Bearded Buccaneer takes on cycling’s biggest beast
Isuppose a ride is out of the question? It would appear not for Johnny Ronan, who flew to Provence last week with such a deed on his mind.
This weekend, Johnny boy is riding in the mountains. He is cycling the mighty Mont Ventoux.
Joking aside, the climb from Bedoin to Mont Ventoux is acknowledged as one of the hardest in all professional cycling. Indeed the mountain is known as The Beast Of Provence and at its summit wind speeds can reach up to 200 miles per hour.
Doubtless, with his famous ponytail — which obeys the laws of aerodynamics — the Bearded Buccaneer From Carrick-onSuir will achieve that speed and higher.
Johnny’s clear vision at the altitude of 1,912 metres at the top of Mont Ventoux will match, of course, the vision of the man who built the Google Headquarters, the Convention Centre Dublin, the Altro Vetro and the Ritz-Carlton (your diarist stayed there last weekend and it is a great hotel, now renamed Powerscourt).
Last month, Johnny and son James were members of the Sport Active-sponsored Sean Kelly team of 25 saddle-hardened cyclists, who conquered the 2018 Marmotte Granfondo, with Johnny et al climbing over 5,000 meters. Johnny obviously doesn’t have a problem getting it up. His bike, I mean. Johnny also doesn’t have a problem being the proud daddy at weddings. His paternal pride was bigger perhaps than Mont Ventoux on May 17 when his son, Johnny junior, got married to his beautiful other half, Suzanne Taylor, in Girona, Catalonia.
In July 2017, Johnny’s paternal pride was perhaps bigger than the French Alps when he and wife Mary’s strikingly beautiful daughter Jodie said ‘I do’ to her long-term boyfriend John Savage at Kilternan Parish Church.
Guests included artist Guggi, impresario Robbie Fox, the Simon Carmody Community and the great music pioneer Dave Kavanagh (since sadly deceased). But back to riding in Provence. My ‘deep throat’ in that part of the world tells me that on August 26, Johnny is expected at Paddy McKillen’s Chateau La Coste in Provence for the unveiling of Johnny’s VBF Guggi’s new exhibition — along with work by Thomas Dozol and Cy Twombly — in collaboration with the Kerlin, Yoshii and Gagosian galleries.
Bono (whose next show with U2 isn’t until August 31 in Berlin) is also expected to make the 210km journey — presumably not on a bicycle, though Johnny might give him a crossbar — from his mansion in Eze for lunch at the great Paddy McKillen’s tres magnifique establishment.
How do I know this? Because Paddy invited me.