Trail du Ventoux: Course, Elevation & Route Profile

Course & Elevation

The first task is the biggest. From kilometre five the route climbs 1,098 metres over 7.3 kilometres at fifteen per cent, and the ascent continues for another 383 metres until you stand on the bare summit of the Mont Ventoux while the sun comes up far ahead of you. Then follows the long ridge traverse eastward, past a water point at the Col de la Frache to the aid station in Aurel at kilometre 31.

The second act leaves the Ventoux for the Parc naturel régional des Baronnies provençales: narrow paths, Provençal villages such as Reilhanette, wide views back at the summit you climbed at dawn. The Col des Guiberts at kilometre 58 is the last water point before Saint-Léger-du-Ventoux, the meeting point of the north-face cyclists and the only place on course where you may leave a drop bag.

Thirty kilometres from the finish the second big climb begins: 5.4 kilometres and 677 metres up to the Mont Serein station, then onto the piste des 1500 that contours around the summit. From there the route drops to the La Couanche aid station, and the final kilometres run as a rollercoaster over the combes and jas of the massif back to Bédoin. Only 300 places, eight aid points, and assistance restricted to four locations.

Pacing Strategy

An ultra whose biggest climb falls in its first fifteen kilometres demands an unusual plan. The ascent to the summit takes most runners two and a half to four hours and is too steep to run. Hike it at the lowest effort you think defensible, and resist the pull of a fresh field: what you gain here is minutes, what you lose is hours.

The summit also brings the race's weather problem with it. The Ventoux carries snow in March, the eastward ridge traverse is completely unsheltered, and the mistral can reach storm force up there. Plan your clothing change before the summit, not after, and expect the ridge section to run far slower than the profile suggests.

The race is decided at kilometre 71. The 677 metre climb to Mont Serein arrives after fourteen hours or more on your feet, and nearly thirty kilometres still follow. Anyone who spent too much on the runnable paths in the Baronnies between kilometre 42 and 58 will never find a rhythm there. The Mont Serein cut-off is 23:30, a good nineteen hours after the start, and the closing kilometres are the rollercoaster you have to have planned for.

Training plan for Trail du Ventoux: 12-week build

For 105 kilometres with around 5,000 metres of climbing in March, expect 18 to 24 hours in an age-group field. The demand is extreme: only six and a half per cent of the course is flat, almost twenty-eight per cent is steeply uphill and twenty-six per cent steeply downhill. This is an effort carried entirely by aerobic base and muscular durability.

The first training emphasis is therefore very long hiking. One 1,100 metre climb right at the start, a second of 677 metres after seventy kilometres: both require a technique you can hold economically for hours, with or without poles. Build sessions of three to five hours with uninterrupted climbing.

The second emphasis is night running and moving confidently in the dark. The start is at four in the morning, and for most of the field the race ends in darkness too. Practise head torch running on technical ground, and test your fuelling for a very early start and for ten to fifteen kilometre stretches without an aid station.

Conditions are the real opponent. The organiser's own account of the 2026 edition describes a summit storm in which the finish marquees collapsed one after another under the mistral. In March snow lies regularly above about 1,500 metres, the summit ridge is unsheltered, and you cross repeatedly between cold altitude and warm Provençal valleys. Train with the mandatory kit, test gloves and windshell under load, and practise putting them on and taking them off on the move.