Cycloscape
No. 2 · Top 10 world rides· 🇫🇷 France

Mont Ventoux — Bédoin

Vaucluse, Provence · Bédoin → Mont Ventoux summit

The Giant of Provence by its hardest side: forest, then a bare white summit you can see all the way up.

Distance
21.3 km
Climbing
+1,597 m
Est. time
2 h 35 min
at a steady 150 W
Avg gradient
7.5 %
steepest 50 m: 13 %

Free, and no account needed to start. It rides in your browser with any smart trainer or power meter — a free account saves your result on the leaderboard below.

START
Arrows show the wayHigh point 1,906 m

Elevation profile

3101,906 m · 1 categorised climb · Very hard · Road
HC
Climb 1@ 0.5 km
20.8 km · +1592 m · max 14.8%
7.7%
avg

About Mont Ventoux — Bédoin

From Bédoin the road rolls gently through vineyards and orchards for the first few kilometres — and then, at the bend of Saint-Estève, it turns into the forest and does not let go. The middle of this climb is a long, airless ramp through the trees with almost no hairpins to break it, which is what makes the Bédoin side the one people talk about.

At Chalet Reynard the trees stop. What is left is the landscape that made the mountain famous: bare limestone scree, the weather tower at the top in plain sight, and the wind. The memorial to Tom Simpson stands beside the road a little before the summit.

Why ride this route indoors?

  • The forest section is a sustained effort with nowhere to hide — exactly the kind of interval that is hard to find on local roads.
  • Outdoors the Mistral can close the summit or double the effort; indoors the mountain is the same every day, so you can measure yourself against it.
  • It is long enough to practise eating and drinking on a climb, which most riders only discover they need on the day.

Good to know

+Is this the official route of Mont Ventoux — Bédoin?

No. It was recreated by Cycloscape from open map data (OpenStreetMap) following public descriptions of the route, for indoor training. It may differ from the official route or from current road conditions.

+What do I need to ride Mont Ventoux — Bédoin indoors?

A smart trainer or a power meter, and a browser. Cycloscape connects over Bluetooth or ANT+ from the browser, sets the resistance of a smart trainer to the real gradient, and turns the route’s GPX into a 3D world. There is nothing to install.

+Is it free?

Yes. You can start riding this route without an account. A free account saves your result and puts you on the route’s leaderboard.

Leaderboard

Best effort per rider — a free account puts your ride on it.

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