Tour de Bob - Stage 7 - The final climb - Mt. Ventoux

The 2010 Tour de Bob is done. We all made it. Over 400 miles, over 50,000 feet of climbing. This trip could never be duplicated given the group, the weather, and the route. It's in the record books.

Today, we rode from Bedoin, up Mt. Ventoux, and back to Bedoin. Sounds pretty easy, except for the climb part. Mt. Ventoux is one of the toughest climbs anywhere, and was brutal even after a week of hard climbs. But, it went well for all of us. We rode about 46 miles, and climbed about 6700'. Not bad for our last day of 7.

We started with our last pre-ride breakfast. I went light knowing we were going straight into a climb. Had a bad nights sleep so I was not a happy camper this morning. We rolled out by 9:00 on another beautiful sunny morning. A bit warmer, so we know what's coming - heat on the hill.

Kevin tells me on the ride thru town that Michel (apparently I've been spelling his name wrong all week) said that only sissies take more than an hour and 50 minutes to do the climb. That's my goal - no sissy label. I got that one in China from a street Rolex salesman who wasn't happy with me. Never again.

It's only about a mile into the center of town from our hotel, and then a few blocks to the official start of the climb. It's hard to describe what this climb means - it is one of the most brutal ones out there. We've been talking about it all week. The climb is about 5100' over 12 miles to around 6000' of elevation. Most of the time we're climbing around 9%. That's steep enough that you'd think twice about walking up it. We're dumb enough to not only ride up it, but try to go up as fast as we can.

Up we go. I quickly fall to the back. Spinning at my comfortable rate, I watch the big guns fade in the distance. Quickly. I tell myself it's no big deal. Yeah, right. However, as Roger my massage guy advised, my legs would be tight for the first few miles, and would then feel better. He was right. After about 2-3 k's, the legs came in. Oh, man, I wish I'd had this set of legs all week. I still couldn't catch Dana, but at least I was feeling good.

The first part of the climb - barely even breathing hard....

I ride with Kevin for a bit, but I gradually pull away. I feel bad because he's been a great support this week, but this is my last chance to push, and I have to go. I eventually see a couple more TdB's up ahead, and very slowly work up to them. Turns out to be Bob and Bill. Can't believe I've found them as they're usually at the head of the group. Not easy, but I get on to their back wheel and still have some legs left.

Bill in front and Bob up close. I'll get really comfortable with this view.

The next 6-8 miles are a combination of pain and enthusiasm. The legs are feeling really strong, but every time I go to the front, Bill blasts me into the basement again. I won't repeat some of my comments but I have to admire his abilities. I only hope I can do the same at that age. I dug very deep into the reservoir of energy and ability and kept with them. Over and over they would leave me behind and I would gradually and painfully crawl back. Each time I expected it would be the last given the last 6 days.

Le Chalet Reynard. I would have loved to stop, but I wouldn't have finished the timed climb. On we go....

After the Chalet Reynard, the terrain turns more barren. Very rocky and windwept. I guess 'Ventoux' means windy. I can believe that.

This picture doesn't do justice to the couple hundred sheep trying to cross the road. I had to weave thru them and the stopped cars to keep going. The sheep were not impressed with my climbing prowess. Le baaaaaaa.

The shepard and his dogs. Very prophetic since that's Bill in front, who helped shepard all of us novice European cyclists.....

The view of the top. Still probably 1000-1500 feet below the summit. My 1:50 time is rapidly approaching. I do NOT want to miss it so I just keep grinding. And Bill keeps passing me....

One of the corners. By now it's quite windy, the sun is harsh, and the climb is unrelenting. The top is teasingly close, but not getting any closer.

The last mile or two were just a grind. I couldn't even take out my camera. I was sweating so much I could barely see. I got the heart rate up high enough I almost puked. Almost. The last corner is devastatingly steep, and then it's 50 yards to go. I made it up over the top in between Bill and Bob. I may never know if they cut their pace for me, but I'm OK either way. I made it to the top.

