Rocco's Riviera Rambling: Final Outings

The Verdon river below

Even before arriving in France I had it in the back of my mind to climb Mont Ventoux, ‘le Geant de Provence’ made famous by the Tour de France. With a few weeks remaining, I had 3 final rides I wanted to do before returning to Canada.

Lac de Sainte Croix

The first was Gorges du Verdon, a 90 minute car drive from Nice which I did a few weeks back. Gorges du Verdon is positioned as the second largest canyon in the world (although this is debatable) and it was by far the most scenic and spectacular ride of the year with views of the emerald waters of the Verdon river flowing into lac de Sainte Croix below. With no ability to turn back, it took me 7 plus hours to ride the 125 km, up and down along one ridge and back along the other. It seemed this ride would never end as beautiful as it was.

The second ride was to Col de la Bonnette, which at 2808, is arguably the highest mountain pass in all of Europe and has also featured in the Tour de France a few times. I say arguably because there is some debate whether this or an Austrian col is the highest. Whatever!

Col de la Bonnette

I left the car in the village of Isola located at an elevation of about 850 meters and climbed 40 kms stopping to add a few layers of clothing at around 2000 meters. Col de la Bonnette is located just above the Hamlet of Bousieyas where we stayed when we came hiking a few weeks back.

Ventoux

My final ride yesterday was Mont Ventoux, referred to simply as Ventoux. As its name suggests it is incredibly windy. I set out at 6am driving 3 hours to the village of Bedoin and rode the 22 km to the top of Ventoux in 1h 56mins. I must confess underestimating how difficult this ride was going to be. After doing Col de la Bonnette and Gorges du Verdon, I thought 'how hard can it be' given that it's a shorter climb than other rides I've done.

It was ugly! It was incredibly steep (with long stretches of 10-12% and a short stretch of 16-17%) and the wind made it far more difficult than I ever imagined. On the way down I feared being blown over. Except at the top which felt like I was on the moon, it wasn't an overly scenic ride and having done it, I have no real desire to do it again, unlike Gorges du Verdon or Bonnette which I’d be happy to do again.