Mont Ventoux fastest times

*Mont Ventoux fastest times | Vingegaard near top of this all-time list (Photo: Pauline Ballet)*

Jonas Vingegaard’s time on the 15.9km stretch of Mont Ventoux today is one of the fastest ever recorded on the climb, with the 24-year-old Dane clocking 48:24.

The Jumbo Visma rider attacked the general classification
group close to the top of the climb and even dropped yellow jersey Tadej
Pogačar (UAE-Team Emirates).

The pace had also been set all the way up
the climb, almost to the point of Vingegaard’s attack, by Ineos
Grenadiers, who were riding for their leader Richard Carapaz.

There was also a tailwind on about 6km of the climb and large sections of the mountain have also been resurfaced, making for a smoother and faster road. However, Vingegaard’s time was not as fast as that set by Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana Premier Tech) earlier this year when he won Mont Ventoux Challenge; clocking a time of 47:35.

Marco Pantani’s time on the climb on stage 15 of the 1994
Tour de France is still the quickest; at 46:00. The Italian was doped and
racing in perhaps the most infamous era of the sport - that era lasting an
awfully long time. He is far from the only one on the all-time list who we now
know for sure were doping at the time.

There are always disputes about where the climb starts – and there are several sets of records for different sections of the climb. But the most complete times we could find for the full climb were for a 15.9km stretch right to the summit.

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The climb rises, gently at first, more than 20km from
base to summit. But the real climbing is 15.9km from base to summit, which is
what the times below are for.

Some of these are for the climb when it formed part of a stage in the Tour but did not finish on top of the mountain; the riders cresting the summit, descending and racing on.

Other times are for the same 15.9km of climbing but on a
day when the finish line was at the top of the mountain, so the riders did not
have to hold anything back for the rest of the stage – but they also may have
ridden a little cagey before the finish.

In 1994, when the fastest times were set, Eros Poli – a
lead-out man and former track rider – won the stage after the breakaway he was
in gained so much time he could not be caught.

Behind him, Marco Pantani was attacking and it was his
time up the mountain that day in 1994 that is ranked fastest in the all-time
list below.

Interesting, one has to scan down to 9th place to find a
rider who actually won the stage when setting his time; Chris Froome’s 48:35
securing him the win on stage 15 of the 2013 Tour, taking victory by 29 seconds
from Nairo Quintana.

One weakness of the list below is that we only have Vingegaard’s time from today. It means there are riders who raced today, and who were only marginally slower than him on the climb who should also be on the list. If we get their times, we will update the list below.