Knocked the bastard off- Mont Ventoux pre Epic camp adventure

Well, after an eternity of travel involving long layovers in Singapore and long tranist time in Frankfurt combined with Lufthansa's highly inefficient bulk baggage system. "Go over there to the bulk baggage queue" he said. "Since you have a bike". Sweet, this wil be alot easier given I'd just spent an age to clear immigration with my European passport that is now persona non grata post Brexit so had to stand in the queue with half the population of CHina and the Arab emirates so it wasnt quick! But no, arrived at the bulk baggage queue to find around a hundred people waiting with trolies laden with multiple Cases, small dogs with large animal carriers, backpacks, golf clubs.....and it moved at the rate of an advancing glacier. An hour and 10 mins later I got to the counter to find out that the extra bag I had paid for needed to be specified as a bike; anyhoo.... the lady was very helpful so one meltdown later it was al;l sorted and I could finally get through security, have a shower. Got to Geneva with my luggage, emerged into the smoky fug at the arrivals door and Dave was there to greet me with the hotel shuttle. Nailed a good sleep that night after a short run and build of the bike, managed a 10 km run into Geneva to finally snap the lake ( all for the 'gram you know....) then once packed up we set off for Vaison la Romaine - home for the first 2 nights. Staying in the same place as 2016, within the walls of the medieaeval village- cobbles galore.

Took the bike for a wee tootle to check all in working order then twisted John's arm to upload all the map files to my Gramin for me which he duly obliged. Cheers! And phew!

Managed another reasonable sleep altho had a period ofinsomnia between 3am and 4am, mainly flashbacks to the last time I climbed Ventoux and some inner ponderings about life choices; why don't I choose holidays that involve lying on a beach with cocktails? Hmmmmm. Our little group of 3- myself, Tanya and Jeremy set off at 7.45 for Bedoin... made it to the sign that says 19km to the summit and that was that. Temperature was already climbing. All i can say was that the first 12 km are quite brutal with an average grade of 9-10%, road is similar to NZ road surface and quite narrow.....had some good tunes banging in my ears and plenty inner motivational chatter reflecting on gearing choices and lack of long rides in a Chch winter. Once past Chalet Renard, the road opens out, the surface improves and the gradient is a little more kind. Arrived at the top, couldnt find the summit sign for the obligatory selfie ( again, for the 'gram...) and there seemed to be thousands of people up there... on bikes, walking , driving, motorbikes. Jeez. Found the support car, jacket on , waited for the otheres then a nice albeit pedestrian descent for 20 km and then coffee and a snack at the restaurant at the base near Malaucene. had to drink my Americano black however, the waiter said he could do a cafe au lait but could not provide us with a small amount or splash of milk for the coffee... eh?. I spoke to him in my best French too altho suspect I sound like the policeman in Allo Allo..... but God loves a trier, right?!! 10 km home from there... relieved its done and the ghosts of 2016 laid to rest... lack of sinus infection and snottery head lurgy really does help! Off to Annecy tomorrow..... the logistics are proving too much for my fatigue addled ( perimenopausal??!!) brain to comprehend so hoping itll make more sense after a wine or 2 later.

At the summit, dropping some internal F bombs of relief.