2012 Projects....

At last I think we have formulated our cycling projects for the year ahead - and you dear reader are the first to hear our plans.

The big one for this year is a trip to France - we are heading for the south, Provence, and an attempt at Mont Ventoux and possibly Alpe d'Huez - although realistically i think we'll settle just for the Ventoux.

A few facts then:

Mont Ventoux is probably the second most famous climb in the world after the Alpe d'Huez, it is a magnet for cyclists throughout the summer.
Named the windy mountain, the Mont Ventoux stands over 1,600 metres or a vertical mile above the Provence countryside. The most famous ascent is from Bedoin, a quiet town on the south side of the mountain. This is the side the Tour de France and Dauphine Libere use when riding the mountain.
The mountain became famous on the 13th July 1967 when the British cyclist Tom Simpson rode himself to exhaustion on the slopes and died. There is a memorial to Tom Simpson on the southern side of the mountain, just over one kilometre from the summit. The climb can be incredibly hot at the bottom. The gradient is steep and there are no hairpins on which to recover. Once the Chalet Reynard has been passed with six kilometres to the summit, the Mistral wind, which helps gives the mountain it's name can come into play and can buffet a cyclist all over the road. The seven percent gradient can feel more like 15 percent.

Next will be The Dunwich Dynamo - this is an annual semi-organised event that has been running for the past 20 years, we will ride through the night from London Fields in Hackney, London to Dunwich on the Suffolk coast. It's 120 miles by moonlight!

Also we plan to ride to Southwold in Suffolk from here in the Midlands - 186 miles door to door and we intend completing it in one day. We rode to Southwold in 2009 but took a couple of days so this will be out of our comfort zone.

Possibly we might attempt a ride from here to Skegness.... and back again in a single day - that would be in excess of 200 miles - could we do that? - Don't know? - We rode to Skeggie in 2009 and back the following day - it was tough enough over 2 days so not sure I want to suffer that much.

There might be a Sportive or two to attempt and we are certainly going to need some climbing practise as the France trip gets closer - but it's exciting and I like a target/challenge - something to aim at.

I'll keep you informed of progress.