Etape 7 - the road to Mt Ventoux

Another late start (I could seriously get used to this!), however we had to clean up the chalet and hand it back. We received some serious attitude from the woman who was a friend of TBU, which we shall not dwell on. In the van and on the road and about to get lost again!

We stopped at a place on the motorway that served steak, which was welcomed by all (except Bazzo who had just bought a lunch pack at the previous servo). The tour was on, so we were in no hurry.

It was a slow grind to Gap and we thought that our friend "The B%$£&" was leading us up the garden path again, which she was. We found a bike shop in Gap and appealed to their sense of "we are cycling fans who have come half way around the world to see the tour - can you help us".

Amazing these things called maps and noting the major towns you need to drive through from A to B. Garmin off and we stopped to load up on all of the essentials (ie: beer, ice, chickens). I was not allowed in the supermarket in bare feet, so I was really unhappy about hanging in the van listening to my iPod.

So the next part of the journey was not too bad in the back. Eating, drinking and being merry. It was dusk and we were still a way off from Mt Ventoux. I knew we were close when I pointed something out with a tower on the top and one of the boys said it looked like it was snow capped. I had read in a cycling magazine that it looked like this.

In our excitement of almost being at our destination, we overlooked which of the three ascents we were taking and opted for the first one. I in particular contributed to this decision, as the road was blocked one way and we felt like fugitives driving up it the wrong way.

We were waved on at the first check point and the fugitive feeling changed to rock stars! We drove on. Our feeling of being a rock star fugitive came to an end about 5km from the top where we could go no further and were waved into a caravan area. We had arrived at our destination and it was time to get loose on the mountain!

The above did not happen too much as most people were asleep in anticipation of an early start and cracker-jack position. We found some South Africans and Americans though who were a nice little novelty.

The havianna thongs from Australia Day came into their own here as beds for TBU and I.