Riding the three ascents of Mont Ventoux in one day is a hallowed cycling challenge. It even has it's own club, for those who have completed the feat - Le Club des Cinglés du Mont-Ventoux. Roughly translated as "Mont Ventoux's club of madmen".

Putting aside yet another example of everyday sexism in the world of cycling, it is a rare and exclusive club to be part of, simply due to the difficulty of getting in. It doesn't matter how many Instagram followers you have, if you know the doorman or if you arrive on a Pinerallo F12; entry into this club is earned, not bought.

The only thing that it'll cost you is your sweat and probably a few tears. Well, that and flights to the South of France, a weekend in Bédoin etc etc. But forget about that, the point is it's really difficult to ride the 3 sides of Mont Ventoux in one day, granting you entry into 'des Cingles'.

The stats alone tell you most of what you need to know: 4400 metres of climbing over 137km in less than 24 hours. A tough ask you'll agree, and why we have decided to make this our May cycling challenge, for all our members and friends to undertake. Now given the current restrictions it's clear that a little weekend trip down to Provence isn't going to be possible, so we're having to adjust. 

Of course we also want to use this challenge to do some good, so we're asking participants to donate £5 to the NHS Fundraiser. Any extra fundraising you can do is always welcome, so please ask your friends, family and followers to donate on your behalf too. If we're going to suffer this May, we might as well do it for a good cause!

So, what are the rules of the Lockdown Ventoux Challenge?

In the month of may, we challenge you to climb the height of 3x Mont Ventoux, or 4400 metres, to be exact. How you do this is up to you, and we'd love you to get creative with it. Whether you do it all indoors on your turbo trainer or outdoors on the road is totally up to you. We're not asking you to cover a set amount of distance, just the 4400 metres of up. How far you ride to cover the vertical is up to you.

You can do it all in one great big day, or in multiple short rides and hill reps across the month. If you do plan to complete the challenge outdoor, then we'd ask you to adhere to all current guidelines where you are and to be sensible and stay safe.

How to Join:

1. Make sure you're a member of the Dirty Wknd Strava Club
2. Donate £5 to the NHS and post a screenshot on social media tagging @dirtywknd or emailing us so we can add you to the list
3. Ride 4400 metres elevation in the month of May and make sure it logs on Strava
4. Once you've completed your elevation target we'll send you your virtual badge of completion to proudly display wherever you like!

Le Club des Zwiftlés!

If you so wish, you can join Dirty Wknd founder David as he takes on the 4,400 metres in one go with 4 x Alpe du Zwift 'fun' day out on Bank Holiday Sunday 3rd May. You will be admitted into an even rarer club; Le Club des Zwiftlés. Rare indeed, because it's just been made up and doesn't have any members yet!

Full details for the event can be found here. Sign up, and we'll send you all the details by email so you can join David for the event. To be clear, you don't have to join him for all 4 ascents if you don't want to. You can join for as much or as little of the ride as you like to give some encouragement and tick off some vertical from your own target.  

Any extra fundraising you can do is very welcome so please do spread the word. If you want to get creative with your attempt then let us know - we'd love to help promote the details. 

If you want to join David for any or all of Club des Zwiftlés challenge then just click on the link for more details.