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Mont Ventoux
167 km
Saturday 25 July
Some of the Tour de France’s most legendary pages—glorious or tragic—have been written on the slopes of “Mount Baldy”, but it has never been on the route just 24 hours from the final finish. Whatever the lead of the rider wearing the Yellow Jersey, he will have to face the Tour’s toughest climb with fear and humility.
City center© K. Muller
• 1-time stage-town
• Population 34,000
• County town of Drôme canton (26)
Situated at the gateway to Provence, one and a half hours away from Lyon and Marseille, Montélimar combines the charm of the Provencal Drôme and the appeal of intense urban development in a booming metropolis.
Celebrated for its rich local produce the capital of the nougat industry boasts an entirely pedestrian zone in the town centre, where southern lights illuminate centuries old monuments.
Relics, monuments, churches, museums, town houses, fountains, former barracks newly restored… the town’s rich historical heritage lays claim to an abundance of treasures, from which Montélimar derives a certain art of gracious living: shady terraces, Provencal markets, a vibrant craft industry and commerce, excellent cuisine…
Positioned at the crossroads of the Rhône-Alpes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and Languedoc-Roussillon regions, Montélimar embraces the future with audacity. For the last few years, the Montélimar Basin is a focus for new companies and new inhabitants and the urban landscape of the town is forging itself a new identity, at the same time preserving its heritage and its character.
Young, sporting, socially aware, this is a town that is resolutely implanted in the 21st century and invites you to discover its many assets.
Mont Ventoux top© Michel Deschamps - Presse Sport
• 7-time stage finish
• The highest point in Provence, culminating at 1,912 metres
• 20 kilometres from Carpentras
“The mirror of the eagles”, according to the poet René Char, culminates at an altitude of 1912 metres above the Comtadine plains. 95 million years old, a legendary reputation has been carved out of these Cretaceous rocks, and one that extends well beyond the borders of the Vaucluse. The Mont Ventoux and its summit, a vestige of the former site of ancient rich forests, present a 1 800 metre variance in height for the hikers and cyclists who, climate permitting, eagerly flock to this spectacular site, launching their attack on a north-climb, out of Malaucène, or a south-climb out of Bédoin. “The Giant of Provence”, partly reforested in 1858, extends over a total distance of 580 square km and is 25 kilometres long from East to West. It is a paradise for botanists and researchers who discover the Mediterranean forest at its base and an alpine flora at its summit, with olive trees, hairy yellow Greenland poppies, Holm oaks, Spitzberg saxifrages. This marvel of nature is home to stags, deer, chamois and wild boars, and adorned with Scotch pines, beeches, larches and Atlas cedars.
