Our series spotlighting great cafés on our favourite rides out of Nice continues with something a little different: Bar La Grotta, in Italy.

Our guide to the best places to stop for coffee, pastries, sandwiches and tarts while cycling the famous cols and climbs in the mountains of the Alpes-Maritimes around Nice. Number 2: Col de Braus.

Our guide to the best places to stop for coffee, pastries, sandwiches and tarts while cycling the famous cols and climbs in the mountains of the Alpes-Maritimes around Nice. 

Café du Cycliste athlete Juliette Bruley was, in her own words, “born on a bike”. Now, she’s taking to the streets of Paris as a bike messenger. 

Comic book artist Tony Concrete paid us a visit in Nice, and gave us a peek into his world of manga and bike-riding witches. 

The cyclists of Paris's Montmartre Vélo Club go from one 'mont' to another...

Is there anything more exhilarating than chasing a dream on a bike? 

A group of friends enjoy a relaxed springtime gravel trip in an enchanted corner of Normandy.

TRANSMISSION | JEAN-STEPHAN & ANDRÉA MIFSUD Jean-Stephan and Andréa Mifsud are familiar faces: you might have seen Jean-Stephan in some of our shoots, and Andréa is part of the Café du Cycliste Gravel Team 2024. Recently, they lined up for the Traka, the gravel race outside Girona, northern Spain – both racing the 200km event in their Café kit. But more normally you’ll find them riding in the hills outside Nice. A real local family, they both grew up in the Nice area and both learned their love of cycling on these roads. Jean-Stephan inherited his passion from his grandfather and he passed it on to his son as soon as Andréa was old enough. “I didn’t choose cycling, cycling came for me!” Jean-Stephan says. They now live together near Nice, and train together too, pushing each other to go harder – though Jean-Stephan admits that Andréa always gets the better of him. And so he should: for the past four years Andréa, 25, has been a professional cyclist with the local Nice Métropole Côte d’Azur team – before making his gravel debut for Café du Cycliste this year. Cycling wasn’t his first love, however: as a kid he’d been a talented footballer, and he was being tracked by OGC Nice – the local first-division club – when a cruciate ligament injury put an end to his hopes to make a life playing the beautiful game. It was impossible to operate, as he was still an adolescent; only swimming and cycling remained open to him. Andréa made his choice, got a racing licence and entered his first race – a local cyclocross event on a bike he’d borrowed at the last minute. He won. Then the road season started and he won some more – and he hasn’t looked back since. “It became addictive,” Andréa says. Jean-Stephan adds that Andréa’s successes are down to his own motivation alone: “I’ve never been a coach, always a dad,” he says. For Andréa, racing is about transcending the self. Every race is an invitation to dig deeper, find new wells of energy inside himself, go beyond his limits. As for Jean-Stephan, there’s also an inner exploration going on: “Only when you pin a number on can you truly know yourself,” he says. And every win he chalks up as a veteran is also a victory over the passing of time – the ultimate time trial. Increasingly, they have added gravel to their riding routines, finding new routes through the Niçois backcountry, where the seasons and the weather create an ever-changing landscape and the roads and trails are among the best in the world. Niçois gravel stood them in good stead for the Traka 200, just outside Girona in northern Spain, where they prepared together, collected their race numbers together, took the start line together… a passion made even stronger by being shared. Check out Andréa and the Gravel Team here.