Gary as he hit the top. I never did hear the full story of his climb, but he's wearing a bike tire, with a pack of cigarettes stuffed in his shirt sleeve. He looked like I felt - spent.

The Tour de Bob at the summit of Mt. Ventoux. I'm not sure who got cut off in the picture, but I know some of the other cameras got a better shot - I'll fix it when I can.

Dave and Bob at the top. Thank you Bob for inviting me on your 50th birthday quest. One of the best trips of my life.

A dog that reminded me of Stella. Can't wait to get home and be mauled...

We spent a good half hour or more on the summit. Cool but tolerable, with an incredible view. They say you can see the Mediterranean on a clear day. A little quick trinket shopping, and time to go. The back side is very similar to the front, and we descended like the pros we felt like. Fast and furious, but VERY careful. We all agreed that now was the time to be extra careful as we're almost done. We quickly dropped into warmer air and greener slopes, and I was just flat out grinning again. I love a good adrenaline rush! Very similar to a fast race down the White-Rim trail in Utah next to a drop off!

We left Mt. Ventoux and headed out into the countryside for lunch. Many more little villages and vineyards. You could easily spend a week here just wandering from town to town, with or without a bike. Nancy?

Our run to lunch after the descent was another great one. The pace kept getting cranked up until it was an all-out sprint. Up and down minor hills, around the hairpins, on and off the back of the guys up front. The legs were working really well, coupled with a tight formation with Mark who I'm used to running hard with. We had a really great run and all ended up winded at the lunch stop. Gonna miss this....

A close-up of some of the grapes. I'm sure I've been drinking their cousins at dinner every night.

A shot up the drive where we had lunch. Looks pretty nice - probably too nice for my sweaty bike clothes....

Our lunch stop.

I can't say enough about our guide Michel. He knew just where to stop when we needed food, and always had a great spread. I know he was buying a lot of it daily in his 'spare' time and even found some requested goodied - like the jar of pickles. And who knew we would drink and enjoy that much Coca-Cola!

This was the sign at our lunch stop. Just one more named climb, even if it wasn't rated. We rode it like we were on the Tour..

After lunch we had another nice descent, and then off into the countryside.

Bob and Todd took an early lead, and I was feeling strong and caught up to them, and we just kind of cruised thru the countryside expecting to be caught. As we got closer to town, that Y chromosome kicked in and we powered it up to be first in. We found out the peloton was coasting behind us, but it felt good to push really hard to the very end. After my performance in the middle of the week, it was good to know there was some ability in there somewhere.

Just another view of the South of France, with Mt. Ventoux off in the distance. I hope these mental images stick for a long time.

Got to the hotel, and was pretty overheated. Grabbed a cold beer, put on the shorts, and hit the pool. They don't seem to believe in heating their pools here. It felt good once the heart restarted and I was able to swim to the side and sit in the sun.

The end is near. Michel is prepping the bikes for tomorrow. We all had to remove our bike hardware - seats, computers, pedals.

Our last group activity. Most of us went into town - Bedoin - for some quick shopping and sightseeing. We wandered around the main street, into a couple bike shops, bought some Flan which was great, and found a cafe to sit have have a beer in.

While we sat here and hashed over the week, we saw a guy from another group of riders get helped into an ambulance. He had obviously had a crash of some sort and our expertise told us he had a major shoulder injury. Sad to see, and made us even more thankful that we made it thru such a hard week with no skin left on the pavement.

Dinner back at the hotel was great. A tomato salad with a spicy pesto sauce that had Dana ordering a small jug of it to go with dinner. The waiter looked perplexed but brought us one. Dinner was fish or pork and mashed potatoes, and dessert was a nice ice-creamy type of thing - not really sure how to describe it. It didn't last long enough for a picture....

After dinner, we said quick goodbyes to Gary, Kevin, and Jon. They all take off way early in the morning, with taxis to Marseilles and Avignon. We'll get up around 7:00 and leave by 9:00 for the train station in Avignon.

