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Mont Ventoux adventure

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Mont Ventoux Adventure Overview

Come and join us at our base in Provence for a chance to take on Mont Ventoux and explore the cultural and gastronomical highlights that make the Vaucluse area so special.

We are delighted to have this tour on the roster as it gives us a chance to host guests in our home. We very much look forward to showing you the road less travelled in an area that has long become a mecca for cycling.

Over the course of 4 days, you can tick off one of the great cycling experiences whilst also enjoying a wonderful immersion into life in Provence.

As part of the ride program, we propose a ‘time trial’ in the Gorges de la Nesque and an opportunity to take on Ventoux from one, two or all three sides of the mountain.

One of the unique things about this tour is the date flexibility. We run this tour from May through to October – contact us for availability.

Highlights

Take on one of the most iconic rides in the cycling folklore – Mont Ventoux
Enjoy the hospitality extended at our base in Provence
Indulge in the fine wines of the Ventoux region
Let us introduce you to the cycling around Mont Ventoux – you’ll be amazed at what is on offer
Savour the delights of the Provençal gastronomy with meals at local restaurants and our base itself
Savour the sight and scents of lavender that are in bloom in June

Mont Ventoux Adventure Dates 2024

From April to October

4 Days / 3 Nights
Cost €1450

All tours and individual stages are available as a custom tour for your group – contact us for details.

What’s Included?

Accommodation in our carefully selected hotels

Meals – hotel breakfasts, snacks en route and pre/post-ride nutrition, lunches including the famed Ride and Seek picnics, multi course group dinners with a focus on the local cuisine.
*NB we include occasional independent lunches & dinners to break up the week

MVCC jersey

Garmin 1030 use with all routes preloaded

MVCC water bottle

Passionate, experienced and knowledgeable guides always on hand to help

 

Not Included

Alcoholic beverages

Bike hire

Pre & post tour accommodation

Supplements

Single supplement – Our prices are based on twin/double occupancy. If you wish to have your own room then a supplement is applicable.

Deposit

To reserve a place on this tour we ask for a deposit of €1000 (or your local currency equivalent).
We also accept payment in GB£ and AU$.
The final invoice will include any applicable single supplements and bike hire costs.

Mont Ventoux Adventure Food and Wine

With a strong Italian and Spanish influence, the cuisine of Provence has a distinctive flair that sets it apart from more classic French fare. Blessed with an abundance of natural ingredients that flourish in the region, Provence is unsurpassed for the freshness of its produce and variety of its dishes. What better encapsulates the flavours of Provençal cuisine than the region’s herbs? Containing rosemary, marjoram, basil, savoury and thyme, as well as a variety of other aromatic plants, you’ll be awakened to their presence not just in the food but also in the air as you cycle along. And what about the tapenades? These go so well spread on fougasse – a flat bread with herbs, fig, olive and walnut. We like the original made of capers, black olives and anchovies but why not try the myriad of other options and discover your own favourite?

Provence is also one of France’s serious fine wine regions, on a par with Bordeaux and Burgundy. In contrast to the cultured power of Bordeaux and the elegance of Burgundy, Provençal red wines are earthier with an almost rustic flavour. In this respect, they are really interesting since quality commercial wine making is balanced by a real sense of identity. Our tour takes us into the heart of some of the regions finest wines and we’ll have the chance to compare and contrast the relative merits of Côtes du Rhône, Les Baux and Côtes du Ventoux. For dessert, we recommend the excellent Muscat de Beaumes de Venise – an almost floral, citrus bouquet making them both refreshing and full-bodied.

Mont Ventoux Adventure Hotels

Hotel des Pins (Bedoin) – This Logis Hôtel is situated at the base of Mont Ventoux and has a wonderful gourmet restaurant. Its name comes from the pine trees that surround it and reflects the fact it is slightly outside the hustle-bustle of the village which is a 10-minute stroll away. With a lovely swimming pool and shaded courtyard, it provides a wonderful sanctuary from which to explore the surrounding area. The massages offered by our ex Tour de France soigneur are an added bonus.
Hotel Nesk (Sault) – This new hotel is a fantastic addition to the area and a passion for cycling lies at its core.  A convent and then hospital the owners have implemented a renovation that marries the history of the building with a modern twist. Many of the rooms overlook the valley below with Mont Ventoux framed in the distance. Situated in the centre of the charming village of Sault it also happens to contain one of the best collections of cycling memorabilia we have ever seen.

Mont Ventoux Adventure History

Below is a wonderful piece from Bas Steman in Soigneur about the Geant.

The peloton shimmers off in the distance. A solo shadow appears on the barren, windswept horizon. The road winds up to a white tower. Reach it, and you’ll kiss immortality. You’ll strike another classic from your list. All the best riders have struggled here. Mont Ventoux is to cycling what Wembley Stadium is to football.

