Compact vs. Triple?

I am still desperate to get my new road bike out, I have had it since the beginning of December and we have had rain and snow ever since so I have only ridden it once. It is a full carbon bike from Planet-X who appear to be highly rated, I bought the bike direct from the manufacturer through a special sale they had; the sale price compared to competitive bikes was too good an opportunity to miss.

The gears are set up differently to my old bike; it is a “compact” as opposed to a “triple”. A compact has two chain-rings at the front as opposed to three on my triple which means that the range from top gear to bottom gear is not as great. The result is that the top speed is slower and the smaller gear for going uphill is not as small as my triple. This will take some getting used to and I need to know if I can actually get up Mt Ventoux on a compact, I will train on it for a while and see. I think there is an option to change the rear gears (or cassette) to make it easier to get uphill; I shall probably explore that route depending upon how my training goes.