As one cycles up Mont Ventoux, the 2,110m high “Giant of Provence”, impressions pile on another like the limestone boulders that make up the summit of the “bald mountain”: the heat, the gradient, the views; the lack of hairpins on what is largely a straight road up a mountainside, the moonscape after leaving the treeline; the sweat in one’s face, the ache in legs and feet and backside – and the energy gel wrappers.
Looking at the road as one tries to keep turning the pedals, one passes the wrappers one by one – at a rough guess there is an average of one per 10 or 20 metres. That is a very large number of gels, a heck of a lot of energy taken in and expended through the pedals. Many, many cyclists ride up this mountain and clearly they do not have very tidy habits.
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