Thursday, 13 June 2019
Sebastian Macmillan continues his report of a cycling trip across France from the English Channel to the Mediterranean.
Day 8: St Flour to Mende
Saturday 25 May. Highlight of today's ride was seeing the Garabit Viaduct by Eiffel. It was a hilly start from St Flour and we arrived at the viaduct after about 15km. It's near an attractive lake but from there we had quite a lot of climbing and again spent most of the day above 1000m. The weather was cool, although you warm up on the climbs, and cool down on the descents.
It was a shorter ride today at
82km but still with 1450m of climbing. The roads are larger than those we enjoyed in the first few days, although not particularly busy. We arrived at Mende at 3pm.
Garabit Viaduct by Gustav Eiffel
The road to Mende
Hotel at Mende
See today's ride on
Strava and
Relive.
Day 9: Mende to Vallon Pont D'Arc
Sunday 26 May. Totally awesome cycling day today. Heidi and I climbed steadily for an hour and a half to the Col des Tribes (1132m) and the watershed that divides waters flowing into the Atlantic Ocean from those flowing into the Mediterranean. From that point there was the most amazing descent with sweeping curves and fantastic views. It went on for mile after mile after mile and at a shallow gradient which carried you down while hardly needing to brake. The only reason to stop was to take in the vistas, but we stopped for a photo at the Chateau du Champ.
More climbing took us up again to a second plateau and a long stretch of fairly flat road before another sweeping descent. The final awesome experience was having three Canadian ladies – Sandra, Karen and JoAnne, part of what we are calling Canada 2 – come by and offer to let us tag along in their chain gang. They kept up a steady pace of around 25-35 kmh and we hung on for dear life. They are awesome! We spent the night at Vallon Pont d'Arc.
Tea stops are strategically located
At the watershed
Chateau de Champ
Geological arch giving its name to Pont d'Arc
See today's ride on
Strava and
Relive.
Day 10: Vallon Pont d'Arc to Vaison La Romaine
Monday 27 May. Another great day riding in the Ardeche region. However, it started with a vicious climb up from the Hotel Belvedere at Vaison Pont d'Arc parts of which were 10% gradient and which went on for four or five km. That was tiring, but we found ourselves high above the Ardeche Gorges. The views were spectacular and there were various viewing balconies overlooking the great sweeps of the river right down in the bottom of the gorge. Tiny canoeists could be seen far below. It lasted most of the morning until we dropped down into the much lower and flatter plain of the Cote du Rhone.
The terrain is undulating, there are vines in the fields, tall thin Cyprus trees, and hilltop towns. Shallow-pitched tiled roofs have replaced the steeply-pitched slated roofs of a couple of days ago, and the whole feel of the place is far more Mediterranean. The only downside was quite a strong and gusty wind which blew us sideways as we crossed a wide river bed on a long low multi-arched bridge. Sometimes it was a head wind, at other times it seemed to blow us along.
We stopped for ice cream in the little central square of Villedieu, and then continued on to our final destination of the mediaeval town of Vaison la Romaine.
Spectacular viewpoints
The Ardeche gorges
A view of the castle at Vaison with the original access viaduct visible in in the centre
See today's ride on
Strava and
Relive.
Day 11: Vaison La Romaine to Sault
Tuesday 28 May. This was the day of the big one – a ride up Mont Ventoux, at 1909m one of the great cols of the Tour de France and where the English racing cyclist Tom Simpson died in the 1967 Tour. I was in my teens and keen on cycling, so the event is seared into my memory.
We set off from our hotel at Vaison La Romaine at about 08.30 and rode in small groups the 8km to Malaucene. This is where the ascent of Ventoux really begins. It lasts something over 21km. There are milestones every km (if that isn't a contradiction in terms) and each one advises the distance still to go to the summit and the average gradient for the next km. I'm sure there is a list of these on the internet, but they vary from about 4% to 11% from memory.
Our support van met us after about 7km and I stopped to have a cup of tea. By this time, the group had stretched out hugely according to climbing ability and the only thing I will say is that I was on my own, and not last. A few km later there were two adjoining stretches each averaging 11%. An English cyclist, not part of our group, rode along with me (behind me actually) for a while, but we were breathing too heavily for much of a conversation. Before we got to the next milepost, I stopped briefly for a sachet of syrupy goo and he carried on.
I had another stop with the support van with about 5km to go. I was warned it was windy. Heidi had packed and was in the van wrapped in a blanket. The gradient eased a bit – a km at 4%, a km at 8%. At these gradients you don't need to walk but they are challenging and you do wonder why you are doing it.
For the last 2-3 km you are above the treeline and it's rocky and bleak. Eventually I got to the top, or at least to within about 100m of the top. At this point the wind was so fierce (venteux means windy) that I was blown to a complete standstill. I walked to the top. Again the support van was there and I had another cup of tea, and put on my windproof jacket and leg warmers.
The descent was scary, the wind was strong, blustery and cold, and I gripped the brakes almost as hard as I could. I took it very steadily even, for a while, switching to the opposite side of the road (where there is a bike lane marked out for ascending cyclists) to be away from the windy edge. The cold wind numbed my fingers and gripping the brakes wasn't pleasant. The scenery was still desolate.
After 3 or 4 km, I joined Michael and Peter who had stopped at Chalet Reynard and we descended together. We came down below the tree line, there were patches of sun, the wind speed dropped and we coasted down. As it got warmer, my hands were less numb and I got more confident. Our speed rose, reaching a maximum of 62 kmh which is just under 40 mph. Eventually the road flattened out and we rode together to Sault.
Unfortunately I had a problem with my video camera so no record of the descent and, distracted by the windy conditions, I completely forgot to stop at the Tom Simpson memorial just below the summit. A really peculiar day.
61km, 2000m of climbing.
At the summit of Mont Ventoux
The view from the summit, cloud descending
See today's ride on
Strava and
Relive.