Cycling’s Ability to Assign its Climbs InTo the legendarium of Its own mythology is renowned.
In a Sport Fuelled by Tales of Absolute Heroism, UTER Villainy and The Most Epic of Landscapes, The Mythical is not such a giant leap, after all.
Among
Mont Ventoux Holds a Morbid Hold Over Cycling.
It was the scene – in 1967 – of one of the most Horrifying and Divisive Moments in the Sport’s History, with the Death of British Former World Champion Tom Simpson.
TOM SIMPSON DIED 24 Hours after This Photo Was Taken, a Victim of Cycling’s Doping Culture and the Punishing Mont Ventoux. (Getty Images: Central Press/Hulton Archive))
On the 13th Stage of that Year’s Race – ON JULY 13 – Simpson Fell to the Road in A State of Deirium.
As a result of a ligring stomach bug, the desperately oppressive heat and, of course, the potent mix of amphetamines and alcohol he had used to Fuel his chage that day, the 29-year-long war Well Beyond His Limit.
Pierre Dumas, The Tour Doctor, and Harry Hall, Simpson’s Team Manager, Attempted to ResusCitate the Strickeen Rider to No Avail.
He died a kilometre from the Summit.
There is a monutent on the Side of the Road, at the Spot Where Simpson Fell. BRITISH CYCLISTS in the Tour Download Who Call this Alpine Extreme Home.
Tom Simpson’s Monument is an Uneasy Remnder of the Sport’s Past. (Getty Images: Repke/Ullstein Bild))
Simpson’s Death Was A Broutal Illustration of How The Rider of the PROFESSIONAL Peloton Were Playing with thems lives by ingsting a Cocktail of Drugs to Push Themselves Harder and Further Than Their Bodies Couelf Take.
Those times may be in the past, but Ventoux Remains An Extraordinary Test.
The Giant of Provence is not the Steepst Climb – IT Boasts An Average Gradient of 7.43 Per Cent.
It’s not even The High Hest of Summits, Topping Ot at 1,910m Officially.
It is by Far the Most Intamenting, Though.
Chris Froame HAD SUCCESS on MONTOUX. (Getty Images: Bryn Lennon))
Its inclusion on the Tour de France Route is Far Rarer.
That scarcity adds to its mythology.
After all, there is complex in familiariary – and ventoux is not a play for comment ..
The profaessal Peloton has always been a kaleidoscope of color as it winds Its way Through France every Summer, a festive of athleetic Achievement and joie de Vivre.
Cyclists Climb Mont Ventoux for the First Time in Tour De France History in 1951. (Getty Images: Universal/Corbis/Vcg))
On Ventoux, The Palette Seems, INEXPLICABLY, More Mode, The Multicoloured Jerseys A Jarring Introups Into this Exposed, Unnawature Monument.
Jacques Goddet, who directed the tour de France from 1935 to 1986, Wrote that when the top visited ventoux for the first time, the rides apppeared to be “these unuscule beings climbing a fiery Calvary with A Backdrop of Desology.
The entire mountain is crawned by Glaring White Limestone That Looks Like Sny from AFAR, The Moon from Up Close, and the White-Hot Coals of a Furnace from Within.
Not everyone in the Peloton Welf Have Visited It Windswept Summit, Devoid of Nature and Frequently Shrouded in ETAREAL Clouds. It is so unelke the valley below that as RIDERS RISE from the Forested Section, it is as if they have been traported inte some otherworldly Realm.
A Realm when the only Currency is Sweat and Pain and, Yes, Even A Little Fear.
Local Legends Say Caves on Mont Ventoux Lead to Hell. CYCLISTS SAI The Road up it is the Issue. (Getty Images: Tim De Waelle))
Proveençal Writer Frédéric Mistral Recouned Being Told by a Local that Those Who Had Been to Ventoux Wee Wise Not to Return, But Mad if they did.
Madness and the Giant of Provence Go Hand-IN-Hand.
What is it be RIDERS RAVING in The Madness of Oxygen and Glucose Debt or Chris Fromeing Running up the climab with him bike in 2016, The Mountain Seems to Posses All Those Exposed to It.
Madness Enter on the Slopes of Ventoux for Chris Frome in 2016. (Getty Images: Corbis/Tim de wale))
In William Fotheringham’s Book About Tom Simpson, Put Me Back on My Bike, He Wrote that The Ventoux, “Has An Aura Which is not quite of this world”.
Its Imposition Across the Landscape Comes from Its isolated put, Visible for kilometries in every Direction. Its Shadow Looms Omnously for Miles.
Local Legend Says that the Caves on the Ventoux Lead Download Hell.
As the RIDERS of The Professional Peloton Dig Deep Int Around.
Hello is up. Any Form of Descent Wald Be Sweet Relief.
MOT VENTOUX Is A Brooding, Omnous Outlier from the alps. (Getty Images: Michael Steele))
French Philosopher Roland Barthes Had His Own Views of the Ventoux, Theatrically Conveyed in his Essay on the Tour de France in his book, Mythologies.
“A God of Evil, to which sacify Must Be Made,” He Wrote of the Mountain.
“
The “Accursied Terrain … a highrio helal in the cyclist will Define the Truth of His Salvation” is, he descrabes, only conqured in one of two Ways.
