The Tour de France units off on its annual three-week-long odyssey on Saturday. The long-lasting bicycle race is as grueling as it’s well-known; it is going to take this 12 months’s eventual winner at the least 80 hours to pedal all the 2,075-mile distance. The 112th Tour’s route additionally consists of 32.5 miles in whole altitude acquire, almost six instances the elevation of Mount Everest. Nevertheless, I’ve already circled a single day on the schedule. Stage 16 options a fully brutal 106-mile trip from Montpellier to the summit of Mont Ventoux. The fan-favorite torture check was once one in every of Europe’s hardest hill climbs for racing automobiles.
Mont Ventoux is an imposing 6,270-foot-tall mountain in Provence. The mountain’s summit was deforested in the course of the twelfth century to feed Toulon’s shipyards with lumber. The naked limestone peak is visually intimidating because the desolate moonscape gives the look that you just’re ascending to a special world. With none bushes, the highway is totally uncovered to the wind and the sweltering summer season solar. The ascent can see gusts at speeds as much as 200 miles per hour. Harsh situations earlier than you even account for the gradient that is as steep as 12% for some stretches.
JoMiek / Wikimedia Commons
This 12 months’s stage would be the Tour de France’s 18th go to to Mont Ventoux. The climb debuted in 1951. Infamously, British rider Tom Simpson collapsed and died close to the summit in the course of the Tour’s sixth go to in 1967. The 1965 world champion possible died of warmth exhaustion. An post-mortem confirmed that alcohol and amphetamines have been in his system, in response to the educational journal Science. A roadside memorial positioned close to the spot of Simpson’s collapse is a morbid reminder of how difficult the climb is for cyclists.
Automobiles raced up Mont Ventoux lengthy earlier than cyclists
Mont Ventoux was lengthy the area of automobiles earlier than the Tour de France arrived. The inaugural version of the Mont Ventoux Hill Climb was held in 1902. Nevertheless, the occasion reached a brand new excessive as soon as the European Hill Climbing Championship was established and up to date Grand Prix equipment started competing on the mountain. In keeping with Motor Sport, Hans Caught shattered the hill climb document by a complete minute in 1934 with a supercharged V16-powered Auto Union racing automotive. The ascent was paved solely later that 12 months.
The Mont Ventoux Hill Climb survived till 1976 when System 2 was the highest class for European ascents. The occasion was revived in 1988, however the brand new route was shortened and ended on the tree line to guard drivers from the harmful gusts that would pitch them off the highway. Right this moment, the barren summit is used to unique automotive excursions and the occasional Pikes Peak check. Peugeot took its 208 T16 Pikes Peak to Mont Ventoux in 2013 earlier than Sébastien Loeb’s record-breaking run in Colorado. It is breathtaking to see a automotive virtually flying up the ascent the place cyclists are usually struggling to breathe.
