Hello ,
has anybody ever done the uphill-race "Grimpee du Ventoux" ?
I would like to know if it's possible (allowed) to take part just on the "Grimpee" on sunday without a start at the "La Ventoux" on saturday .
I tried to send a mail to sportcommunication.com twice (1x in english , 1x in french with google-translation) but didn't get a reply ...
A phone-call wouldn't make sense because of the missing language ability .
Any infos are welcome ....
Camelfred

Hey, I heard that you can indeed ride the grimpée w/o doing the race on saturday. Quite a lot of local riders come to just ride the UTT on sunday. I'm gonna ride both of them by the way next weekend!

Hi , thanks for the info - i just wanted to make the online-registration but it seems to be closed ?!
Do you know if it's possible to make a last-minute-registration on saturday ?
I will arrive on saturday afternoon , is there any kind of "race-office" ?
best regards
Camelfred

Woops, sorry, missed your reply as I was away from wednesday morning on. Did you ride in the end? How did it go? I finished 28th on saturday but couldn't really be arsed to do the grimpée on sunday, so I left to go home a bit earlier.

Hi ,
no problem . I finished the Grimpee in 25th place , but wasn't really satisfied with my performance . Due to the bad weather (cold and wet) i decided to use my spare-bike (my "sunshine-bike" hates such conditions ) which is ~3kg heavier , and my legs don't work as well when it's cold (and without a long warm-up) , too .
I arrived in Bedoin on Friday: after riding the col d'agnello in italy i decided to drive directly to france (instead riding the fauniera on saturday , but the weather-forecast wasn't as good as it should be ) . Shortly i was thinking about also doing the LaVentoux on saturday , but then i was too lazy and just registrated for the grimpee . On saturday i rode the bedoin-ventoux-route as inspection , up from chalet reynard it was really stormy ...
"Chapeau" for your classification on saturday , very nice performance !!
Camelfred

1h22, that's not too shabby in my book though! Just like you, I actually wasn't too happy with my result as well. But I'm just not really in top shape right now so I couldn't do much better I guess. I did end up 3rd in my category (18-30yrs) so a podium spot made it up a bit . I'm hoping to do better in the Trois Ballons in two weeks, those shorter climbs suit me better.

The weather was pretty good on saturday btw, the peak of the Ventoux was indeed very foggy and windy, making the descent somewhat tricky, but most of the race was in dry, warm and sunny conditions do I could not complain at all really.

Agnello is high on my to-do list as well! Must be an amazingly beautiful climb.

Yeah , for me it's o.k. - i don't want to boast but i'm sure on a good and warm day i'll be able to ride it in <1:20...

Wow , congratulations - did you receive a prize-money ?8)


I'll keep my fingers crossed !!
I'm going to do the "Glocknerkönig" (to the Grossglockner in Austria) on Sunday , but sadly the weather-forecast is very bad again (at the moment there's snow on the summit and no increase of temperature is in sight )...


Yeah , it was really great - you should go there as soon as possible ...

Camelfred

Nah, didn't get much worthwhile stuff, just some leftover textiles. But that's no problem, it's all for the fun of it anyway.

Got some pics by now:

on the stage (left)




during the race near Aurel, somewhere halfway through



(using my heavy training wheels btw)


Good luck on your future climbing endeavours as well!

Hi , thats the right attitude ! Nice pics , are there some more online anywhere ?

Thanks , just as well ...
Camelfred

Hey, found my photos on sport-photo.fr by entering my race number, but I'm not sure wether they included the grimpée as well...

This is a really nice cyclo, I've just seen that they changed it a little. How was the program last year? Because in 2005, when did the cyclo, we did it two times. First from bedoin and after from Sault (till Chalet Reynard).
I would like to do it again, just to try to beat my time!!

_________________
There's no point in living if you can't feel alive - JB

Yeah, they changed the course a bit this year because of some events in Sault en Bedoin I believe. Next year they're supposed to return to the original course with 1 1/2 Ventoux ascents

Thanks for the link , but unfortunately it seems that they didn't cover the Grimpee on sunday...
Camelfred

Perfect! Because i will try to start next year, let us know how you all did in the race. And GOOD LUCK!!

_________________
There's no point in living if you can't feel alive - JB