Thursday, September 03, 2009

The Club for Crazies - "Vontoux Three (Four)"

(Courtesy of pezcyclingnews.com and Nick Flynn)

The Club for Crazies

The Club des Cinglés du Mont-Ventoux, to use its French title, was started in 1988 by Christian Pic and has over 2,100 members: just over half are French, followed by Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and the US. Joining the club is simple: climb to the summit of Mont Ventoux three times in one day, once by each of its three access roads. Yep, that’s it.











There are four ways up the Ventoux - three paved, one dirt (that's a whole other story). Highlighted is the 'traditional' route up from Bedoin.

On paper the membership route looks tough. It’s not the 136 kilometres that’s the problem – it’s the fact that half of this is climbing. The classic route from Bedoin is 21 kilometres at an average of 7.5%, from Malaucene the same, and the third ascent is 26 kilometres at a merciful 4.7%. Mont Ventoux is 1,912 metres at its summit and the vertical distance for each route is 1,610m, 1,570m and 1,220m respectively for a total of 4,400 metres of climbing over 68 kilometres. This year’s Etape du Tour was only 2,612 metres over 39 kilometres. Cinglé in French means ‘crazy’ and has the synonym fou, ‘mad’. The Club des Cinglés du Mont-Ventoux is literally a club for mad crazies.

For the full article click here

Simon says: - Clearly this has to be done, there is simply no question about it, end of discussion! I can't see much point in doing the Vontoux Three as there are too many members already. The Ventoux Three Four which includes the off road ascent is the one I have my eye on. Anyone fancy joining me?

1 comment:

yipwt said...

Here's something to try, double ascent up to genting peak.

1. HOA-peak.
2. Batang kali-peak.

Another one is, HOA-Bentong-Fraser Peak-Genting Peak-HOA.

I think it's tough in its own terms. Haven't know anyone who had done this before.