Following the tracks of the Tour de France - by bike up Mont Ventoux

The almost 2000 m high Mont Ventoux in the department of Vaucluse is one of the landmarks of Provence. Visible from afar, it rises above the ochre-yellow villages, the lavender fields and the vineyards of the surrounding area. It owes its name to this exposed location and the associated climate: Mons Ventosus, windy mountain. It combines all the climatic and vegetation zones found in Europe in its different altitudes. Its grey rocky top, a huge limestone gravel field, was exposed by clearing in the 16th to 18th centuries, some areas have been reforested in the meantime. In order to protect the biodiversity of Mont Ventoux, UNESCO declared the mountain a biosphere reserve in 1990. Mont Ventoux achieved some notoriety through the Tour de France, which has now rolled over the mountain 13 times. Along with L'Alpe d'Huez, the Col du Galibier and the Col du Tourmalet, it is one of the "holy mountains" of the Tour - feared for the enormous heat and strong winds that prevail there. In 1967,