Mt. Ventoux from Villes-sur-Auzon: The Sault Route

Did some riding in Provence this weekend, mostly around Uzès while attending a wedding, but on Monday morning I woke early and drove to the town of Villes-sur-Auzon to make an assault on Mt. Ventoux. As a heat wave was battering Europe, my strategy was to start as early as possible and take the longer but less-steep route up the backside through Sault, which some of the online resources had called, “the proper route.”

First of all, I had rented my bike (a lovely Pinarello with the Di2 electronic shifters) from Ventoux Bikes in Malaucene, at the foot of the mountain. I highly recommend the place. They did a good job of setting up the bike using my bike fit specs and the pricing was neither cheap nor exorbitant.. I paid a bit less than € 200 for four days.

The route from Villes-sur-Auzon goes up a lovely canyon on D1a that might be called Combe d’Imberge.. but it is a lovely route that parallels D1

So, the route through Sault approaches Mt. Ventoux from the east, climbing westward and then joining the traditional route from Malaucene heading north to the summit for the last 8 km. Although longer, there were a lot of 3-4% pitches over 57 km rather than 8-10% pitches over something shorter. Given the heat of the day, it was a good choice. Here is the elevation map for the ride:

Yep, climbing for 57 km.

The last 8 km were particularly brutal, as the temperatures soared in the sun to more than 35C.

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This mountain, one of the classic climbs in the Tour de France, is a mecca for cyclists. When I rented the bike several days before in Malaucene, the town had several dozen cyclists hanging about in the cafes and restaurants, recovering from their rides up the mountain that day. And, similarly, there were dozens of riders at the summit:

I was beat… jet lag, lack of sleep, heat and a long damn climb

The descent was one of the best ever… less than one hour to descend 1700 meters back to the village and my waiting car. Speeding down past those few unfortunates who had started too late in the day and chosen the steep route up, suffering in the heat on some relentless 10% pitches.