The last post talked about the completion of this year’s challenge and what next year’s challenge would be. In a cycling sense. The decision around ‘what’ has been made and I am now signed up.
The challenge in question is to climb Mont Ventoux, ‘The Bald Giant’. The reason why, and what I have signed for, is a Dutch organisation called ‘Klimmen Tegen MS’, or ‘Climb Against MS’. The object is to raise money for research in to MS, personally important for me.
I cycle a lot. But in a flat country. And I prefer to cycle alone, my reactions being perhaps not perfect, as mentioned in a previous post.
So I am going to cycle up a mountain with lots of other people.
Insane? Yes, I will happily concede that.
But it is an insanity that has some roots.
Ventoux is something that has fascinated me since a holiday in France around 8 years ago. Then it was something on the horizon I could see on my evening walks from the village of Soignon. Autumn, so the lavender had been harvested and the cold wind was starting to bite in the evening. Despite this there were plenty of tourists around during the day and so these quiet evening walks were a calming respite prior to an evening meal, with Ventoux on the horizon.
Two more holidays in the area since then just reinforced a personal interest in the mountain. The last trip saw the (re)start of this blog and a couple of posts mentioned the mountain, perhaps centring more on (not really) cooking in it’s shadow. What was not really written about was a drive up the side of Ventoux from Bedoin, a nice drive during which we passed a lot of cyclists. A part of the cycling bug was sown.
So this is a no-brainer. I have wanted to climb Ventoux (slowly) for some time, my goal for next year was to raise money through an activity for MS research, the two come together nicely. It’s personal as well; the confusion so many who have MS go through and which affects those around them is motivation enough and there is the selfish reason that I want to understand why I am so active one day and yet cannot get out of bed another.
Simply put, Ventoux is there, I have wanted to cycle up it and now I have a reason.
Sponsor me here.
