Brian is in charge of our Road Biking Division. more coming soon
Cycling note from Brian Simpson:"I'm writing you from Amsterdam after completing an epic day in France. I climbed both Mont Ventoux and Alpe d'Huez on Saturday and live to tell about it! The climb is most difficult from the Bedoin side which is the route they take when the Tour de France goes through Ventoux. I completed the climb of Ventoux in 1hr and 30 minutes to a very windy summit. My goal going into the climb was to find my rhythm and keep a nice tempo so I could reach the top in under 2 hrs. My legs felt good and my heart rate was steady at 160 bpm so I continued to press onward and up. I passed many riders on the way up who were struggling to keep the pedals turning, so I took comfort that all my training was paying off.
There was only one point when I felt like the climb was becoming very difficult. It felt like I was struggling and then all of a sudden out of nowhere came this gust of wind from behind that pushed me up the hill. I took that as a sign that it was going to be a great day and that my presence on Ventoux was meant to be!! When I left the forest and emerged for the barren and rocky last 6 km's of climbing I was totally energized as a French fighter plane circled the mountains several times before bugging off. . . totally cool and just what I needed to help me get through the final 6 km.
The descent was incredible to say the
least. I was able to easily achieve speeds in excess of 70 km/hr with no
problem and averaged over 60 km/hr for the 30 minute decent. It was a
white knuckled affair on the way down as you had to be ready on the
brakes all the time as there are many sharp turns and S bends that
require full force braking to avoid swerving out into oncoming traffic
or worse to go over the barrier and crash into the forest. It would be
amazing to descend Ventoux in tour conditions knowing their were no cars
coming the other way!! Attached is a link to some pictures that were
taken as I approached the end of a long hour and a half of climbing."
http://www.blablaprod.com/photos.php?evenement=20070706-E-ventoux&sous_ev=20070706-11h-12h&nbdeb=384&pas=12"
Alpe d'Huez was climbed just before sunset
and was an incredibly difficult but an amazing amazing experience. The
climb took an hour and 15 minutes to complete. Given that my legs were
tired from the morning's climb and stiff from the 3 hr car ride from Ventoux to the base in Bourge d'Oisans, I'm very pleased with my time. I
know that if I climbed d'Huez fresh I could complete it within the 1hr
time that everyone aims for, but puts me in awe of Armstrong and Pantini cresting the
summit in 37 minutes, 35 seconds!! The descent was equally amazing (to
Ventoux) with a slight twist: daylight was fading fast which luckily
meant that cars were few and far between and when they were coming I
could get a bit of advance notice from their headlights. It took me just
over 20 minutes to descend with speeds that allowed me to pass cars on
the way down!! I'm off to Mallorca at the end of the week to continue my
mountain climbing experiences, so till next time . . . allez, allez!"
Thanks to Brian for filing that report. And just in case you're wondering what he was so excited about:
Probably the second most famous climb in the
world after the Alpe d'Huez and a magnet for cyclists throughout the
summer. The "windy mountain," Mont Ventoux stands over 1,600 metres or a
vertical mile above the Provence countryside. The most famous ascent is
from Bedoin, a quiet town on the south side of the mountain. This is the
side the Tour de France and Dauphine Libere use when riding the
mountain. The mountain became famous on the 13th July 1967 when the
British cyclist Tom Simpson rode himself to exhaustion on the slopes and
died. There is a memorial to Tom Simpson on the southern side of the
mountain, just over one kilometre from the summit.
From Bedoin, the climb can be incredibly hot at the bottom. The gradient is steep and there are no hairpins on which to recover. Once the Chalet Reynard has been passed with six kilometres to the summit, the Mistral wind, which helps gives the mountain its name can come into play and can buffet a cyclist all over the road. The seven percent gradient can feel more like 15 percent. From the Mont Ventoux, there is an incredible panorama with views in every direction. http://www.grenoblecycling.com/MontVentoux.htm
1850 metres and one of the great climbs of the Alps, it was first
climbed by the Tour de France in 1952 when Fausto Coppi won the stage.
The climb to the ski resort has 21 marked hairpins, with the toughest
part of the ascent over the first three kilometres and first six
hairpins.
http://www.grenoblecycling.com/Col-AlpedHuez.htm
