December 25, 2018 2018 was another great year on the bike. Here is a selection of my best photos, from the roads of the Giro to the snowy slopes of my beloved Alpes Vaudoises. Enjoy and have a fantastic 2019 full of long bike rides, trips to new places, good food, meaningful moments with your friends and families, and time … Read More
How to find purpose: lose your job
June 5, 2018 Less than 4 years ago, I was working in an office – of an organisation I had been employed by since 1994. Things were not bad: my colleagues were cool (well, most of them) and I was making good money. We had free coffee, and I was riding my bike at lunchtime. I was enjoying myself and … Read More
2016: Rediscovering Switzerland
January 1, 2017 What a year. I wrote it twelve months ago: 2015 was the beginning of a new journey. It continued in 2016 with many ups, and a few downs. Where shall I begin? Certainly with Grand Tours Project. Starting a cycling tour company from scratch was a huge challenge. Did we succeed? Virtually nothing went according to plan, … Read More
Thanks 2015, you’ve been good to me
January 2, 2016 “Our experiences are a bigger part of ourselves than our material goods. You can really like your material stuff. You can even think that part of your identity is connected to those things, but nonetheless they remain separate from you. In contrast, your experiences really are part of you. We are the sum total of our experiences.” … Read More
The Transcontinental Race: crossing a continent on a bike in 16 days
August 20, 2015 This is an adapted version of the piece I wrote for CyclingTips. For a presentation of the TCR, click here. My bike and my equipment are featured here. I failed. My goal was to complete the Transcontinental Race in less than 15 days in order to make it to the finishers’ party. But I reached Café Hisar … Read More
Riding a bike while pregnant is awesome!
July 12, 2015 I am a lucky bastard: I met my wife Lillie on a velodrome and she will always say yes to my cycling adventures. Most of the time she will be on the bike riding with me and will either be the model or the author of our pictures. Bike time often means ‘us’ time in our household. … Read More
Cycling in the Alps: le Tour du Mont Blanc
June 25, 2015 The Transcontinental Race is approaching and my bike is almost ready. The latest additions have been lights powered by a front dynamo hub, and a very cool set of Apidura bags (more on that in a future post). This was a great excuse to test ride a really cool loop: the Tour du Mont Blanc, in 2 days. On … Read More
The Red Dude
March 19, 2015 It was almost dark when I got to my hotel last night, but I woke up to an amazing view of the Massif du Vercors this morning. Situated between Provence and the Alps, these mountains were a hotbed for the French résistance during the Second World War. The Vercors is also a paradise for outdoor sport such … Read More
In quest of the perfect moment
March 18, 2015 I was planning to catch a train back home from Aix, but the weather was finally good, I felt great after riding 583km in 3 days, and I had time. So I decided to ride back to Switzerland… just because I could. The plan for the day was simple: head north towards the Col de la Croix Haute … Read More
A day in the man cave
March 17, 2015 It was raining when I woke up in Carpentras on day 3 of my French ultralight bike touring adventure. I did not mind too much as it was supposed to get better during the day. The plan was to ride to Bédouin at the bottom of Mont Ventoux, the first check point of the 2015 Transcontinental Race. Afterwards, I … Read More
Wind, the invisible hill
March 16, 2015 The weather forecast last night was for heavy clouds and possibly rain, but we woke up to good news: the sky was clear. However, there was a south wind, and this was the worst day for it. Most of today’s route was going down the very flat Rhone valley until the turn off to Mont Ventoux, the first … Read More