Closing in on the end

Stage 19 Recap:

My mind has begun to process that this ride is soon to be coming to an end and today’s stage (from Bourgoin-Jallieu to Aubenas) was relatively easy by comparison to what has come before and what will finish tomorrow. The Cat 3 and 4 climbs are now starting to feel “easy” and don’t get my attention the way they did earlier in the trip. It’s kind of like when you take your first trip to Yellowstone and you get all excited when you start to see antelope or buffalo roaming the hillsides and you point and stop to take pictures, but after your 400th sighting you stop noticing quite so much. Today’s ride was hot (90s), 110 miles long and relatively uneventful except for the usual assortment of wrong turns and confusing little towns that somehow continue to leave one with no sense of direction coming in or going out. The roads remind us of spaghetti. If there is any form of grid system to their road planning it completely escapes us but we manage to find our way. Sometimes the Moho is more lost than me but we manage to end up at the same place each night. Tonight that location is Montelimar where I will begin my final stage in the morning to the famous climb up Mont Ventoux. It is historic in the annals of the tour with many grand battles taking place on its slopes that rise up from the small village of Bedoin for 20 kilometers at relentless grades of 9-14%. A famous rider died on the climb (Tom Simpson) and a memorial in his honor is just 2 kilometers from the summit where he collapsed. The mountain is often referred to as the “Giant of Provence” or “Mount Baldy”. It is eerily barren and lunar like over the top ¼ of the climb where the mountain was deforested for lumber that was used for ship building. The rock is almost white in color and a communication tower and weather station sit at the top. I have seen it many times watching the tour on TV, but tomorrow I will get my chance in person. It will be exciting to tackle the climb many tour champions consider to be the most difficult of all. Good stuff to sleep on!
-Dave