Hot and tough

stats of the week: cycled 351 km
stats of the previous week: cycled 323 km

The fortnight culminated in the participation at the Gran Fondo Mont Ventoux. There were roughly 2,500 cyclists taking part thereof half each chose the short route of 100 km / 2800 am and the long route of 120 km / 3800 am.

It was a piping hot day with degrees well beyond 30°c. I did fairly well until Chalet Reynard after the former food station already had run out of water. Obviously this caused problems for a lot of cyclists not only me. Mounting my bike again for the final stretch of 6 km to the top I suddenly felt totally exhausted. I managed to keep riding at a speed of 6 km/h while many others had to push their bike or stopped.

However, at the final bend 50 m before the top I suffered a horrendous cramp that forced me to stop and rest. After a couple of minutes I was able to finish the very steep final meters on my bike again. I only did the short route but it was one of the toughest days I ever had and by far the hardest climb up Ventoux of the 7 ones I did. Surprisingly my ranking at 661th place out of 1,200 finishers was fairly sufficient.