Bicinglés du Mont Ventoux

The Challenge

The Mont-Ventoux Cinglés is a permanent cycling tour that combines all 3 ascents of the famous Mont-Ventoux. The challenge is to do all three paved ascents up to the summit on the same day. Ever since I did this route in 2017 (as one of my first “long-distance challenges”), there was this idea in the back of my head to come back and do the “Bicinglés” - namely doing all three ascent twice on the same day.

Planning

A first planning on Komoot showed 270 km of distance with a total of 9100 m of climbing. That sounded tough - really tough! There are a few things to be considered when planning such a tour:

• personal fitness and training
• the weather - Mont-Ventoux means “mountain, where the wind always blows”
• which ascents to do in which order (there are 2 longer and 1 shorter ascent)
• how to provide yourself with food & drinks

Ever since I decided to skip Paris-Brest in May 2023, my training motivation wasn’t exactly at its peak. Getting me a new Moutainbike towards beginning of July brought back some motivation and I did a lot of short routes with interval-like climbs. During our vacation in August, I started riding some passes and finally did a longer tour in Switzerland. With those kilometers in the legs, I didn’t feel well prepared the Bicinglés, but was ready to give it a try.

Fitting the trip to Mont Ventoux into our vacation schedule was another challenge. Our plan was to drive from Ticino (Switzerland) to the Atlantic coast in France - with Mont Ventoux being on the route (kind of). But the weather forecast didn’t look well at the beginning, with strong winds and even thunderstorms. Finally it worked out pretty well with a stop in the Verdon Canyon that provided a good training ground for 2 more tours.

The weather forecast for the day when I wanted to start looked pretty good, with only little wind on the top and comfortable 28º in Bédoin. The only thing that worried me were the 7º at night.

Last but not least the question of the order of the climbs. Bédoin seemed like the nicest place to start - with its pittoresque center and beautiful camp sites. Since my partner wanted to join me for at least 1 climb (and obviously didn’t want to cycle at night), my plan was:

• start in Bedoin around midnight
• descent to Malaucène
• do climbs 2 and 3 from Malaucène
• descent to Bédoin - pick up my partner
• do the 4th climb from Bédoin
• do the remaining 2 climbs from Sault

This also allowed me to do the 4 harder climbs at the beginning - both ascents, from Bédoin and Malaucène have 200m more climb and are steeper than the climb from Sault.

How it went

I set the alarm for 23:50 the night before. Having all things packed and ready to go, I left the campsite at 0:00 and started the first ascent at around 0:15. The hardest challenge was to go really slow, knowing that there would be so many more climbs to come. The roads were all empty at that time of the night. Only 2 cars passed me on my way up and only a single cyclist came down from the summit when I was almost on top. What really freaked me out was a super large dog in the middle of the road after Chalet Reynard - turned out to be a sheep dog - he had absolutely no interest in me… but being almost as big as my bike, it was shocking to suddenly see him in front of me. Besides there was a full moon covering everything in a soft light and although I had my front lights at lowest intensity, one could still see quite a lot from the surrounding landscape. The higher I got the more stars were visible and the red lights of the tower on the top of Mont-Ventoux were a goal visible from far away. My tempo was decent and I felt pretty relaxed when I reached the top at 3:00 in the morning. Still I was a bit nervous knowing that 3 hours was the maximum time I had planned for each ascent, if I wanted to make it within the 24 hours. The views from the top over Rhône valley were mind-blowing. All the cities shed their light into the dark night and only the stars above.

After a quick picture on the top I started the descent to Malaucène - short bibs and 7º felt pretty cold and going at fast pace didn’t make it any warmer. Always being afraid of any deer or animals crossing the streets at night, I didn’t take full advantage of the empty roads and went at a moderate speed. The descent to Malaucène brings you to the east side of the mountain with mystic views into the moon-lighted peaks of the Haute Provence. The full moon did its best to make this downhill a memorable event.

Arriving in Malaucène at 3:45 the village was still asleep - but the Boulangerie at the corner would open at 6:00 and I knew I would get breakfast when I would arrive the second time. During the first climb up from here, I took it way to fast and didn’t find my pace. I constantly switched between sitting in the saddle and standing up and any confidence that I would make it in time faded. The climb starts flat, then gets steep and 5 km before the top there is another flat passage and I thought I’d done it - just to learn that the last 5 km are really hard - even more since you see the famous tower on the top from a far distance. When I finally arrived at the summit for a second time, the sunrise began and there were a few people waiting for the sun to show up. It was a magical atmosphere with the stars still visible and the lights of the citis below slowly fading while the sunlight replaced the moonlight. At 6:26 - after 2:45 hrs - I arrived at the summit for the second time. Aaand down to Malaucène again… this time there was more light and I had to stop quite a few times to take pictures from the dawn of the day and the colors changing from black to blue and orange.

