Translated, the title means "This is was incredible day".

The wind howled throughout the night and at times even the stone B&B creaked . It eased off by morning but was still blowing at around 40km/h and the sky was cloudy. Worse still, the top quarter of Mont Ventoux was in the clouds. That said, it wasn't raining and it wasn't single digits cold, so that was a plus. We had a fabulous breakfast put on by our host Genevieve in the kitchen of the downstairs area of the house. The decor was a cool mix of modern day stainless counter tops and natural wood cabinets mixed with 200 year old wooden beams in the ceiling and a massive cooking fireplace. This house was a real gem.

The climb notwithstanding, the route to the mountain and back was only 70km so we waited until 10am to finally get going. By now the surrounding area had cleared up somewhat and was a mix of sun and cloud. No change to the top of the mountain though, which was still not visible, and the wind had started to pick up, if that was possible. I got my gear on and started on my way while Connie stayed behind to take some pics of the house and surrounding area . She would catch up to me later on taking a more direct route.

Disaster strikes! Just 5km into my ride I hit a pothole that was almost invisible from the angle I was coming at, but it wasn't the hole that almost killed me. With the new pedals on the bike my shoes were much easier to unclip and the sudden jarring from the hole caused my right leg to go sideways and my shoe unclipped. My heal went into the rear wheel and somehow got caught between the tire and the frame causing the wheel to come to a complete stop. Somehow I managed to keep the bike upright with the back wheel sliding along and my right foot stuck in it while going 35km/h, unclipping my other foot to stabilize myself. Once stopped I could see that I hadn't damaged my shoe too badly, but my heal had twisted and although there was some pain I felt I could go on. The wheel itself had a bend in it and was hitting the brakes in one spot. I widened the brakes out so they wouldn't hit, but this would be a problem on the decent that I would have to manage carefully . Somehow I'd narrowly avoided yet another fall on this trip, but this shook the cobwebs out of my head and certainly gave me renewed focus.

I continued my way towards Malaucène, a sizable town at the base of the western side of Mont Ventoux, but the going was tough with the headwind very strong and I had trouble going any faster than 30km/h. I stopped a few kilometers out of town at a cool looking winery to take some pictures and that's when I noticed that my tire was hitting my frame, not enough to hear it, but certainly enough to slow me down. No wonder I couldn't get up any speed. This was going to be a problem! Not only would climbing a mountain be that much more difficult, but it was causing wear on the tire wall that could cause a blow out before long. I called Connie, who by now had just reached Malaucène, and asked her to turn back and get me a spare tire from the B&B just in case while I would continue on my way. Within 5 minutes I'd reached Malaucène and just as I entered the town I noticed a cycling shop on the left so I swung around and went in. The guy took a look at my rear wheel and started shaking his head...I guess it was bad. Anyway, they took a shot at it and managed to straighten it out by adjusting the spokes, so I was pretty much as good as new. While they worked on it I called Connie to turn around, but she saw me entering the shop as she was leaving town and was already there . Within 10 minutes I was back on my way and the start of the climb was right there.
The first 1km was pretty easy all the way up to a little cafe on the right, from there the road
steepened to over 9% for 2km. After that I had some respite with a
nice section of 4, 5 and 6% winding through the forested area, which was the story until the 9km mark. During this period I was passed by a couple riding electric bicycles and I was starting to think about which mountain climb I'd done thus far that was the hardest, cause it sure wasn't this one. I thought Madeleine was probably the hardest as it had 6km averaging 8 to 9% in the middle and then another 4km of 9% climb at the end, making it pretty long and relentless. Then again, Alpe D'Huez had more steep areas but wasn't as long. Tough choice. Meanwhile I was wondering what all the fuss was about with Mont Ventoux.
How stupid was that. All of a sudden I passed a kilometer marker saying 12% average for the next km. That was followed by another one for 10%, then 11%, then 12%, and so on for a total of 6km. Meanwhile, the wind at this height was very strong and alternating between in my face, at my back, or from the side as I went through the corners, which were starting to open up so that I would get the full blast of wind pushing me sideways across the road. At this point I started to enter the cloud line and it was getting chilly. Visibility dropped from 30 to 40 feet. From there the road twisted slightly and I got a welcome rest section as I passed a cafe at Chalet Liotard . Then I was back into steep climbing. I started to notice the trees becoming very thin then disappearing completely, which meant I no longer had any cover from the wind causing me to be pushed wildly back and forth across the road. Visibility had dropped again to between 10 and 20 feet. We found out later that the wind was reaching gusts of 80 to 100km an hour at the summit. I went around hairpin after hairpin at 7% grade while being buffeted around and passed Connie who was parked off to the right with a couple of other cars. She had her window open and I yelled out to her to ask where the summit was, but she didn't know...we couldn't see anything. Later she said it was the first time she'd ever been scared of the wind in a car. About 20 feet later I saw the building at the top. Turns out she was parked within 30 feet of the summit the whole time but didn't know it. We went into the small shop in the building and I asked a guy where the tower was that was supposed to be here at the summit. He said it was on the roof of the building but it was so cloudy we couldn't see it.

After warming up a bit we went back outside to take a picture by the sign and then I started my way down the other side. I didn't make it much past the first corner and a blast of wind nearly tossed me off the road. The drop from here was pretty significant and I was afraid of being pushed right over the edge, so I flagged Connie down and got her to pull over so I could get a ride down, at least to where there was some wind cover . She pulled over at a corner and I told her to keep her door closed while I opened the back door to put the bike in. I had a hold of the bike with one hand and the door with the other. The bike was be pushed away from me and was at a 45 degree angle away from my body, wildly swinging around. I managed to get the front wheel off and throw everything into the back and get in. There were a few other cyclist going by on foot getting pushed around making them walk like drunks. We went down a few turns and the tree line started to appear giving some shelter from the wind, so I decided to get out at that point and continue the ride down, but the visibility was still only about 20 feet and it was still gusting pretty good, so it was very slow going. Within a few corners I was out of the clouds and it warmed up quickly. A chalet appeared and we made a quick stop for a beer and coffee and crepes. The place was filled with cyclists and there was only one table open...not many taking the trip to the very top today it appeared . We didn't take long hanging around and went to start our way down to the bottom. In the area outside were a couple of French cyclists having a chat and smoking cigarettes. How they could make that climb and then smoke beats the hell out of me. The ride down was stellar. The clouds made way for blue skies and all I had to worry about were a couple of cars that I passed on the way down cause they were too slow! LOL. I managed to get up to 72km/h at one point. Amongst the trees the wind was less of a challenge but was still blowing pretty good. It was downhill all the way, which made for a nice end to the ride and I actually beat Connie to to the B&B. Ok, so she stopped to fuel the car...big deal. :-)

It was still relatively early so I had a quick shower and then we went out for a drive to see the Sénanque Abbey, which was nearby. From there we went back to Mazan for a great meal and reflect on what a crazy day it was and what a great end to the riding it was. Tomorrow we would start the relaxing stage of our vacation with a trip to Paris and then back to Stuttgart.

Unfortunately I'm unable to add pics from this connection, so I'll have to do that later.