Tour de France: Mont Ventoux

July 13, 2016.  Tomorrow's 12th stage of the 2016 edition of the Tour de France will feature one of the epic Tour de France mountain climbs.  For the 16th time in Tour history, the route will ascend Mont Ventoux, a mountain in the Provence region of Southern France.  It is the largest mountain in the region and has been nicknamed the "Beast of Provence", the "Giant of Provence" or "the Bald Mountain".

Tom Simpson, ascending the Mont Ventoux

The name "venteux" means windy in French, and the mountain is known for its high winds at the summit.  Indeed, tomorrow's finish may be shortened due to anticipated high winds.  

Mont Ventoux is legendary as the location of the Tour's most grueling and epic climbs.  Worldwide notoriety was achieved on this date in 1967 when it claimed the life of British cycling champion Tom Simpson, who died on the mountain, during the race ascent from heat exhaustion caused by a variety of factors including dehydration, amphetamines and alcohol.  Reports from the day note that temperatures were recorded as high as 129 deg F during the stage.  It should be noted that prior to this fateful day, Simpson had already made his mark in cycling, as a winner of 2 stages of the Vuelta a Espana (1967), the 1967 Paris-Nice, and the Tour of Flanders (1961), Bordeaux-Paris (1963), Milan-San Remo (1964) and the Giro di Lombardia (1965).

As Simpson was climbing the mountain, he began to weave before he eventually fell.  Delirious, he asked spectators to put him back on the bike, which he rode to within a half mile of the summit before collapsing dead, still clipped into his pedals.  A memorial now stands in his honor on the mountain route, which has become a shrine of sorts to cycling fans the world over.  And the epitaph on his gravestone in Harworth, England reads: "his body ached, his legs grew tired, but still he would not give in".