It's hard to know what else to say. I can't imagine a trip that could have gone so well. I could have climbed faster, or ridden harder, but those are minor if's. The sun shone, the guys were great, the hotels and meals were better than expected, and the scenery was incredible. I'm sitting outside on our patio finishing this up, in the cool night air, with a starry sky above. The body feels strong and good, and the soul is incredibly intent.

I have to thank Bob for putting this together and inviting me along. It exceeded all my expectations! Thanks to Mark, my riding buddy for coming along. I have someone local to share this with. Thanks to Shawn, my roomie, for most of the trip. You complete me. Really, you just get my jokes and movie references, which is close. I had fun. And thanks to the rest of the Tour de Bob gang. I can't imagine a better group of guys to spend a week with - no whining, no hassles, just riding and fun and great conversations. Thanks to Kevin for helping me enjoy the back of the pack. Thanks to everyone for reading along on this adventure. It helps cement the memories typing them out like this, and I appreciate the tolerance for my mode of thinking.

And mostly, thanks to my wife Nancy. She is so supportive of all the crazy things I do, and welcomes be back home when I return. That's why I get in home mode on the last day - I'm excited to see the most important person in my life. Thanks for letting me be me.

This site will stay active for a long time. I probably won't ever delete it as it's a good place for memories. I will be adding a few stats to the site when I get home - the names of the specific climbs, with miles and altitudes, and the overall totals. It looks like we passed 425 miles, with over 51,000 feet climbed. Awesome! Good night, and thanks for the support!

Click here for Dana's pictures.

Click here for Bob's pictures.

Click here for a helmet-cam video from Mark of us descending from Mt. Ventoux.

Click here for another video from Mark.

Click here for our route today.

Stage 5 Summary

OK, for all those of you who were having TdB withdrawals yesterday, an extended version for today - lot's of pictures and info.

Stage 5 of the Tour de Bob. Briancon to Gap, over the Col d' Izoard, and down into Gap. Pronounced Izuwaaaa. With Gusto!!! IZUWAAA! We all loved this climb. Mostly.

First, before we go any further, I will admit that I have the unwanted and dubious honor of being the first rider of the TdB on the ground. I'm OK, and we'll get to that later.

We woke up to bright sunshine, again, and thanked God and whoever for giving us such great weather for this trip. It was pretty cool due to the altitude, so arm warmers were needed, but we knew we'd be quickly climbing so we kept it light. Short moment of panic this morning as the wallet was missing. Put it in a different pocket after the rush of jersey buying yesterday. Whew....

Our view of Briancon as we climbed out of town. Our warmup was all of a 1/4 mile, so the hill climb started with cold legs.

We have to digress here for a bit without a picture. Put 10 guys together doing anything, and it will become a competition. Really. Biking is no different. Right off the bat, Bill, our senior rider, took off like a bat out of you know where. Of course, Mark, Dana, and Shawn had to go after him, but he had a headstart. Here's where it gets interesting.

On these climbs, there are many sharp corners, and you can quickly lose sight of those ahead of you. You keep going, knowing they are up there. For Dana, Mark, and Shawn, the prize was catching Bill who doesn't like to be caught. LITTLE did they know, that Bill is also a nefarious type, not immune to pulling a prank. So, once out of sight, he dropped into a driveway. Watching the three go by like their tails were on fire I'm sure he was laughing.

Cut to a few miles up the road where Dana, who has dropped Mark and Shawn in his quest for Bill's hide, runs into Michele and the van who told him to go on after Bill. Completely full of BS. Gotta love the French. When Dana finds Michele again farther up the road, and Shawn catches him, he realizes he's been had. We all had a great laugh over this one - at lunch, at dinner, and probably for the next couple days. Thanks Bill!

The boys on their hill climb up the Izoard - Bill and Todd. This is like the last time I will see these guys for hours.