The mountain’s menace can’t be captured by statistics, although they are impressive, with more than 20 kilometres of climbing, from 300 metres of elevation up to 1,900 metres, and long gradients at more than 12%. Even the pros suffer. You can suffer anywhere though. In the Alps and the Dolomites, there are mountains of equal magnitude, but Mont Ventoux is the mythical climb. To come to terms with the Ventoux, you have to see it as more than mountain. You can’t reduce it to an elevation profile, a promise of lactic acid. 7.7% doesn’t tell you very much. Mont Ventoux has a story, a history. It’s almost a character in itself. Its stories are woven into cycling’s DNA. Every kilometre is another chapter.

Mont Ventoux sits alone, rising out of the countryside, ruling over the land as if it were its sacred kingdom. It flirts with the status of Mount Fuji and Kilimanjaro. Ever since man first put his thoughts to paper, he’s attested to his fealty. For centuries, people spoke of a god who lived at the summit of the Ventoux, commanding awe. He withstood storms and torturous heat. Wolves roamed his slopes, hunting for food. Few were reckless enough to take on the ‘Scala Paradisi’. The poet Petrarch, who defied borders with his love, was one of them. He wrote about his experience in 1336.

“TO SUCCEED, WILL IS NOT ENOUGH; YOU NEED DESIRE.”

Nowadays, there is a road, a ribbon of asphalt draped over the bald flank of the mountain. And so long as there is a road, people will climb it on bikes. The Tour first arrived on Mont Ventoux in 1951. The peloton departed for the moonlike landscape from Malaucene and climbed the northern slope of the mountain, which is even more treacherous than the ascent to the south. Lucien Lazaridès was the first to the top. The Tour director Jacques Goddet wrote, “Under a burning sky, the vast plains of loose white pebble stones that form the deserted slopes of Mont Ventoux have served as the theatre for an act of the 58th Tour de France.”

A year later, the Tour returned, this time taking on the mountain from the south, via the town of Bédoin. A Provençal winegrowers’ village, where Grenache and apricots are traditionally cultivated, Bédoin would have been passed over by time had the Tour not taken on Mont Ventoux. Cycling breathed new life into the myth. People no longer spoke of gods or wolves. Heat, without shadow, and empty air drove riders to their limits. Mallejac rode himself senseless. In 1955, Kubler finished the climb speaking in tongues. Charly Gaul brought the record down to one hour and two minutes in 1958. From Bédoin, an inviting stretch of false flat leads up through the vineyards. It’s nothing to worry about. Whoever wants to set a good time can gain a minute here. But anyone who’s not sure how he’ll fare against the Ventoux had best keep his powder dry. After five kilometres, just past the first switchback to the left, the stairway to heaven rises up. The trees become denser, the road smaller. It hugs the cliffs, without ever offering you a breath of relief. Ten kilometres at ten percent are followed by seven kilometres at seven, then the road pitches up at more than eleven.

In high summer, the route is filled with a procession of cyclists — pilgrims on bikes, searching for grace. Everyone follows the same path in his own way. It’s an act of personal confirmation. The Ventoux is a continuously unfolding story, onto which anyone can inscribe his own myth. Anyone who takes it on rides through history. Film after imaginary film is added to the montage. Between your eyelashes, you see Anquetil ride past with hollowed-out eyes. Merckx struggles for breath. Armstrong dances on the pedals. Then, there is the great Italian, Eros, named for desire. A non-climber, he’s minutes ahead, just enough to claim the prize.

Whoever strives to live a full life is bound to come close to death. Between the trees, where, for ten kilometres, the road rises at ten percent, it creeps up behind you. It bites into your legs, gnaws at your spleen. Go too deep here and you’ll die on the moon. Just past the Chalet Reynard, lies emptiness. The mountain deceives you. Rarefied air, heat, and wind conspire against you. Above, the chalky stones whirl. You stand on the pedals, collapse. The white tower is further away than your eyes lead you to believe. To your right, a monument looms. Here, in July 1967, the rider with the Union Jack on his shoulders left his life behind in the Tour. He was felled by fame, the heat, dehydration, and madness.

The last kilometre is merciless. As Petrarch wrote, “To succeed, will is not enough; you need desire.”

One last vicious right-hand corner, a few more metres, and there’s the white line. As soon as you pass it, your wheel ticks off another item from your bucket list.

Bas’s account chronicles his experience climbing from Bedoin but there are actually 3 ways up the mountain. Below are the elevation profiles of these 3 ascents. The ‘classic’ is the ascent from Bedoin which is the way the Tour de France typically climbs the mountain. However, the other two also have their merits and our Mont Ventoux weekend gives you the chance to take them on too.

The climb from the north side is from Malaucene and is in our opinion on a par difficulty wise with the Bedoin climb. Whereas the climb from Bedoin comes up through the trees until Chalet Reynard the Malaucene ascent is a lot more open with expansive views of the Alps in the distance. The so called ‘easy’ ascent is from Sault and is arguably the most picturesque. Do all 3 in a day and you can join the Cingles club.

 

The Bedoin ascent elevation profile

 

The Malaucene ascent elevation profile

 

The Sault elevation profile

 

 

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