Done!

Unfortunately I didn't quite make the summit of Mont Ventoux at the end of the ride, I got within 6km of the summit and I had to walk 10km to get there. My legs had completely gone and my thighs were cramping up just trying to get my leg over the top of the pedal stroke. Thinking back it's easy to think that I could have just walked the last 6km, but I had completely had it. I'm pleased with my effort though, it was quite an achievement to get to where I did. There were broken bodies all over the road on the way up Ventoux, the ambulances were stopping, putting drips in people and carrying on to the next casualty, they were very busy! People were lying down all over the place and there were plenty of them uncontrollably retching (nice!), it is a brutal climb after the previous 4 Cols and 150+km. We managed to stay 1 hour ahead of the broom wagon all of the way, which was pretty good also taking into consideration that we started about 25minutes after the official start, due to the amount of starters (10,000). I felt fine at the base of Ventoux (Bedoin) and managed the first section up to the forest no problem and we had 3+ hours to do the climb, which I thought was plenty, but then the road just goes to 12% for 10km and it was too much. I got to the water stop, mainly walking, at Chalet Reynard (6km from the top) and they had run out of water, but there was a man with a hose pipe filling up bottles. I got there just after the end of race vehicle. It was still 25degC at Chalet Reynard, which is about 1600m, it was very hot all through the ride, not a cloud in the sky all day, it must have been well over 30deg C. The coach thermometer read 17deg at 4:30am before the sun came up! I had at least 8 bottles of isotonics, about a million gels and extra water and fruit at the feed stations and paracetamol (to stop the cramp) and I still got cramp. It was a good experience and I have lots of photos and even a video whilst we were riding along. I'll put them on my Photobucket site tonight and send out the link.

The pros do the course on Saturday, so I'll be seeing how easy they make it look!