It's hard to admit when you're the back of the pack, but somebody has to be there, and it's usually me. Put the ego in the pocket and keep on pedaling.

The view going up the Col d'izoard. IZUWAAAA!

A beautiful climb - after 5 days, the climbs are getting easier. We don't even blink at a 12 mile climb of 5000'. Before lunch.

A neat example of some local artwork on a house right on our route.

I blame my slow pace on my picture taking excursions - my blog, my excuses.

A village high up in the hills. Don't have a clue what the people here do, but it's very peaceful on a Wednesday morning.

A little more architecture. The rock walls always amaze me - they look like they've been standing there forever, and maybe they have.

OK, this was a tough one. I actually turned around and came back for this picture. Dano, Eric, Dale, Posey? We could have spent 12 hours here.

I smelled something like a Corned-Beef Hash as I rode by. I almost stopped. I did stop. I almost went in. But, I figured I was last on the hill, and the others would be waiting at the top, and a plate of hash would NOT make me any faster.

Pretty little chalet in the sunshine. Could have stayed there all day. Maybe should have as you will soon understand...

A neat rock spire off the side of the road. About now I was mentally calculating how many pedal revolutions I had done this trip. When you have a climb that takes 2+ hours, at about 6-10 mph, you have a lot of time to think.

I worked on yesterdays ride, and here was my process. My average cadence (pedal revolutions per minute) is about 80. My fancy GPS watch can track that for me. I pedal about 75% of the time, so an average of 60 over the ride seemed fair. We rode for about 7 hrs, with about 4 hrs of actual riding time. So, 4 * 60 (minutes) * 60 (rpm) = 14,400 pedal revolutions. No wonder my legs hurt. And that's just one day. Never leave an engineer un-supervised.....

So. Not long after my mental calculations, and as the road got steeper, and the altitude got higher, I experienced a minor equipment malfunction. My chain dropped off the small front chainring. It happens. Pulled over, put it back on, and kept going. By now I'm close to the back of our pack, with no hope of catching the front-runners, and not really trying. I round the next hairpin, and am spinning along at 70ish rpm, when the chain drops off again. This time I'm on a steeper section, my rpm's shoot to probably 120+ with no resistance, and my speed drops from 6mph to 0mph. In about 5 feet. With my feet spinning that fast, I can't unclip them from the pedals. With the bike not moving, and my feet clipped in, only one thing can happen. Gravity takes over and you meet the ground.

Now, virtually every serious cyclist has fallen. Sometimes it's at a stoplight, sometimes it's in the woods, but none of us like it. I knew two things for certain. 1. I'm going to fall. 2. If I put my hand down to stop it, I will break my wrist. So, you suck it up, and take the hit. I fell on my right side, and took the ground to my right knee, hip, elbow, and shoulder. Saving the head and the head-cam of Marks I hoped. The pain that went from my elbow to my shoulder was sharp and searing. So now I'm laying in the middle of the narrow road, still clipped into my pedals, in pain, and I can hear the next set of cars or motorcycles coming. I may have uttered a couple questionable words or two, but hopefully Kevin will not confirm that. I literally crawled to the side of the road. A couple Land Rovers pulled over, and Kevin pulled up and we assessed the damage. Luckily, I didn't break anything, or tear my new jersey, or even break out any blood. The low speed and my low height helped that! Off we went up the road after a suitable break and some attempts to fix my bike.

After another couple near misses with chain drops, Kevin headed up the pass solo to send Michele down to try and fix my bike - it was not safely ridable. Pretty soon Todd caught up and after a few tries was able to adjust things so the bike rode well enough to continue. I made it to the top, but slowly as the hip pain started to manifest....

The view from the top of the d'Izoard. IZUWAAAA! Don't ask me why I do that.....

Another view from the top. Pretty sparse up on the slopes...

Cobalt blue skies and decent temps. Couldn't have scripted it any better.

We had another great descent. Miles of coasting or light pedaling doing 30+ on the straights, and down to SLOW around the hairpins. Light traffic and good road so we were able to really enjoy it.

