France Retrospective: July 16, Mont Ventoux

After saying goodbye to Morzine, and to Hayden, Sue and the kids, we drove a long day to Carpetras for an overnight stay to ride Mont Ventoux. Located smack back in the middle of Provence, a wine growing region, Carpentras is not where you'd expect to find a mountain like Ventoux, but I think that is part of its mystique - its bleak, treeless shape protrudes from the flat countryside around it like a pimple in the middle of your forehead.

Of course, Ventoux is one of the legendary climbs of the Tour de France, with names such as Eddy Merckx and Marco Pantani being some of the big names to have won a stage finish on top of Ventoux.

While I certainly didn't have ambitions of climbing like those guys, I was looking forward to experiencing this legendary mountain for myself.

Blown away

The wind on Saturday was overwhelming. So much so that I bailed after just a few Ks, running back to my car with my tail between my legs. I don't think I've ever felt like I would be blown off my feet before, but this weekend, it happened.

I'd run from Kingsford Smith Drive along past Newstead Park and into Teneriffe. When I turned back I knew the morning was a write off. I decided to stop along the way and smell the roses, so to speak. It's in doing this that I was truly blown away.

Here comes the sun

The sunshine is back in Brisbane. In a fashion. The light filters down through a veil of cloud cover; sometimes brightly, and other times, less so. So, maybe the description at best, is that at least it isn't raining. For now.

It meant I could do my hill repeats dry yesterday. Not so for my long run last weekend, which I started in the rain, and finished in the rain.