Wednesday 13th July: Blue Skies, very cold 5°C to 21°C
Malaucene: Mont Ventoux test run
Accommodation: Apartment Maloc 10, Avenue de Verdun, Malaucene
Graham inspects the Toyota Auris
Highlight of our day was getting to the top of another legendary Tour de France climb, Mont Ventoux at 1912 metres. "Ventoux" means windy, and for good reason. It blew a freezing gale at 100kph and 5°C.
Breakfast is stuff we've bought from Carrefours Avignon the night before - muesli and yoghurt. We've worked out that Jenny and Graham will drop us off at Mont Serein, 500 metres below the top of Mont Ventoux and a 4.5k hike. And they'll continue driving over the top of Mont Ventoux before the road closure at 1pm today and continue down to Bedoin and other villages in Provence, where Ian and I had walked in 2012 on our way from Avignon to Briancon for our GR5 hike. A quick wander through the markets in the streets below us every Wednesday, to buy some bullock heart tomatoes to take for our picnic lunch and at 10.00am we're all off to pick up our hire car parked in the village square.
On the track to Mont Ventoux
Across a shaley rockfall
Which way now
Iconic tower Mont Ventoux 1912m
Moonscape and campervans
Having a Jetboiled culpa
Colin's photo Mont Ventoux
The mist tools across the top
Cyclists going up and down
Shelter behind a rock wall
Mist gone, blue skies again
Lunch 6k down from the summit
Mont Serein start of walk tomorrow
Mont Serein is a ski village on a plateau below the northern side of Mont Ventoux, and Jenny and Graham drop us off in the hire car at 10.30am to walk the 4.5k up the GR4 hiking track to the top of Mont Ventoux. They’ll continue over Mont Ventoux to Bedoin.
For 45 minutes it's a steady climb up through the pine forests, but as the track emerges into the shaly moonscape 100 metres from the top of Mont Ventoux, the temperature plummets to 8°C, and the wind reaches gale force. The track is steep and at times non-existent over bouldery rock falls across scree slopes. It gets windier and colder as we reach the famous red and white pole at the top to find hundreds of cyclists huddled behind the wall of the tower trying to get warm before their freezing descent. Some have come up from the Malaucene side in the west, others from Sault in the east and the hardy ones from Bedoin the steepest side in the south, the road the Tour de France will follow. Mont Ventoux translates as the windy mountain where the wind blows at 90+ km/h for 240 days a year!!
We find a sheltered spot and put on every ounce of clothing we took - beanies, wind jackets, rain jackets and gloves - trying to get warm. But a hot Jetboiled cup of coffee does the trick. We're joined by Colin, an Englishman from Chester who appreciates our offer of a cup of tea. Before we leave the top, we need to check out the road down the other side where the cyclists will be coming up tomorrow, to locate a sheltered spot out of the wind from where we’ll see Le Tour. There's a wall down the road not too far, and our plan is to get there early and sit huddled for 4 hours waiting for the cyclists ascent. The top of Mont Ventoux is a moonscape, and we walk slowly down the road on the other side lined with camper vans for about 1k from the finish. We’ve identified a spot so we don't hang around for long. The mist rolls in, dropping the temperature to 5°C in a minute.
Up to the top again then walking down the road instead of the hiking trail is the best option given that the wind is still blowing a howling gale. For 30 minutes, it's freezing as we walk on the road down dodging cars and cyclists, until we hit the tree line after a descent of 200 metres. We’re now beneath the swirling clouds at the top of Mont Ventoux and it’s much warmer. At the turn off to Mont Serein, we find a warm spot for lunch - bread, butter, cheese and bullocks heart tomatoes. Then it's back down the road toward Malaucene where Jenny and Graham will be picking us up, somewhere - however far we get. It's 3.45pm when we see them driving up. They've had a lovely day in Bedoin, another village buzzing with cyclists.
Back at our Apartment-Hotel Maloc, we're just in time to see the last hour of today's tour, with Peter Sagan winning the sprint and Christopher Froome coming in second but retains his yellow jersey. Graham and Ian enjoy a beer, the girls a cup of tea. Time to sort photographs before dinner of salad and pork filet with a beer and a wine.