Climbing Mont Ventoux

Menacing Mont Ventoux
Elevation 6,273 ft.

The legendary mountain in Provence is one of the most grueling climbs of the Tour de France. The road to the summit has an average gradient of  7 percent, but is as steep as 9 percent in some sections. Wind speeds regularly blow at about 55 mph and have been clocked as high as 200 mph at the summit; hence the name Mont Ventoux, which means Windy Mountain in French. In short, it's one big bad climb.

My trip up Mont Ventoux was courtesy of the Compu-WTF last weekend. Watching a video of the road you're climbing is pretty cool--it certainly beats spinning on the trainer in front of the TV. However.... I'm still trying to figure out how the whole compu-thing works.

Based on the FTP test I took the day before, my power level watts thing--or whatever you call it--is 95. Everyone else was in the triple-digit range -- most of them up in the 200's -- so my little 95 looked pretty pathetic next to everyone else's numbers!  (BTW, I'm not sure what FTP stands for yet, but the FTP test required 20 minutes of riding, much of it uphill. It was kind of like doing an extended VO2 Max test. In short, it kicked my butt.)

When we started up Mont Ventoux, I was trying to keep my power output at 95. Wrong! No wonder it was killing me. Instead, you're supposed to try to match your power output to the "load" number the compu-WTF is showing you. So while my load number was down in the 60's or 70's, I was busy trying to keep my power up at 95. (Hello, Sally? Perhaps you should learn how it works before your next class?!)

The woman next to me said something about how pedaling smoothly helps match the load and I was like, huh? I'm supposed to pay attention to the load number? Whaa?? Comically, I concluded that shifting to a harder gear to "increase" the load was the answer...but, um, no, no, and no. The compu-WTF actually controls the load, as I soon found out from the instructor, Pierre.You are supposed to spin harder or easier to make the two numbers match. Ding, ding, ding! Now I get it!

After 1 hour, 40 minutes of spinning we finally reached the summit. Here's what it looks like:

Pretty cool, huh? While I'd rather be standing atop Mont Ventoux in person, I guess this is a nice alternative when traveling there isn't an immediate option. Maybe some day...