We just returned from a Santana tour of the Sarone /Rhone river area of France. In addition to an exception tour the opportunity to ride Mt Ventoux was presented. Initially
about 50 tandem teams expressed interest although after a week of riding and better description of the mountain only 15 teams did the ride with 13 completing all of it. Mt Ventoux is one of the classic beyond category climbs in France with about 5400 ft of climbing in 14 miles with not a single ft of level road. The grade averages 6% with some extended pitches at 10%. Many stage rides of the tour de France have included Mt Ventoux. We think it may have been the largest number of tandems on the mt at one time. The professional photographers that are on the side everyday kept commenting every time a tandem went by. On a side note all the tandems had either a disc or drag brake for the descent. Every brand of disc brake had issues except one.
The avids all melted the inner adjustment ring which is what we have on our Calfee, the winzips all went thru a complete set of pads before the bottom. It did not matter what your descending style was they all had problems except the Bengal calipers now on Santanas.