Mont Ventoux

Wapping · Sep 21, 2020

Is currently (August 2020) shut and will be for some time.

More accurately, the road across the summit is closed, so you cannot go ‘up, over and down’.

For example, there are signs as you approach on the D164 / D974 (the approach with Tom Simpson’s memorial) from Sault / Bédoin telling you that there is no access to the top and to halt at the large car park area at the cafe, Chalet Reynard. This is not quite true as you can (at least when I was there) ride on up and find somewhere to stop about 100 yards or so from the top itself. Bicycles can, at least at the moment, carry on up and over.

The works are all to do with improving the somewhat chaotic parking arrangements at the top by the TV mast block and are scheduled to be going on for some time to come, until October 2021.

Rasher · Sep 22, 2020

Mice pics, happy memories of our ride over it last year.

Blackal · Sep 22, 2020

We didn't understand the finer points of the notices, so turned around after leaving Sault :blast

A run up MVentoux is one of our regular day-runs from Castellane.

Smug · Sep 22, 2020

They are probably tidying it up for the 2021 TDF.

Wapping · Sep 22, 2020

The notifications of the closure signs certainly appear a long way away. I saw my first one at Sault. I guess it makes sense as that is the last decent sized large village on that side of the mountain itself.

I knew where the Chalet Reynard cafe is, so thought I’d carry on anyway. There I saw the second type of sign, saying that you could go on up further to the restaurant but the road to the very summit itself was closed. So up I went!

Wapping · Sep 22, 2020

Smug said:
They are probably tidying it up for the 2021 TDF.

It’s some major works they are up to, involving some large caterpillar diggers, concrete and Lord knows what else.

ShakeyBMW · Sep 23, 2020

Wapping said:
It’s some major works they are up to, involving some large caterpillar diggers, concrete and Lord knows what else.

Well then clearly they are digging for large caterpillars ...

Arsey · Sep 23, 2020

Went up last month .
Ok, it’s a good view but nothing like you get in the alps and it was packed with Giles’s friends huffing and puffing .
Box ticked but won’t rush back

Wapping · Sep 23, 2020

A, it’s not the Alps. B, like the much maligned Stelvio (which isn’t in the Alps either) it’s iconic, as much as anything else.

It rises, stark white, above the flat and sometimes searingly hot plain of the ‘green’ Vaucluse. Ride it if you want to or don’t. Nobody is forcing anyone to do it even once, nor twisting their arm to ever go back. Mix it in with a jaunt around the gorge of the Nesque and the villages... or just ‘do the Ardèche, mate’ (again) or ‘do Andermatt’ like everyone else.

Tarka · Sep 23, 2020

Wapping said:
A, it’s not the Alps. B, like the much maligned Stelvio (which isn’t in the Alps either) it’s iconic, as much as anything else.

It rises, stark white, above the flat and sometimes searingly hot plain of the ‘green’ Vaucluse. Ride it if you want to or don’t. Nobody is forcing anyone to do it even once, nor twisting their arm to ever go back. Mix it in with a jaunt around the gorge of the Nesque and the villages... or just ‘do the Ardèche, mate’ (again) or ‘do Andermatt’ like everyone else.

I rode up it on my XT600 in 1984, when I was 18.
I was camping just outside Orange, and Mt. Ventoux had a mysterious appeal.
Jeez, 3000 miles in ten days on that XT saddle was an achievement in itself.

Wapping · Sep 23, 2020

A proper jaunt on the XT. The joys of youth.

The mountain is a strange sight. The last photograph in the series above was zoomed in from several miles away, as I rode towards the Nesque gorge on the return to my campsite at Apt.

Arsey · Sep 23, 2020

Wapping said:
A proper jaunt on the XT. The joys of youth.

The mountain is a strange sight. The last photograph in the series above was zoomed in from several miles away, as I rode towards the Nesque gorge on the return to my campsite at Apt.

How very ....

richie · Sep 23, 2020

I love the area and Ventoux is my second favourite climb in France, the favourite being Col de Bonnette. Of course I mean on the Velo. The village of Buis le Barronies is a superbe place to stay with a great municipal campsite.

Wapping · Sep 23, 2020

richie said:
I love the area and Ventoux is my second favourite climb in France, the favourite being Col de Bonnette. Of course I mean on the Velo. The village of Buis le Barronies is a superbe place to stay with a great municipal campsite.

Thank you for the campsite tip, excellent.

Arsey · Sep 23, 2020

Bédoin is a lovely little place too , at the bottom of Ventoux.

Wapping · Sep 23, 2020

Arsey said:
Bédoin is a lovely little place too , at the bottom of Ventoux.

Stay there and don’t do the mountain. Job done.

Hustler · Sep 23, 2020

Smug said:
They are probably tidying it up for the 2021 TDF.

Unlikely as the tour is due to start in July 2021 and the works here won't be completed until October 2021.

richie · Sep 23, 2020

Wapping said:
Thank you for the campsite tip, excellent.

Its great as you can walk to the village where there are numerous good value and quality restaurants, sit there in the evening have a few pastis then a meal. And it is a bit more animated than your average Provence town...

richie · Sep 23, 2020

Arsey said:
Bédoin is a lovely little place too , at the bottom of Ventoux.

Agreed, also has a good municipal campsite and some good restaurants, but it is too focused on cycling. I say that and I am a cyclist...

John Armstrong · Sep 23, 2020

Mont Ventoux alternative? - Montagne de Lure

Spent many hours above here in a glider, and you can see the Alps if the visibility is half decent from here:

https://www.google.com/maps/@44.115...4!1sOytgb9eDGmiH0JwUdOeckw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 and here:

https://www.google.com/maps/@44.123...158.85901&pitch=0&thumbfov=100!7i13312!8i6656

Not as bleak as Mont Ventoux on the southern side, and the northern hasn't any roads on it as far as I know, but it does have some masts, but not as many cyclists / shops on it:

https://www.google.com/maps/@44.119...4!1sLSSOR5D27ADyHjmTsxLJ6Q!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Mont Ventoux

Moderator

Well-known member

Registered user

Well-known member

Moderator

Moderator

S K P

Well-known member

Moderator

Registered user

Moderator

Well-known member

Well-known member

Moderator

Well-known member

Moderator

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Similar threads