June 12, 2914: Provence Bike Tour - Day 5

Today was another hot and beautiful day with gorgeous scenery along the way. We climbed (of course...what else do we do on this ride?) from Mazan through the Gorges de la Nesque to the cycling town of Sault. We started off with a few .5 - 1.5 mile climbs and then got serious at @ the 8 mile mark. It was at this point that we started our gradual 11-mile climb through the Gorges de la Nesque. I realize that a 4% - 6% grade isn't that steep, but climbing ANYTHING for 11 miles in 95 degree heat starts to get hard! 

Once we reached the summit, we had beautiful views of a valley carved eons ago by the Nesque River coupled with an exhilarating ride downhill toward the town of Sault. Before we reached our lunch destination, however, we had another 2-mile climb to conquer, this time at a significantly steeper grade. 

As I mentioned earlier, Sault is a cycling town, since it's here that cyclists usually stop for lunch after riding up (and down) Mt. Ventoux, the 6,000 foot summit that's one of the hardest (if not the hardest) climbs of the Tour de France. Since the majority of us had decided NOT to tackle Mt. Ventoux and were therefore done riding for the day, we decided to shuttle to the top of Mt. Ventoux and see what all the fuss was about. This is not a climb for the faint of heart! The AVERAGE grade of the @ 13 mile climb is 9%. 

We also had our farewell dinner tonight (so sad to say goodbye to everyone), as tomorrow is our last day of riding before we leave Provence and head toward the Loire Valley and its gorgeous, over-the-top chateaus.

Climbing the Gorges de la Nesque

Halfway to the summit

Another view of Gorges de la Nesque, looking downhill

At the summit

Jerry (on the left) and Pablo reaching the summit

At the top of Mt. Ventoux - Doesn't this look like snow?
It's not, it's limestone!