We can see where we're headed down below, but have a ways to go to get there.

I had to stop on the descent a couple times to just look and take a picture. I live near the Cascade mountains, but these just seem bigger and more grandiose. Of course, I don't have to pay thousands of dollars to go see the Cascades.....

We hit the bottom of the pass and regrouped. Michele worked a little more on my bike and found a bent chain link. Fixed it right up on the side of the road. We headed off into a long steady downhill run thru a canyon.

Still hard to keep the eyes on the road.

There's not much like a good pace line. We were cooking down the road at 25+ with 10 guys operating well together, but with a good headwind. We started snaking thru this narrow canyon, with a few 'bat-cave' type of rough tunnels, and severe drop-offs to the side. One-lane sections, and speedy French drivers kept us on our toes.

We couldn't always tell how steep the drop-offs were until after you went by them. The cars are barely visible in the center on the roadway, and that rock 'guard-rail' is about 2' high. Wouldn't even slow us down.

One for the wife - feeling like a pretty studly biker after climbing mountains and cruising with this crowd. Still your dork.....

A view at our lunch stop in Chateauroux Les Alpe. I very pretty little town that we all wanted to stay awhile in.

Ou lunch stop in the town square. The local formula-1 drivers barely slowed down going around us to get down the hill.

Sandwiches, rice, fruit, Coke, Madelaines, and rice pudding for lunch.

Michele doing a quick chain replacement on my bike - the quick fix on the pass didn't work well enough.

Love the old buildings and architecture.

Kevin proving he is stronger than the bike!

Gary proving he is smarter than the bike!

One of the great things about this trip is that we basically get three kinds of riding. The climbs, the descents, and the cruises.

On the climb, you're on your own - you can't ride someone elses pace, at least not for very long. That's why we end up breaking up. You find what you can do for a long time, and you stick with it. Feeling good, go faster. Not so good, slow down. We all meet at the top so it's not a problem.

On the descents, you just hang on. The wind resistance at 30+ mph is strong enough to slow you right down, so you try and tuck in behind someone, but not too close that you don't have options when you come to the hairpins. You don't have to pedal much, and you're not using much energy. It's just an E-ticket ride to the bottom.

The cruises are something else altogether. While we sometimes take it easy, that usually doesn't last very long. 10 strong bikers are a good thing, and when they work together they are a force. A group working together well is called a pace-line, and can easily do speeds into the high 20's to low 30's with good conditions. We had a headwind, so we were working a little extra hard.

The scenery started to change after lunch. More typical of the 'South of France' sunny landscapes I've been looking for.

That's corn. Reminds of 1 month ago in Iowa.

The view from the pace-line. I'm about 4 or 5 back from the front, just cruising until it's my turn up front.

The cool thing about a pace-line is that you're all working together - very tightly. To work well, everyone has to ride at the same speed, and very close. 6" when things are going well, up to a couple feet when it's dicier. So, you're doing 20+ mph on a bike, less than 12" from the guy in front of you, in the middle of a crowd of 10 riders. Any mistake can be painful for many.

But, when it works, it's magic. The guy in the front is working hard, especially in a headwind, but the rest of the riders are getting a 'tow' - taking advantage of the reduced wind resistance. You can cut 30% or more of your pedaling effort by being in the slipstream of the rider ahead of you. When you take turns in a group this size, you're only on the front working hard 10% of the time. Or less when the big guns are taking long pulls at the front. They don't like me much up front - I'm too short and small to give much of a tow. We cruised this way for over 20 miles and got to town in a short time. The guy in front pulls for awhile, then pulls off to the side and coasts to the back of the line, and then pulls in to the slipstream for a rest. The time on the front can be as little as 30 seconds, or 10 minutes - depends on the conditions and the energy level. This is a great group that works together well....

Our hotel in Gap is called the Gapotel. It has a pool which made my day. Here's Kevin and I, and Todd in the background, enjoying a cold beer while we soak our legs in the ice-bath. It was quite cold. I had to do the 'go-in-fast' method or I would never have got in. Felt really good.