When I drove into Malaucène I could see that all the buildings were still dark, but the bakery was ablaze with light. With the temperatures still being around 7º, I was glad to get inside, ordered a hot chocolate and a pain-au-chocolat and another yummy Frech pastry. In front of the bakery, ready to start the 3rd ascent, I met the first other cyclist of the day - he explained to me that he wants to go up 3 times - I briefly explained my plans - he showed a look of appreciation and disbelief, wished me luck and off he was… (I saw him a second time while descending to Bédoin, when he already did a good portion of his second climb). To my surprise, the 3rd climb, which I started at 7:15 went much better than the 2nd one - mainly because I gained some confidence that I could make it in time and took it a lot slower than the 2nd time.

It was also great to see the route at daylight - for me, the ascent from Malaucène is the most scenic one and I was glad to get a glimpse of the landscape at daytime. An hour later, the first sunbeams of the day hit the road and it finally got warmer. It was during this ascent when I was overtaken by a 76 year old cyclist from La Rochelle… we briefly talked (well - he spoke French, so he talked a lot and I tried hard to understand and reply) - and then he was gone… I didn’t care and tried to keep my pace. Knowing that the final 5 km would be hard, I used the flat section to recover from the 11% before and was much better prepared for the final climb. At that time, a lot of cyclists already came down from the summit and once I reached the top (after 2:30 hrs), there was the usual crowd. Checking the time and realising that I was 90 min ahead of plan with 3 of the 4 harder climbs in the saddle, I felt confident and motivated again.

During the descent to Bédoin I saw the never ending peloton of cyclists climbing to Chalet Reynard that I remembered from 2017 when I last visited Mount-Ventoux. This constant stream of bicycles is just unbelievable - it seemed even more surreal to me that I had the road all for myself for 2 ascents only few hours earlier.

At 10:30 a second breakfast in Bédoin refilled my energy reservoirs and Sophia joined me for the yet another climb. It was great to have her with me for this 4th ascent, which turned out to be the hardest for me. The road is very steep and my legs didn’t allow for the steady pace of the first ascent anymore. Constantly being overtaken by other cyclists didn’t add much to my mental state and so it was even better to have someone along to talk to - and for the first time since we went cycling together, Sophia was in the position to pull me up the mountain… and she seemed to enjoy her new role. Unfortunately there were not only more cyclists on the road but also lots of cars - many of them seemed to accompany some biker - it was super annoying.

After an endless climb we arrived at Chalet Reynard and drank lots of Orangina and Coca Cola - and after being photographed around 100 times by all the photographers that sit along the road, take pictures that you can later buy on the internet, we arrived at the summit at 13:50 - after a bit more then 4 hours. This still meant an average climb of 400m per hour - not too bad. And it meant that I was around 2 hours ahead of schedule (taking into account a total of 4 hours for each climb and descent). The usual procedure: photo on the summit, putting on the jacket and after saying goodbye to Sophia it was going down to Sault - the departure for the last 2 climbs.

After a few kilometers, I realised that I couldn’t keep my bike steady - it constantly wobbled left and right, no matter how hard I tried to keep it straight. Although I didn’t feel sleepy during the night, now I started to do so. I stopped and drank a can of Coke and started eating some jellys. After 5 minutes, I felt much better and managed to keep my bike straight again. The downhill to Sault is much flatter than the other 2 descents and it was great to make some kilometers and not having to break the bike all the time. Sault is on 700m sea level, so the climb is only 1200m, which is almost 400m less than the other two ascents. During the beginning I struggled quite a bit with the flat route. At this point, sitting on the saddle didn’t feel very comfortable anymore but I also didn’t have the strength anymore to cycle standing up. So I ended up constantly switching between the two positions and didn’t find a proper rhythm. I took more breaks than usual and the kilometers seemed to not pass at all. As a big surprise, Sophia drove towards me and was waiting after 14 kilometers. Her company made it much easier to cycle the last kilometers of the flat passage and she even joined me to ride a few more kilometers after Chalet Reynard before she turned around and went back to Bédoin.

