New Challenge with Old Friends

Believe it or not, it’s already January 3, 2017.  Many of the New Year’s resolutions so proudly announced and posted in social media have already been broken.  I can only assume that January 1st is Black Friday for weight loss programs and gyms.  If made a resolution and are sticking to it good for you.  If you’ve already broken it, fear not.  Every day is a chance to create a resolution. 

Mont Ventoux from Crillon le Brave.

Personally, I gave up resolutions years ago.  Ironically, it’s the only resolution I’ve ever been able to keep.  However, I do set goals or challenges for myself each year.  In 2016, the big challenge was running 1,000 miles.  This year, I hope to join the Club des Cinglés du Mont Ventoux!

If you follow the Tour de France, you know all about Mont Ventoux.  It is considered one of the hardest climbs in cycling.  While there are three routes to the top, from three different villages, the Tour always follows the route from the village of Bédoin, which is considered the most challenging.  The other two routes are from the villages of Malaucène and Sault.

I’ve been lucky enough to cycle to the summit of Mont Ventoux on three separate occasions (2007, 2009, and 2015) and I’ve always followed the route from Bédoin.  How do you join the Club des Cinglés?  I have to climb Mont Ventoux three times on the three different routes in a single day.  This will be an 85 mile ride with approximately 14,400 feet of climbing, which definitely makes it a worthy selection for this year’s challenge.

Fortunately, I will have a lot of help from some old friends to help me get ready.  It’s time to reacquaint myself with my bikes.  They’ve sat in the garage, patiently waiting while I focused on running, for way too long.  While I actually have 6 bikes, there are three that will play the biggest role.

My primary bike is the white road bike, who I named Thomas after pro cyclist Thomas Voeckler (that’s right, I have names for my bikes). It’s a Specialized Roubaix and I typically log thousands of miles a year in the saddle.  Thomas will be the work horse for the majority of my training since it is the bike I ride the most often.

The second bike is a single speed, which means exactly what it says - no gears.  If you want to go faster then you have to pedal faster.  It is the Specialized Langster, Las Vegas edition so I simply refer to it as the Vegas.  Initially, I purchased the Vegas just for fun and I use it quite frequently for recovery rides. However, it is also a great bike for doing hill repeats to build strength and you can bet there is plenty of those in my future.

The last bike is my Masi cyclocross.  This is the newest bike in the arsenal and it’s mostly used for those cold, damp winter days when the roads are wet.  It has bigger wheels so I feel much safer on it in poor weather conditions.  Since it’s a cross bike, I can also ride on the many gravel roads we have locally, some of which have significant climbs.  Mixing up the climbs as I train will be important so it’s great that the Masi opens a few new routes.

Joining the Club des Cinglés may not be the hardest challenge I’ve attempted but it will be an epic ride and it’s definitely a worthy goal for 2017.  And, with a little help from some old friends, I’m looking forward the all the training adventures ahead as we get ready.

Until then,  

Ciao