Ventoux Defeated!
Having raised a grand total of £9727.38 for the Young Adults Cardiac Unit Appeal, Mr Marcus Haw and Dr Tony Salmon have written the following thank you to all their supporters.
Dear all,
First of all huge thanks to all of you for your generous sponsorship!! The total funds raised for the Young Adult Unit have exceeded our expectations and we are very grateful to all of you!
It was an amazing experience! We flew from Southampton to Avignon on the 16th June and arrived at about 1pm. Marcus' wife, Helle, and a close friend, Robert Henderson, joined us. Rob is a cardiologist from Nottingham and he is a good friend of ours who fancied joining us to take on this challenge.
We hired a car that was able to fit us in together with our bikes. It was a bit of a squeeze! We drove to Montellimar and on the motorway we were able to see the fabled Mount Ventoux for most of the journey. We had booked a hotel and duly arrived in the mid afternoon ready to rebuild our bikes and generally prepare for the next day. The plan was that the 3 of us would set out at 6.15am and Helle would provide backup with the vehicle until we reached Salt, a small town near the foot of Ventoux (about 70 miles into the journey and 35 miles from the top of the mountain).
The weather was hot and sunny and there was not much wind. We were careful to pace ourselves and wanted to be relatively fresh for when Helle would join us. There were 4/5 ascents before Salt which were not excessively difficult and we felt good. At Salt, where we were to stay in the evening, we met up with Helle and had coffee and something to eat. By now it was around 30 degrees and the sky was blue with very little wind.
The journey from Salt to Bedouin at the foot of Ventoux was reasonable and it was possible to see Ventoux for most of this leg of the journey. It is funny how it did not look too big, but increased in size the nearer we got. At Bedouin, we joked that we were probably ‘half way'! It turned out to be very much true as the effort we were going to have to expend was greater than we had ever anticipated.
The incline from Bedouin is initially gentle, but after about 5km there is a left turn and things change. You ascend through the trees and so there is no view of the top for the next 10 miles. This makes it very difficult to know how far you have travelled or how far there is yet to go. We were travelling at about 4 miles an hour with a very high heart rate and because the sun was directly overhead, there was no shade. Marcus and Helle started at a pace that Rob and Tony did not stay with and they were soon out of sight. We stopped frequently to try to rehydrate but rapidly ran out of fluid.
We eventually arrived at the Chalet Reynard, which is a restaurant about 6km from the summit and is situated just above the tree line. The next and last phase of the ride is rather desolate and there is little vegetation giving the mountain a ‘lunar' appearance. Marcus had suffered severe cramp and had decided that discretion was the better part of valour and waited to recover just below the summit, while Helle was way ahead by this stage and Rob and Tony continued together to the top.
We passed the Memorial to Tommy Simpson, who died near the top of Ventoux on a leg of the Tour de France in the 1970s. It was a strange feeling looking at this as it did remind us of the small risks attached to these events!
Arrival at the top was a massive relief. There was a total climb for the day of 14,000ft and a distance of 110 miles. It was now about 7.30pm and so we did not stay long. There is very little up there, a small shop and some fast food. The view was incredible and we could see clearly for perhaps 100miles.
The descent was fantastic - about 14 miles downhill at great speed via a different route back to Salt. And no pedalling required. The Hotel owner welcomed us and we opted to have a beer and sit down in the square in his restaurant for dinner. Suffice to say we were exhausted but deeply satisfied and the food and wine were gratefully received.
We flew back to Southampton the next day, and were ready to get back to work. At the top of Ventoux Tony asked to be shot if anyone saw him on a bike again. By the next day there may have just been a few thoughts about next year?
We were able to watch the Stage of the Tour de France that took in our journey a couple of weeks ago. We have a totally different perspective of the professional cyclists and their level of fitness! They certainly made it look easier than we did, but we were pleased to see that even Bradley Wiggins did not look great at the top!
Once again we cannot thank you all enough for your support. We hope that we have been able to, in some small way, ‘kick-start' the appeal and we would be grateful if you could spread the word far and wide.
Best wishes, until next time!?
Marcus and Tony
For more information on the challenge, see www.heartbeat.co.uk/the-ventoux-challenge
You can support Marcus and Tony until 17th September by visiting their Justgiving page. If you would like to support them, but would prefer to send in a cheque, please contact the fundraising team.