Along the last 2 km to the summit, the whole children triathlon club of the Netherlands overtook me. I was beyond the point of taking it personally, but let’s say it wasn’t very motivating. I wanted to cycle as little time as possible during the night, so after arriving at the summit for a 5th time at 18:00, I quickly put on my jacket, turned around and went down to Sault for a last time. I took a longer break in Sault for yet another Orangina and put off my cycling shoes to relax my feet, which started to hurt quite a bit from all the pedalling while standing up. For the last ascent, I found a much better rhythm than the time before and could sit in the saddle again. This time the flat passage went by easily, but once I arrived at Chalet Reynard - for a 4th time - the steeper part really demanded its tribute. Around 1 hour after sunset, the sky was still covered in deep blue and orange and I took plenty of breaks to take photos and relax.

About 1.5km below the summit I saw something reflecting at the side of the road. I first thought of yet another animal but coming closer I realised that there was a cyclist sitting next to the road. Talking to him he explained that he got cramps and couldn’t cycle anymore, but his friend left him there because he wanted to get to the summit. He had nothing to eat, so I offered him my last food reserves that I knew I wouldn’t need anymore, talked to him for a while and once I was sure that he was OK, I went on. And at 21:45 - after 21.5 hrs of cycling - I finally arrived at the top for a 6th and last time. I took a last picture of me and the summit plate, looked around to see the cities below with their bright lights and took off for a last descent. Knowing that I had more than enough time I went slowly again - both, because I knew I was tired and exhausted, but also because of the fear of any animals crossing the road at night. And it got cold again - not having any insulation layer but only a rain jacket, I really started to shiver and had to stop several times to warm myself up by clapping my hands on my arms and upper body. At around 22:30 I made it back to Bédoin where luckily the temperatures were still in the 20ies, stopped the tracking and proudly pushed my bike the last few meters to our camp site. It was done - and so was I.

Epilogue

When I compare this tour with other - usually much longer rides - that I did, it felt like a compressed rollercoaster of emotions. During any long distance ride I had these ups and downs where I thought I’d scratch or wouldn’t make it in time followed by the highest highs when things went better again, and I re-gained confidence. What was different this time was that it all happened within a single day. For whatever reason, I wasn’t very enthusiastic at the start and my legs felt heavy and powerless during the first couple of kilometers… then I found my rhythm and enthusiasm started… followed by a “I will never make it” during the 2nd ascent. And so it continued. I never did so much climbing on a single day and didn’t know how my body would cope with anything beyound 6000m. This uncertainty made it challenging to fully believe in myself and required a mental effort that I didn’t have to show while cycling since a long time.

Besides all the physical and psychological effort, the routes and landscape around Mont Ventoux are simply stunning. Seeing this all day long made me forget about the challenges quite a lot and despite all the pain, I really enjoyed the ride and took a lot of great impressions with me.

Some statistics

After the last descent, it was a total of 274 km, 8760 m and 22:20 hrs.

What to take along?

Since the route would be mainly climbing or steep descents, with little to now flat passages, I decided to remove the aerobars from my bike. The rest of my setup looked like this:

• 50 - 34 compact crankset
• 11 - 34 cassette
• 30mm tyres (GP 5000 with tube)
• 2 bottle cages (there is no water during the climb from Malaucène)

Knowing that the weather would be fine with lowest temperatures at around 7º and highest temperatures at around 28º and no rain expected, my packing list looked like this:

• 2 water bottles
• 2 cans of coke
• some cereal bars
• 2 sandwiches for the night
• 2 bananas
• pack of jellys
• pack of salted peanuts
• 2 spare tubes
• tyre levers
• pump
• mini tool
• front lamp
• 2 batteries
• 2 back lights
• reflective vest (mandatory in France, when riding at night)
• rain jacket
• insulation blanket
• sun glasses
• small backpack
• photo camera
• smart phone
• powerbank
• cycling computer
• USB charging cables
• 50 Euros cash (Chalet Reynard offers drinks and food on 4 of the 6 ascents)

For easier access and since I don’t mind carrying a light backpack, I carried all stuff in a 10l backpack rather than mounting any packs on my bike. It turned out to be a good decision, since the drinking bottles were easier accessible and the bike felt lighter and easier to handle (it’s all inside your mind, you know…).