I went Provence in South East France last week with a prototype Kilima, helmet and Race Gloves in my check in bag. Good job too - the region I was staying in was loaded with epic roads.
Just another random run, many kilometers long, perfect surface, super wide, no traffic, large smile, whoohaaa
Quite a lot of road signs like this around the place... a lot of them have Lush stickers on now!
The highlight was a dawn raid on Mt Ventoux. This is a famous 2000m Tour De France stage, and the road had been resurfaced last year. There are three ways up the mountain, all coming in at 20+km top to bottom. After some asking around, I went for the first 7km of the Beduoin descent down to the ski station.
It goes on like this for quite a while... the Hill Porn Collection is getting bigger.
The top of the mountain is way above the tree line, so falling off the road is not an option with head-sized rocks, snow poles and hundred meter scree slopes into oblivion. Combine that with hell steep gradients and flat out sweeping corners in the dawn light and I had a truly epic run that won't be forgotten for a while.
Leathers might have been a good idea. Check the height drop.
Top section - hell for cyclists, pretty crazy for skateboarders at 11%. Yikes.
Cyclists leave a big draft and can't go round corners very fast.
The Other Side... just after I took this the French Air Force turned up, 50m above the summit upside down, you can even have fun in a fighter plane here.
Stoked and sunburnt.
The proto Kilima was pretty much maxxed out at 40+ - it's a protoype laid up with our new composite glass sandwich construction, so it has a bit of flex. Things got a bit interesting in the corners at speed, but carving and sliding reminded me too much of bombing fresh pistes in the French Alps this last winter. Perfect...
Coming soon - this one's had some pretty heavy miles on it now.
Thanks to Jo Babilot for the local knowledge, and also to Alex and Sam for all the uplifts and photos. This article is dedicated to Xabi, a fellow rider I regretfully never had a chance to meet and now never will. Ride Hard, Stay Safe! - Rich
