Lavender, Wind and Titanium: climbing all three sides of Mont Ventoux on a cargo bike

Sometimes a journey doesn’t begin with a map, but with a scent.
For our ambassador Alessandro Grisotto, known as Grisorando, this one started with the smell of lavender drifting across the roads of Provence.

It was 2021, during the Three Peaks Bike Race: three days of ultra cycling toward Nice, three days with the silhouette of Mont Ventoux growing larger on the horizon. That first encounter with the “Giant of Provence” carved something deep. A promise: I’ll come back here.
And the second time wouldn’t be on just any bike.

From one idea to one bike: the cargo decision

Months later, Alessandro sold all his bikes and kept only one: a titanium cargo bike. And that choice immediately brought back the Ventoux. Not one climb, but all three sides in a single day, following the rules of the Club des Cinglés du Mont Ventoux.
A cargo bike, 14 kilos of titanium plus gear, tackling three legendary ascents.
It sounds unreasonable.
But some ideas stop being madness when the heart decides they aren’t.

Approaching the Giant of Provence

The trip from Conegliano Veneto to Provence became a slow approach toward something bigger.
Turin, the Mont Cenis Pass, Briançon. Sisteron — where he slept on the same bench that had hosted him during the 2021 race. Then Sault and Bédoin: two villages living in the shadow of the Giant.
At the campsite below the mountain, everything smelled of cycling. Jerseys in shop windows, frames hanging like trophies, bikes from every country rolling in and out. Two days earlier, the Tour de France had passed. The painted names and messages on the tarmac were still fresh. Tomorrow, he thought. Tomorrow is the day.

1. Sault: Lavender and first light

The alarm rang in the middle of the night.
At 4 a.m., wrapped in darkness and cold air, Alessandro began the first ascent from Sault, the gentlest side of the three climbs of Mont Ventoux.

Lavender fields faded behind him, replaced by a dense forest.
Then the trees vanished too, giving way to the mountain’s white, lunar face.
At 7:12, he reached the summit: first stamp, first peak, first promise kept.
The descent to Bédoin became a breath of relief before the most iconic challenge.

2. Bédoin: The iconic side, and the mistral

At 8 a.m., Bédoin vibrated with cycling energy. A quick breakfast, second stamp, and at 8:45 he rolled onto the most famous climb.
The road started gently. Then the forest swallowed everything, and the slope changed character, steep, relentless, unforgiving.
Just days before, the Tour de France had passed here.
Cyclists cheered him on.
A cargo bike on this climb is not something you see every day.
At Chalet Reynard the two routes joined, and the mistral made its entrance. Not a breeze, a force. A wall.
On the exposed switchbacks, Alessandro was pushed sideways, forced to walk at times. Around him, cyclists struggled, fell, fought their way upward.
But he reached the summit again at 11:50.
Not just tired, transformed.

3. Malaucène: The final battle

The descent to Malaucène offered a short peace. Third stamp. A quick meal.
At 13:05, the final ascent began.
This side climbs in steps, rhythm changes, shadows that disappear suddenly, steep ramps that test focus more than legs. The summit remains hidden almost to the end, the tower appearing only in the final two kilometres.
The wind returned, but by then Alessandro had built a mental armour strong enough to match it.
At 17:03, after 137 kilometres, over 4,400 metres of elevation gain and more than 60 kilometres of climbing, he reached the summit for the third time.

He had completed all three sides of Mont Ventoux on a cargo bike.

A place in the mountain’s wildest club

At 18:32, he rolled back into Bédoin.
He turned to look at the white peak above.
Something inside had shifted.

It wasn’t just the brevet of the Club des Cinglés du Mont Ventoux.
It was the awareness of having brought a cargo bike where only ultralight carbon frames usually dare. Of having made real a dream born from the smell of lavender and the sound of the wind.

We at Selle San Marco are proud to have been on that bike for every metre, through the mistral, through the lavender fields, through the heart of the Giant of Provence.