Day 9 Mont Ventoux Again

View climbing up Mont Ventoux

At the top

Today after a rest day yesterday we all got to do whatever ride we wanted .Some rode up
Mont Ventoux through Bedoin and others has a short ride and coffee and I rode up Mont Ventoux from the opposite direction to the ride we did 2 days a go. With the difficulty
with the internet connection it has been hard to upload the daily excursions and rides on the
Trip.

After an easy rest day spent walking around the city of Avignon and visiting the Papal
Palace in Avignon , we headed back to Malaceune and spent the evening having dinner and watching the running of the bulls. The next day I decided to ride up Mont Ventoux a second time
from the west side or starting from Melaceune .It is a straight climb of about 22km from the
town rather than having to ride to Bedoin the alternate start which we did 2 days earlier.I headed off first being a slower rider /climber at about 7am .I missed breakfast and had a coffee and a banana.The ride route was supposed to be easier than the Bedoin route up Mont Ventoux but
it had some pretty steep gradients climbing .It started gentle enough and then there was a stretch in the middle with 8 to 12 % gradients.Then there was a kick at the end as well with 8 plus percent gradients to the end. I got passed by Lindsay who started about 15 mins later and
finished the climb in 2 hrs .I managed the climb in about 2.30hrs , just a very slow climber especially with a steel bike and a cassette with 27 teeth being my largest makes it a real struggle to spin up .
The weather was much better and it wasn't as crowded when we got up to the top at 9.30 am .Waited for the others riding up in the opposite direction but in the end we just decided to ride down so we could have a shower before driving to our next base Briancon for the next 6 days
with some spectacular rides.
It was an enjoyable day and I was glad I got to put in one more ride up to Mont Ventoux. There was even a cycling Tour group that were riding all 3 routes to the top in a day.