April Joyce

Back to the Tour de France - where I clearly remembered all the good bits and not all the brutally hard bits from last year 🤣 - and my first time up Mt Ventoux. A much bigger group than last year (12 riders, including 3 doing the whole thing, and 4 guides, 3 of whom pulled me around France last year). We left the rain in Montpellier and got into our groove on our century (100 mile) warm up to the base of Ventoux. Everyone then climbed at their own pace - and with their chosen level of talking. On these long climbs, I like a pace where I can hold a conversation and ended up riding with a German guy who lost his right leg in a childhood accident. …Who needed to wait for me a few times as his pace was faster than mine.
Finished up the day with 117 miles and over 10k feet of elevation for the day…and plans to return to do all three sides of Ventoux.
Next up is stage 17, an “easy” day before the two massive mountain stages in the Alps