In Provence at last.
Aix en Provence is now a quick bike ride down the road. Since the reception committee [my wife, my best man, her husband (yes, she is very much a woman) and their daughters] is not expected until Thursday, I have some time on my hand.
One possibility is of course to climb Mont Ventoux. Before approx. 4PM today I thought that was a brilliant or at least a good idea. During the morning hours I had once climbed up from Crest (from 200 meters to about 320), this is the view before the all too sudden downhill ride to the plains again
and after a quick ride across the plains another climb, this time from La Begude again at 200 meters up to 485. Both went very well, even with the rather heavy loaded Mercian, and my thoughts were, if I can do this with a heavy bike, what possibilities do I have when I leave the bags at home or at least in the hotel room!
Well, such highflying ideas are melted quickly away in the Provence sun these days. The sun, and the at least 35C temperature, brought me down to earth sometime after 4PM. It was like an engine losing all sparkplugs except maybe one, and even that last one was not working very well. I eventually made it to Vaison la Romaine, made a recovery attempt at a bar with maybe the 11th and the 12th Perrier of the day, that helped a little bit, or at least it brought some life back to the last remaining spark plug. Since the 9.5 kilometres from Vaison to Malaucène were not that much of a challenge, I finally arrived and was able to check in at the hotel without making too much of a fool of myself, I hope.
This was a seriously hot day. Before a very large beer around 8PM managed to restore the body fluids back to something resembling normal, I even for the first time during this trip experienced leg cramp. A sure sign of dehydration.
Well, here I am. Good to be in Provence. The mountain option may still be open, definitely not tomorrow, and if I ever do that, it will also have to be before lunch one day. I think I'll have a look at the local vineyards first. Check this space, I'll keep you posted. And thanks to Luc for all good advice with his recent comment.
Managed 95 kilometres today if anybody is interested. About average speed, you would not want to know.
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