CYCLING AND THE GIANT A LOVE STORY
High above the lavender fields and the vineyards of Provence rests a stone that has endured across the decades. Sombre and unflinching, it has withstood the snow and ferocious wind of winter upon winter.
Come summer, it has witnessed the epic battles between bike riders that are now detailed, in a hundred different ways, in cycling’s history books. And all the time, the people come; pausing to pay their respects at the stone, which marks one rider’s own final battle high up on this Giant of Provence, Mont Ventoux.
The story of Tom Simpson, who died after collapsing on the mountain in the 1967 Tour de France, is well known to British fans. And the Simpson Memorial, located at the roadside 1.5km from the summit, hints at all that makes the mountain so revered among cyclists: the