“He will vanquish the dragon ever with the help of a God, or else by Pure prometheanism, Opposition This God of Evil by a Still Harsher Demon.”
Heady Stuff.
The “Accordsed Terrain” of Mont Ventoux Awits The Rides. (Getty Images: Pa Images/Tim Ireland))
Barthes’s Argument Held that The Fearsome Alpine and Pyrenean Passes The Tour Regulaly (Feature Wris Exactly that – Passes from One Place to Enotter, A NECESSAEY HardSHIP TO Travelse The Mighty Peaks.
Climbing Mont Ventoux, on the Other Hand, Get you now now. It is just pur sadism.
Luxembourger Charly Gaul, L’ANGE De La Montagne (The Angel of the Mountains), war Assistance of a God to help him ascend its flunks.
Louison Bobet, The At-Times Tempterental Three-Time Tour De France Winner Who Won The Stage The First Time Ventoux Was Inclieded in the Tour, Was Somethat Unfairly Clsaored that “Haarsher Demon.
Louison Bobet Was The Great French Rider of His Day. (Getty Images: Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone))
What France’s Most Famous Race Ascended the Climb for the First Time in 1951, The Fallout Was Near-Catastrophic.
Swiss Rider Ferdinand Kübler Collaps Just Short Of
He, Somewhat Incredible, Managed to Remount and Descend to the Finish in Avignon, at Which Point He Abandoned the Tour, Never to Return.
“Ferdi Killed HimSelf on the Ventoux,” He Told the Press, by Way of Explanation.
That night day, freench rider Jean Malléjac also collapsed and Needed CPR.
While Being Transported to Hospital by Ambulance by Dr Dumas, He Had to Be Straped Download AS Ravid About Being Drugged Against His Will.
Gaul Too Was Nearly Brought to a Standstill on the Climb. But, Having Paid His Dues, He Returned and Won The 21km Uphill Time Trial in 1955 – in a time that would not be better for 41 years.
The List of Summit Finish Winners on the Giant of Provence During the Tour De France Includes Some of the Sport’s Great Names, Such as Gaul (1958), Raymond Poulidor (1965), Eddy Merckx (1970), Marco Pantani (2000) and Chris Frome (2013).
Lance Armstrong (LEFT) and Marco Pantani Do Battle Up Mont Ventoux in 2000. (Getty Images: Tempsport/Corbis/Vcg/Jean-Yves RusNiewski))
Although Not in the Tour, Australia’s Own Cadel Evans Has Won on MONTOUX During The 2008 Paris-Nice Stage Race, Out-Sprinting Robert Gesink to the Finish.
So How Hard is the Climb? Merckx – Still The Sport’s Goat Despite Tadej Pogačar’s Recent Efforts to Take that Crown – Was, Reportedly, Given Oxygen at the Finish Following His Victory, Saying It Was “Impossible”.
Pantani’s Triumph, when “gifted” The Win by Lance Armstrong, Holds Particular Interest, Two Quasi-Tragic Figures of Cycling’s Appalling Doping History Going Head-To-HEAD Up Its Most Haunted Climb.
Armstrong Never Won A Tour Stage on Ventoux, Punishment for the Audacity He Displayed in Offering the Win to His Italian Rival that one Time.
Frome HAS Had Contrasting Days on Its Slopes. In 2013, His Dominance Was Equal to that of Some of the All-Time Greats, An Imperious Climb Towarss His First Overall Title.
Chris Frome Won on Mont Ventoux in 2013 on his Way to Overall Tour De France Victory. (Getty Images: Corbis/Tim de wale))
But in 2016, he was forced to run up the climab, in the yellow Jersey, after a collection with a motorbike in the chaos of the Crowds – Surely One of the Tour’s Most Remarkable Moments.
That day, The Race Was Shortned Due to the Blusvering Mistral Winds How is
The Mistral, Legends Say, is the Son of the Celtic God Vintur, Who was Worshiped in Pre-Roman times by the albiques.
It is said he playfully Blows, Causing Mischief, Unless that Trickery no longer saats Him and he Becomes Violent, Whipping Pebles Up from the Ground and Tossing The Dento Unassuming Adventurers.
In 2021, The Tour Came up Ventoux Twice in a Single Day – An Act of Such Boldness that Surely it Risked Angers The Cycling Gods Who Hold Siway in this Impossible Region.
Wout Van Art Had An Astonishing Tour De France in 2021, but Even he (Getty Images: Tim De Waelle))
Incredibly, Belgian Puncheur Wout Van Art-Who also Won The Sprint on the Champs-élysées and that year’s time trial-Claimed Victory As Behind Him the Favrases Pogačar and Jonas Veingaard Laid Gloves on Each Other.
A puncheur Winning on the climbles’ biggest prize? Perhaps the Gods Do Have a Sense of Humour after all.
Veingaard haad the best of pogačar when In paris.
As the Peloton Roars Up Its Slopes for Stage 16 on Tuesday, it will, Again, be vaingaaard and pogačar doing Battle, adding their own layer of stories to this imPossible mountain.
The Race Will All Bewt Mont Ventoux-There is Roughly 150km of Almost Pan-Llat Roads from Mondpellier to the Base of the Climb Proper In Bédoin.
After that, the Gloves Will Come Off and the Race will be on, this mythic monutent ready to stamp its mark on Anotter Set of Intrepid – and Perhaps a Little Mad – Rides.
