mountain in southern France From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mont Ventoux is a mountain in the Provence region of southern France, about 20 km north-east of Carpentras, Vaucluse.
Mont Ventoux | |
---|---|
Highest point | |
Elevation | 1,909 metres (6,263 feet) |
Prominence | 1,150 m (3,770 ft) |
Isolation | 61.3 km (38.1 mi) |
Coordinates | 44°10′N 5°17′E |
Geography | |
Location | Vaucluse, France |
Parent range | periphery of the Alps |
Climbing | |
First ascent | Prior to Petrarch; probably ancient |
Easiest route | hike |
It is the largest mountain in the region and has the nicknames "Giant of Provence" and "The Bald Mountain".
Jean Buridan climbed the mountain early in the fourteenth century; Petrarch repeated the feat on April 26, 1336, and claimed to have been the first to climb a mountain since antiquity, which has been widely repeated since.[1]
In the 15th century a chapel was built on the top. It was dedicated to the Holy Cross.
In 1882, a meteorological station was constructed on the summit, but it is not used now. In the 1960s a 50m-high telecommunications mast was built.
For road bicycle racing enthusiasts, the mountain can be climbed by three roads.
Every year there are amateur races to climb the mountain as quickly and often as possible in 24 hours. On May 16 2006, Jean-Pascal Roux from Bédoin broke the record of climbs in 24 hours, with eleven climbs, all of them from Bédoin.[2]
Mont Ventoux is the one of the most gruelling climbs in the Tour de France. The Tour has visited the mountain thirteen times since 1951. The route is usually the Bédoin.
British cyclist Tom Simpson, who died here on July 13, 1967 from a combination of amphetamines, alcohol and heat exhaustion. He began to weave across the road before he fell down twice. He was delirious, but his last words were not "put me back on my bike", that was what a journalist wrote.
Amphetamines were found in his jersey and bloodstream. There is a memorial to Simpson near the summit which has become a shrine to fans of cycling, who often leave small tokens of remembrance there. In 1970, Eddy Merckx rode himself to the brink of collapse but won the stage. He received oxygen, recovered, and won the Tour. In 1994, Eros Poli, not known for his climbing ability, stole away at the beginning of the day's stage, built up a big time gap from the peloton, and was first over the Ventoux and was the stage winner despite. The last winner on the Ventoux was the French climber Richard Virenque.
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