The bald beast claimed the life of a cycling great
The Magnificent Seven in the 1960 original were Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Horst Bucholz, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, James Coburn and Brad Dexter.
They amassed two Oscars, Brynner in 1957 as Best Actor for The King And I and Coburn in 1999 as Best Supporting Actor for Affliction.
McQueen was nominated in 1967 for The Sand Pebbles and Vaughn was also nominated in 1960 for The Young Philadelphians.
The Magnificent Seven only recieved one Oscar nomination, for Best Score. I’VE been hooked by TV coverage of the Tour de France for the past couple of weeks.
The cycling has been great, and I’ve been captivated by the scenery.
One stage was due to finish on the summit of Mont Ventoux, but was changed at the last moment.
The cameras could only give a tantalising glimpse of the upper reaches of the mountain, which was so desolate, it looked like the surface of the moon. What’s going on there, Queries Man? – G.
High winds at the summit of Mont Ventoux meant that the stage finished further down the hill so viewers didn’t see much of the lunar-like landscape.
However, they did see the rather odd sight of Chris Froome, the race leader, running up the road after crashing his bike.
Huge crowds had narrowed the road so much, Froome and another two riders crashed into the back of a camera motorbike.
The name Ventoux comes from the French “venteux” meaning “windy”, and gusts of 200mph have been recorded at the summit.
It has been called The Beast Of Provence, as it stands 6273ft tall, but it’s also known as The Bald Mountain.
The top of the mountain is bare limestone without vegetation or trees.
Some say Ventoux is the hardest of all the Tour de France climbs.
The mountain claimed the life of the great cyclist Tom Simpson, who died on its slopes in 1967 from a combination of heat exhaustion and amphetamines.