The Road to Ventoux - Part 29

D-Day: The first climb….

The Ventoux3 challenge is raising money for the Out of the Blues charity at https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/outoftheblues.

The first climb from Bedoin was an absolute joy! Because of the early start, Mary and I virtually had the road to ourselves, with few other cyclists or cars on the road. It was incredibly peaceful riding through the woods, accompanied by the sound of birds and the odd fox.

After the first 4-5 km when the gradient is generally between 4-6%, things get more serious with a section of around 10km when the slope is an unremitting 9-10%. This is where all the work I have done with James Walsgrove really paid dividends. I managed to get into a good rhythm push a reasonable power, but with my heart rate staying at a very comfortable level as I chatted away with Mary. My fuel strategy of an energy gel every 30 mins, with jelly babies in between also worked well. We reached Chalet Reynard, 6km from the top, in good spirits to be met by the support team to top up water bottles before starting the more variable gradient through the barren white stone scape at the top of the mountain.

Further information about the challenge, and my blogs about my training, can be found at http://outoftheblues.org/news/cat/the-road-to-ventoux.

Hamish McAllister-Williams