We missed the official road opening a week ago (from Bédoin), but it’s early in the climbing season (the north side is still closed to traffic) and John and I have made our first pilgrimage to the summit. Glad that’s out of the way.

It was a weird ascent. We went out pretty easy, with no warm-up, and I never got close to my FTP the whole way up. Somehow, though, we reached the top in 1:35, only 4 minutes off my personal best (full disclosure: we did have a short stop at Chalet Reynard). Kind of makes you want to go back and try again.