It's early September in Villars en Provence, tourists are returning home, school bells are ringing, mornings are fresher and days are getting shorter. It's autumn. The vendange starts for what must be another outstanding vintage, figs are falling from the tree's and my afternoon's are partly filled by Le Tour de France 2020. Strange, due to Covid-19, Le Tour de France started late August with a Grand Depart and 3 days in Nice and off they go to the Alps and the rest of France.
At a dinner/petanque soiree with friends from Belgium we were taking about cycling and how great it is to bike here, when I mentioned the Mont Ventoux, one of them, Guy, asked me "what is it with that mountain, there are so many hills and mountains to climb here why the Ventoux", in my head I was developing a whole story loaded with heroic events featuring the greats like Merckx, Pantani, Amstrong and of course Simpson, and the difficulty of this mountain, the ever present strong winds and I thought it will be a waste of time me explaining this and mostly likely nobody present will ever get this hence my simple answer was, because it is the Mont Ventoux! During the months of July and August I logged enough bike kilometres to schedule the brutal Bedoin-Mont Ventoux climb, late July I climbed the geant du Provence from Sault, or Southern side in a time slightly over 2 hours but 10 minutes faster then 2019. Confidence and supporting data and it felt good to take the more challenging Bedoin side again. Unfortunately a combination of nights with poor sleep and a weather forecast with heavy winds at the summit for my planned ride on Sunday morning. Therefore I chose a ride closer to home, yet also a challenging alternative, namely the climb from Villars to Lagarde d' Apt. A 15K ride with a 7% climb.
The climb itself is rather difficult with an outside temperature of 26C the start and 22C at the summit, this was perfect. All of this remains a challenge for this 60+ amateur, there is simply no relieve, from the beginning till the end its climbing at times with long stretches and a few hairpin bends, one of them has painted Alaphilippe, which is inspiring since I do like this rider. I guess this sign was painted by a fan from a previous Paris-Nice. Is the ride boring, not at all the vista's are sumptuous with stunning gorges in this Montagne de Vaucluse area, although I am not sure I pay much attention to it.
Lagarde d'Apt is a very small town on top of the Plateau d'Albion at an altitude of 1100 meters. I don't believe there are more than 15 people living here and surprisingly this village features with pride the restaurant, le Bistrot de Lagarde which is rewarded for numerous years with one Michelin star, I must admit its a superb restaurant. When I passed by it was closed hopefully for the season and not forever also Covid-19 has created lots of damage for restaurateurs.
Halfway the climb a group of 20 or so cabriolet old timers passed me by, a nice galery of "Art", from the Jacquar E-Type, Morgan's, Citroen, Porsche, Peugeot 504 Cabrio's and many highly desired cars from the 70'ies and much older with drivers and companions all in fancy "day in the country" looks. Looking at these guys I also realised that my own cycling gear is kind of outdated, my outfits are Fassa Bortolo and Trek, indeed from the days of Alessandro Petacchi and Lance Armstrong. One day maybe I should get some new cycling gear, and my follow a dream to get such an old-timer, who knows? I was happy with the climb performance, it was 4 minutes faster than my climb in late July however the descend was slow, I simply didn't have the rhythm nor flow. My hands were to tight on the brakes, maybe as I am getting older climbing remains very though but descending is becoming increasingly intimidating nonetheless at some point I reached a downhill speed of 50,1 KM on those very thin tyres!
Cycling here in the Luberon is a feast, the scenery is beautiful and can be challenging: from a long flat ride from Apt to Cavaillon or just climbing to Lagarde d' Apt, Seignon or even the Mont Ventoux. It's a great way to test yourself, have a nice workout, enjoy the surroundings and most of the times it's also a good way to reflect on a ton of things, important, serious to stupid and silly. One thing I noticed the more the course is challenging such as a steep climb, the harder it is to think about the more "serious" topics.
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