The second running of the Monaco Gravel Race was something the Café Factory Team just couldn’t resist. With a start and finish in Peille, a village hiding high in the mountains above Monaco, it uses the fire roads and old military tracks in between some of our favourite cols, including memorable sections over the top of the Col de Braus, and towards the Col de la Madone, with the Mediterranean in the distance. The weather was perfect for racing, but with gravel, of course, things rarely run smoothly. Nevertheless, Café Factory Team hit man Cédrick Dubois took the top of the podium in his age category.

Pierre: Everything went well, I had good legs. Thibault V. caught up with me halfway through the first lap and we were able to share a few kilometres, helping each other out! I was even in contention for the podium in my category, sitting in third place, but my rim snapped in two just before halfway through the second lap – a manufacturing defect apparently – which completely wiped out my chances of reaching the finish. A great race on a beautiful course as always: proper gravel, just how we like it, with incredible views over the plateaus. A great day out with the guys from the team!

Thibaut: A start right in the centre of Peille this year, with a big climb straight away to throw you in at the deep end. Two tight hairpins where you had to throw elbows a bit to hold your position… it was hectic! Then onto the first off-road section, which is technical, demanding and pretty rough. The descent is very “MTB” – gravel and rocks – and there were a lot of people on the side (punctures, lost bottles). After that, the course becomes stunning: beautiful tracks with loads of animals roaming free – goats, donkeys, cows… A real feeling of being out in nature, far from everything. Then a nice road section joining the Col de Braus road, followed by the final off-road stretch towards Saint-Agnès, with views of the sea in the distance… incredible. But let’s be honest: one lap is fine, two laps really hurt…

Cédrick: The course is as beautiful and as demanding as ever, with tough, mountainous gravel. Romain Bardet said he found the race a thousand times more beautiful than Santa Vall. I don’t really have a fun fact to share. Except that with 30 kilometres to go, I was completely cooked alongside an Italian rider, and then a guy who’d had a mechanical issue caught back up with us – he clearly had way more left in the tank than we did. We hit a 10-kilometre road section and I thought we’d be able to sit on his wheel all the way to the Col de Castillon. But 30 seconds later, he snapped his chain coming out of a hairpin… I was gutted at the thought of having to ride those 10 kilometres alone into the wind. I won my age category!