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Boris vs Ventoux 1Video: Boris bike vs Mont Ventoux
Can you rent out a Boris Bike, drive across France, ride up Mont Ventoux and get back to London in 24 hours?
That’s the challenge Rob Holden and his friends Matt and Ian set themselves, checking out a Boris bike in the small hours, hot-footing it to the Eurotunnel and then across France to Ventoux.
On his JustGiving page, Rob said: “The ride itself was ridiculously hard. Massively over-geared for the relentlessly steep section of the climb, from 6 to 15km, by Chalet Reynard (at 15km) my whole body was in pain but I managed to fight on to the summit.
“With essentially 1 gear the whole way up, it was a struggle just keeping the pedals turning (25rpm!) and there was a fair bit of weaving at the top. Having said all that, the weather was perfect, the mountain was awe inspiring and I reached the summit at sunset, which was perfect.”
Then it was time to put the bike in the van and try and get back to London before the deadline.
Did they make it? Watch and find out:
Rob set about this bit of very English madness to raise funds for MacMillan Cancer Support, and has already exceeded his original target of £2,000. If you feel that someone who spent almost three hours toiling up Mont Ventoux on, in effect, a 23kg singlespeed deserves a donation, here's his JustGiving page.
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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39 comments
Amazing effort!
Gonna try and find that Boris Bike! 22591
If anyone spots it, you gotta take a photo!
Stupendous!
Biking at its rawest, adventure, pain, friends, challenge. Respect from me!!!!!! Donation on its way.
i don't buy this. cleverly edited and entertaining idea for a top gear style challenge - but looks equally manipulated (false). 25kg bike up through the forest section? no way jose.
Ok, why not?
I passed a dad towing his son in a trailer up that side, he was on a mountain bike with slicks so had an advantage with gears but was towing a pretty hefty trailer with a child in it, total weight had to be more than 25kg. Won't be easy but that's sort of the point.
kudos!
Love it. Great effort.
I love the idea that you be 'surprised' by cramp after sitting in a car across France and then tackling Ventoux on a Boris bike with two miles warmup! I doubt I would have made it to Chalet Reynard on that bike.
I hope Boris enshrines the bike in the Museum of Transport. It deserves it.
British Bulldog Spirit ...Eccentric Mavericks ..Great Team work plus one hard nut!
I don't think going down Mt Ventoux on a Boris bike would be a pleasure!
First class. Could only be topped if Boris himself rode the bike up.
Top job
Crackers! Well done fella, well worth a donation.
Can't believe he didn't even get the pleasure of cycling back down!
incredible stuff
! Top Gear eat your heart out!
what a hero!
My legs have just turned to jelly thinking about it...
Fantastic Achievement. Well Done
1 hour 10 mins to get the 65 miles from the Eurotunnel Terminal to Bricklayers' Arms, with heavy rain and roadworks.
Some pretty nifty driving there, then
As others have said, 'chapeau'!
"Ventoux doesn't like Lance Armstrong,"
I don't like Lance Amstrong.
Well done Rob and team, you win 7 tours. Epic.
I was sure he would at least have put some clippless pedals on but no, flats all the way!
Very impressed.
Hope your knees survive.
Well done that man, and actually, maybe the new UCI weight limit should be 20Kg, that would make the climbs a bit more interesting
Truly the Bulldog spirit !
Wonderfully insane. Donation given.
Chapeau!! No mean feat and a great short film.
For gear nerds a Boris bike apparently has the equivalent of 38T up front and 23T at the rear (Nexus 3 speed) giving you 44.9 gear inches. Not an incredibly bad ratio on a lightweight but on a bike weighing around 3 times as much as a UCI approved Tour bike it's no mean proposition!
Damn. That trumps my idea of taking a Boris Bike down to G10/42 for a 10 - and by a long way. Still, it makes you proud to be British.
Nutter - you glorious nutter!
Effing brilliant, that is what cycling is all about, the adventure!
Having ridden Ventoux on a lightweight road bike, Rob has my utmost respect for doing it on one of those! Amazing achievement!! Donation on its way!
Amazing well done
Chapeau
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