In this one a chalet gets in the way

Before I start, I must congratulate my erstwhile torturers friends MT, KT, LM and GP who kicked the Mt Ventoux’s bottom.The quickest time recorded was by LM @2:12 followed closely by KT who did it in the exact same time albeit with more rest periods.

The ride began on a beautiful day with nary a cloud to be seen. This caused a great deal of consternation within the group as ideas of rain/hail/snow/sleet were quickly ruled out. Breakfast was consumed with the same enthusiasm as a person who is about to walk the green mile consuming his last meal prepared by the cafeteria staff. Thankfully, the cafeteria staff in question was LM and his lovely wife HM who made sure that we were fed food fit for a king (or Prince Chuck anyway). With my excuses for wanting to take a nap instead of climbing a mountain dismissed as malarky, we set off.

The ride at it’s best can be described as torture. Two hours of sheer unadulterated pain.  Two hours spent travelling two kilometers straight up in the sky along 21 kilometers of asphalt. Two hours of telling yourself lies like, “I am just going to go to that tree and turn back.” And just before the tears start to flow, the trees go away. Congratulations, you have reached Chalet Reynard. Chalet Reynard, the place during ski season where snow bunnies and hot chocolate collide with each other, is a place of pain and suffering in the summer months. From the Chalet it is now a steep meandering path up..up.. up..

@bad_akuro and her Sheep

This is where my body broke down. With my left thigh and hamstring not able to take any more abuse I abandoned. Five kilometres from the top, and with 600 metres of climbing still left to go, my body cried uncle and I blamed the chalet. Had it not got in the way, I would have still been on the slopes of that mountain letting the wind blow me down. You know it was a bad day when you start to envy the sheep. 

That being said, congratulations to my team mates once again. And a huge thank you to Akuro and WP. Akuro was the principal photographer, and her work will be appearing here frequently. WP was GP’s wife who picked me up, even though she missed GP’s amazing ascent to drag me up the mountain. And finally thank you to HM. HM and LM were the principal reasons that we were even here and the cyclists could not have done it without HM’s help.