm a reasonably fit/good rider who usually rides 20 miles a day commuting and another 40-70 miles over then weekend. However, living in London/Essex borders means hills are not usually on the menu.

Any advice as to training tips etc.?

ps I have a turbo and HRM so can do reasonable controlled training if this is required.

Cheers

lateralus

On that amount of riding you'll have no trouble getting up (unless you're planning to arrive at the start of the climb having already done a lot of miles!). I did it this September - due to work and family commitments all I've done all year is 55 miles a week of flat London commuting. I didn't set any records, but made it to the top.

If you're doing the classic route from Bedoin, you'll have a few km of gentle climbing until you get to the forest, which is around 10km averaging 10%. I found that was the hardest part. There are no easy sections where you can recover - you get no rest at all and need to maintain a high power output continuously. After Chalet Reynard the gradient eases until the last 1.5km or so, which is steep again. However, you have the gusts of wind to contend with (at least the day I did it), which are strong enough to really upset your cadence, so you need to be able to recover from those little bursts of effort to regain your momentum after the wind strikes, while maintaining your steady climbing progress.

It sounds like your training base is good - I would work on sustainable power. Your turbo sounds ideal. SOmeone more knowledgable than I will no doubt be along in a minute, but 2 x 20s and the like on the turbo would be ideal. What you're looking to develop is the ability to maintain high sustainable power/high pedal pressure for as long as possible.

ut_och_cykla

concur with lateralus
+ make sure you have the right gears - its a long grind in a slightly too high gear!!
+Get/keep fit generally - doing it in September means you have the whole summer to fine tune your bike skills.

lateralus

oops, yes, forgot about the gears - low enough to allow you to keep the RPM up even when you're working flat out.

Oh, and make sure you have fresh brake blocks, so you can fully enjoy the experience that is the descent! :twisted:

Brian B

Worth remembering it is sitll very hot in Sept. as thats when I did it and the tar on the roads around the climb was melting into puddles. Best Tackled early morning before the temp gets to hot. Get in a gear you can turn for a long time and then keep it there. Its a great climb and well worth the effort.

Fab Foodie

I Had a go in late August.
A 3 hour drive to get there, arrived around midday, 100F temps, high humidity, no wind, am wearing black.
had a few miles pootling around before starting the route from Bedoin. Had done some pretty steep and long climbs on the edge of the Pyranese the week before (but all in the early morning cool) so felt pretty confident as I entered the forest...where the sun shone overhead...got to about 3/4 of the way to Chalet Reynard before I packed due to the heat. Whatever I tried I just couldn't loose enough heat and I rode 'till I almost collapsed (I also have a heart condition so need to take care). I was on a light bike, good wheels and 30x26, should have been easy apart from the heat.

Mrs FF drove me to the top...after a beer I came down averaging 40mph and maxing at 49mph on the straights!

It's a hard drag in the heat, try and go in the early morning or evening cool.

Anonymous

Contact Craig for your attempt on ventoux, he runs the excellent Veloventoux cycling company and will give you a massive help in acheiving your goal...if you really want to give the best chance of success then 'Craigenty'(his forum name) is your man...super reasonable aswell:-

http://www.veloventoux.com/

steowen

Cheers everyone. I'm getting excited already!

xio

We did it in early Sept this year - stayed in Avignon and drove to Bedoin and did the climb 'cold', starting just after midday. I think we were lucky with the weather - not a breath of wind, and it was about 26 degrees at the summit. I'd thoroughly recommend it, a great climb. Maybe we were just lucky with the weather, but it didn't seem nearly as bad as I'd been led to believe. That's not to say it was easy mind....

We followed it up with Alpe d'Huez a couple of days later and that was just a breeze by comparison.


Edit - forgot to add, I fractured my spine in April and it's good to have some goals to come back to, so I (sort of) know how you feel.

Brian B

Get this weeks comic as it has a good feature on the Giant.

P.S. The thumbnail to the left is me on the malaucene side with a cloud inversion and the little pic does not do it any justice.