There was a whole entire stage on Thursday, but to be honest, there was one big topic that dominated conversation at the Tour de France Femmes: Mont Ventoux.
A handful of riders in the peloton have raced up Ventoux before, either in the Tour de l’Ardèche or the Mont Ventoux Dénivelé Challenge, and most of those that haven’t have either reconned it or ridden it as a punter.
Very few riders seem to have never been up it before, opting to go in blind on stage 7, and even fewer seem to not have a story at all, whether it was personal memories, visits as a child or memorable racing moments.
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My colleague Dani Ostanek tracked down some of the other riders to talk about their racing experiences, but it seemed to me like practically everyone at the race had some kind of story, whether it was our first racing memories as journalists, riders’ experiences riding it, or even one rider who got engaged at the top of the climb.
This is a special climb that holds special memories for many people – here are some of my favourite Ventoux stories on the eve of the Tour de France Queen stage.
Justine Ghekiere – proposed to her girlfriend at the top
One of our favourite Mont Ventoux stories floating around the paddock surely has to be Justine Ghekiere proposing to her girlfriend at the top of the climb a few weeks ago.
She’ll be hoping that the climb, which might be striking fear into others, will be a slightly more wholesome day for her.
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“It’s a special one for me, because in June I asked my girlfriend to marry me there, so a lot of good memories and good memories for tomorrow and the stage,” she explained at the start of stage 6.
“I was planned to do a recon, and a lot of piece fell together on that day to do it, so why not? One of the things my girlfriend always said was ‘If you ask me, ask me on top of a mountain’.”
“I did it easy with my girlfriend, but tomorrow I don’t think it will be so easy. It’s a very hard climb, especially the first 10k is really hard, so I hope for good legs.
“I did it also when I was 18 years old, on a vacation, and I did all three sides in one day, so that was my first experience. I like it.
“I think tomorrow is a full GC day. They will go all-out on that climb to make as much time up as possible.”
For Ghekiere, that might mean going in the break or supporting Kim Le Court-Pienaar where she can on the climb, but she did confirm one thing: her girlfriend – now fiancée – will be there watching.
Dani Christmas – A baptism of fire in the Ardèche
I dropped a text to commentator and AG Insurance-Soudal director Dani Christmas, who revealed that it was the first mountain she ever tackled in a race – quite the baptism of fire – when she rode Ventoux in the Tour de l’Ardèche in 2016, finishing 40th out of 107 riders. The winner on that day? Future Olympic champion Anna Kiesenhofer.
Ventoux that day was a complete baptism of fire for the British rider, and most certainly sent her back to Belgium with new appreciation for the short Flemish bergs.
“The longest mountain I had ever ridden before that point was six kilometres,” Christmas told me. “I was training for Tour de l’Ardèche in Belgium, training on the Congoberg, which is about one and a half kilometres. So obviously, I was woefully underprepared for such a race, but it was a really good experience for me to get in with a UCI team, because it was in my first years of racing.
More on Ventoux
“My task on that given day was to be in the breakaway and to try and be a bit of a satellite rider for our GC rider, Flavia Oliveira. She actually went on to win the race. So I initiated the breakaway, and there was about six of us maybe in the breakaway. Obviously, Anna Kiesenhofer was in there. I proceeded to get myself dropped from said breakaway just before we came towards the climb. My sports director came to me and said that I needed to pull full gas for about two kilometres on the climb, which, when you’re obviously absolutely dead, that was wonderful news to hear.
“So when the group of favorites came, I went to Flavia and said, ‘Okay, I need to pull’ and she said ‘It’s too early to do that’ at which point I popped, so I was of absolutely no use to her whatsoever. Then I suffered my way up the climb.
“As I said, it was my first experience of riding a mountain of that length, so when I saw the sign that said 10 kilometres to go, I was used to 10 kilometres in Belgian racing, so I was like, ‘That’s not too bad, is it?’ And then I looked at my Garmin, and I was doing eight kilometres an hour. So obviously my heart absolutely dropped.
“I slogged my way up. I did the next stage, and then I had to go back to Belgium to go and race in the Lotto Belgium Tour. So a few days later, I was racing up the Muur, I was alone on Mont Ventoux, and then I was alone on the Muur, but this time, I was off the front, going up the Muur.”
Margot Vanpachtenbeke – rode the climb seven times in memory of her father
One rider who isn’t racing the Tour this year but has created a very special Ventoux story is Margot Vanpachtenbeke (Lidl-Trek), who rode Ventoux seven times in a row to raise money and awareness for cancer research and treatment.
She racked up 295km and over 10,000m of climbing during her 15-hour effort, which saw her ride through the dark to reach seven ascents.
“Climbing the Ventoux is a choice. The battle against cancer, unfortunately, is not,” she wrote on Instagram. “This is for all of you – and for dad.”
Puck Pieterse – rode up at 10 years old
If Justine Ghekiere riding all three sides at just 18 seems young, then imagine a 10-year-old Puck Pieterse rocketing up the climb, in less than two hours and on her mountain bike no less.
“I rode it when I was 10, I think, on my mountain bike. I looked back, my time was one hour 58 minutes, so I hope to break that!
“It’s a super cool climb, and we’ll just see day by day how I recover, but for now I still feel good, so I’m really excited.”
Pieterse is currently in the polka dot jersey, and stage 7 up to Ventoux will likely be pivotal in deciding whether she can defend that jersey from the
Amanda Spratt – only been up on recon
For some of the more seasoned riders in the peloton, it’s a little surprising when they have never raced up Ventoux at all, given the handful of opportunities over the last few years.
Many of those who have never raced the climb have at least checked it out in recon, and that’s the case for Amanda Spratt, who will tick off this mythical climb in what is set to be her final Tour de France before retiring at the end of a 15-year career.
“I’ve never been up it in a race, but we did recon it about a month ago,” the Lidl-Trek rider explained.
“It’s long, hard, brutal. It’s a really hard climb, you’ve got that first part all through the forest, and there’s no real landmarks to tick off, so that makes it really hard. I think almost the last five or six kilometres are a bit easier, because at least you can see the top, even if it takes forever to get there.
“It will be interesting. It will also be interesting with the wind – I haven’t checked that actually, I’m just going day by day, so I haven’t checked the weather for tomorrow.”
Ruby Roseman-Gannon – rode part of the climb on a family holiday
Other riders have experienced the climb exactly the way most of us laymen will: as a cyclo-tourist on a family holiday.
Australia’s Ruby Roseman-Gannon took the opportunity after the Tour in 2024 to do just that. She DNF’d that edition of the Tour, so missed the opportunity to race up Alpe d’Huez, but ticked off another iconic family with her father – though she didn’t quite make it to the top.
“I’ve been there once before with my dad on a family holiday after the Tour. I didn’t make it the whole way. I was doing efforts, and there were just so many touring cyclists up there. I couldn’t believe it, I’ve never been on a climb with so many tourist cyclists. I was going past doing my efforts, and then I had people on the wheel, and I was passing people and slowing down and losing speed,” she said.
“I made it to above the tree line, and then I was like ‘OK, time to go home’.”
On Friday, she’ll be riding in support of Canada’s Nadia Gontova, who is set to make her own special memories on the climb, as she’ll be ascending Ventoux on the day of her 27th birthday.
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