We had dinner in the hotel, a really tasty salad, salmon, and apple pie combination. Not to mention some great wine picked out by Dana, our under-paid but over-appreciated sommelier.

Great conversation with Bill, Shawn, Mark, and Kevin about bikes, bike stuff, bike equipment, and bike books and movies. Found out Bill is an old-time surfer and from Hawaii. He's constantly suprising us!

Just one of the techie twits on this trip. Shawn, my roomie, working on his laptop. Great wifi at this hotel, not like last night.

Yes, that's my bed on the right. The one with all the stuff on it. My wife will recognize it right off. I'm more of the Oscar Madison style than the Felix Unger if you know what I mean. Feel sorry for Nancy.

We've got the window wide open, and it's almost 11:00. Time for sleep, as we're getting up a little early and hitting the road by 8:30 to beat the headwinds and heat.

Thursday we ride from Gap to Bedoin, about 80+ miles with no major climbs. I'm sure the big guys will be ramping up the speed. Enjoy the blog, tomorrow is another day.

Click here for Dana's pictures.

Click here for Bob's pictures.

Click here for a video of the descent of Col d'Izoard.

Click here for another video from Mark's helmet-cam.

Click here for our route profile/info from my GPS.

I posted pictures from Stage 4 as a separate post from the stage 4 summary - check it out....

Stage 4 Pictures

Here's the pictures and links from Stage 4. It's too difficult to insert them into yesterday's Summary page after the fact, at least from the hotel bar with a beer or two on board. Enjoy....

Our view as we headed out of Alpe d'Huez in the morning. Cold, but clear.

Stopped to take the picture above, and saw this industrious bee working hard early in the morning. Reminded me that life at home is still going on with people going to work every day. We'll be there soon enough..

The view of Le Bourg-d'Oisans from our descent.

The town is a couple thousand feet below us. Hang on tight!

A typical signpost at one of the many junctions we come to. Michele is very good about waiting for us at these so we know which way to go. And we thank him by blowing past him....

I wanted to stop. We should have stopped. It said 'bikers' and 'bar' on the same sign. It's almost criminal to not stop. Who cares if it's 10am. Dano? We'd have been there - probably for the rest of the day....

The downtown are of Le Bourg-d'Oisans at the base of Alpe d'Huez. We thought the banners were for us, but we were wrong....

Pretty town - would love to come back...

A view in town from across the street. More examples of the beautiful flowers we saw everywhere.

We start to climb the Col du Lautaret.

Notice it's facing backwards towards the riders. I was in the lead, and managed to take a picture backwards while riding. Don't try this without practice!

My one attempt at art. This is a picture inside one of the tunnels as we rode thru. Scary....

A beautiful waterfall right above the roadway.

Just another town along the ride. Hard to believe we didn't stop and spend an hour or two.

The view as we got higher up the Col du Lautaret

A farmer and his wife? out tending their field/garden in the morning. Kind of lost without a zoom, but a neat scene anyways.

More views. Stunning? Beautiful? Magnificent? I'm running out of words...

Lunch at the top of the Col du Lautaret. As an astute observer noted on Facebook, there is still some spaghetti and beer left in front of me.

Let me calm your fears - it did NOT go to waste, I simply wanted to show what was on the menu. 3.2 milliseconds after I put the camera down, the plate and glass were empty - not necessarily in that order!

That's a big bike! 6000+ feet in elevation, and pretty cold.

The view back up towards the Col du Galibier that we came over yesterday. Hard to believe we were in snow showers and freezing temps.

An end-of-the-day beer at a little outdoor cafe area.

From the left - Todd, Mark, Kevin, and Jon.

We were cold - shorts were not enough, and we only lasted thru one beer before heading back for dinner, but we did enjoy it. Lot's of people watching on the street behind us, including a fair number of dogs. I miss Stella.....