Etape du Tour Montelimar to Mt Ventoux Monday 20th July

On Saturday 18th I went up Mt Ventoux and stopped
to pay homage to Tom Simpson. It was a mild but very very windy day. I felt in genuine fear of being blown off the mountain. A manageable ride when you start at Bedoin with fresh legs but it will of course be rather different on the etape with a 90 mile warm up before the climb.







Monday turned out to be a hot day. Echoes of the 2007 etape there, especially climbing the first half of Mt Ventoux when the drink station could not come soon enough. Further up it was glorious with only a light wind, not the blow you off the mountain type wind of 2 days earlier. Overall a cracking ride on a cracking day. Took this photo from the mountain top finish looking down on a ant like line of cyclists.


















Here are some (real) times:


Dimitri Champion 05:11:31 (winner)
Erik Zabel 06:48:44
Martin Porter 07:31:29
Chris Boardman 08:09:46
Brian Cookson 09:50:32 (BC President)
James Benning 09:50:41 (Clubmate)

There is now a full report on my club website

http://www.thamesvelo.org.uk/pages/etape09.html