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@Buffalo_Bill
Just in case anyone thinks that climb is easy - 2 people have died riding it (Simpson and a tourist a few years ago), and Mallejac and Kubler went bonkers after the Tour stage in '55. Having ridden all 3 road routes, I reckon the Bedoin side is easily the hardest. The first time I rode it from that side, I went from flicking over 39 - 18, and thinking 'ooh, this is easy, what's all the fuss about' to sitting under a tree trying to get my lungs back in my chest in about 1km.
Robert Millar said he thought it was the hardest of all the french climbs, and David Millar said that he simply could not understand why anyone would ride up for fun.
And the weather is capricious. It was an etape a few years ago, and the weather went from scorching hot provencal day to sub-zero hail at the top. They closed it, and lots of comps were admitted to hospital with exposure...
not to be trifled with. Ditchling it ain't.
View from Malaucene side: