HOWARD & (A FEW) BIKES …

CENT COLS Training : “Everesting” Mont Ventoux, Provence, France. June, 2025.

One of the slightly crazy / bonkers pastimes for us, addicted, road cyclists is to find a nice hill, and “Everest” it.

Simply put – it just means riding up it a sufficient number of times to accumulate the magic number of meters (or feet) of ascent that equates to the height of Everest. The magic number is of course 8,848m (29,030 feet). Yes – bonkers & totally certifiable.

In June this year, I was lucky enough to spend some time on one of my favourite mountains in France – Mont Ventoux (summit at 1,910m). Windy at times, yes, as the name suggests, but always a challenge and stunning, night & day.

One of the spin-offs of 6 times up Mont Ventoux was to be close to the hallowed grounds of the Bi-Cinglés du Mont-Ventoux, those “crazies” who have done, not 3, but 6 ascents of the Géant of Provence.

My grand day out was not official, of course, on account of a number of “important” rules broken:

a) My ascents were of the “e” version (e-bike, rather than manual), however, my aorta was ever grateful (and I did manage to fry a couple of my e-bike motors on my Provence training camp, rather than my battered & shredded vessels).

b) Whilst I managed the challenge within a 24 hour window (4am start and 1 am finish), it was technically not within “the same day”. Hey ho – the mid-afternoon sun was blisteringly hot, so I took a siesta😊😎

c) The “rules” stipulate that for Bi-Cinglés accreditation, all 3 of the primary ascents should be used, twice. These are Malaucène, Bédoin, and Sault. However, I maintain, that I did “[Everest] The Hard Way” (cred. Chris Bonington), namely Bédoin, for all 6. 🤣 (mid-10km section at 9-10%, and the exposed upper “lunar” landscape 👍)

So, there we have it. Dawn on MVT was stunning, and the full-on support from my amazing wife, Steph, essential. I confirmed to myself that 8,848m is a very big number, and I may not be rushing to do too many more of these (although sometime I wouldn’t mind a bash at Pico Veleta in Spain 3,400m high), and Mauna Kea in Hawaii (4,200m high) 🤣🚵‍♀️