A CAFFEINATED ADVENTURE! Tom and Anouche are an offbeat adventuresome duo who joined the Café du Cycliste tribe around a year ago. A creative pair, their passions extend to running, hiking, film- and image-making, and even to being baristas – an activity that has led to the creation of Anom Café Club. They dreamed up the idea of creating a premium coffee brand last winter while enjoying the breathtaking views and balmy climate of South Africa’s Cape Province. There, they spent six months finding the best roads, lining up for races and getting to know the local cycling community. After each ride they made a beeline for the closest café, to share a moment with friends and discover the local specialities – Anouche enjoying mochas and lattes while Tom explored the region’s best espressos – and began to develop a passion for exceptional coffees, particularly those awarded more than 80/100 by the Specialty Coffee Association. When they got home to France, their first sips of coffee were a revelation – but not a good one. What they found was burned coffee made with low-quality, chemically treated beans produced by underpaid workers… how could coffee culture, which has such deep links to cycling, be in such a poor state in the home of the Tour de France? They decided to take a stand. “When we decide on a project we move fast, it’s in our DNA as entrepreneurs,” explains Tom. Less than two months after that first germ of an idea, the first packet of Anom Coffee Club coffee beans arrived. Sips of adventure. For Anouche and Tom, coffee represents many things: tasting pleasure; sharing with others, and, of course, caffeine! But coffee is also a way of exploring the world: since the best coffee is grown in mountainous regions, every sip is a story of geography, climate and adventure. Mexico was their first destination when buying beans, thanks to Tom’s love of the country and the complexity of its coffees: some of the best anaerobically fermented beans come from there, and so it was an easy choice. And both Anouche and Tom found something they both loved in Mexico, the kingdom of coffee: Cafe de Olla. This heady brew mixes coffee, raw dark sugar and cinnamon for a tastebud-tickling sensation. Next stop? Maybe Rwanda – but there are so many places to explore. Some might find the task intimidating; for them, however, it’s a challenge they’re eager to tackle. During their meetings with producers, they were amazed by the warm welcome they received from these passionate artisans. Tasting a freshly picked coffee cherry was an unforgettable experience. Now, with hundreds of tastings and even more kilometres behind them, their passion for this precious grain has only grown, thanks to the range of the world’s finest coffees they’ve tasted. But it has also opened up a world of adventure. While exploring high-altitude coffee plantations in Guatemala, where taking part in the harvest was almost akin to mountaineering, they decided to climb Acatenango, the country’s highest volcano. It was a sizeable challenge: after a 3 a.m. start they were heading through the jungle in the dark, to the sound of distant booming. Then, on the climb, the sun rose: it was “breathtaking”, according to the pair. “It was like we were the only people in the whole world.” After 1,600 metres of ascent in only 8 kilometres, it was a dizzying climb, but their courage was rewarded: from the summit they could see across the coffee plantations to the growling, grumbling Fuego in full eruption. In just two weeks, Mexico changed their ideas about coffee forever. It transformed coffee into a story of friendly faces, men and women dedicating a lifetime’s hard labour to a quest for exceptional beans. As the local saying goes: “La vida es sólo una taza de café tras otro y no preocuparse por otra cosa” “Life is just one cup of coffee after another, and nothing else really matters” Tom and Anouche returned home with their pockets full of beans and mouths full of tastes! They’ve thrown themselves into putting extraordinary coffee into our cups, and they’re not stopping there. If you live in their environs, they’ll deliver to you by bike by the pannier full. Or how about a taste test… that could be arranged! Having tested a Bialetti of their first Mexican beans, we can say, you’ll be in for a tasty journey.

RIDE & CREATE "BOTANICOOL" | KALICE BRUN The Côte d’Azur is known as much for its cities, culture and chic resorts as its natural beauty. But outside the hustle and bustle, often just behind the tower blocks, gardens and resorts, there still exist wild places on our shores. And in these wild places you just might find Karine Brun. Also known as ‘Kalice’, she’s a herbalist, naturopath and therapist, exploring and exploiting the secrets of the indigenous plants of the Riviera. Brun was born in the Nice back country and growing up spent her summers in the haven of biodiversity now protected by the Mercantour National Park. However, she also formed a deep attachment to the sea, coming regularly to swim at Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. She also spent time near the coast at her grandmother’s, where, in the back garden, she collected plants and made mixtures in the outside basin. “It was forbidden to disturb me,” she says. “I was convinced I was making magic potions.” She made these healing potions with the same intensity as she did her adventuring. These days, she lives in Nice and makes herbal remedies – real magic potions! – seeing herself as a kind of mediator between the human and plant worlds. She also creates podcasts, writes books and runs nature-writing workshops and wild food experiences to spread the word about the power of plants. Every day, she comes to Café du Cycliste for her morning coffee, sometimes spending the day there at work looking out over the port. She goes by bike everywhere, so – as we’ve just launched our Botanicool capsule collection – we asked her to take us on one of her ‘cyclo-foraging’ tours. These ‘olfactory voyages’ use the plants they discover to shed light upon and interrogate her clients’ experiences, intentions, their links with nature, life path. This work mirrors exactly what plants do: grow into the light. “There are two impulses in my everyday interactions with plants,” she says. “An intuitive part – an encounter, a touch, a smell – that leads me to follow threads of information, and an olfactory part: why not use that particular plant as an essential oil, to work at things from the inside as well?” And the tours combine the scientific with the sensory – sight, smell, touch, taste – providing an education both in the unique flora of the region and responsible foraging practices, as well as precious meditation time surrounded nature. Because – it’s important to note – foraging is not allowed everywhere, and certain species are protected. Kalice always forages and teaches – in a responsible and sustainable way. On a beautiful early spring day, we took a morning coffee at the Café before riding out behind Kalice, foraging bag on her back. First stop were the gardens in front of the prehistoric site of the Lazaret cave, on the outskirts of Nice. Here, where wild nature was gaining the upper hand on the planted species, it wasn’t hard to imagine the prehistoric people using the same plants to cure and heal in their turn. It was the perfect place for her to expand upon the concept of the ‘garden world’, promoted by the botanist and gardener Gilles Clément, which reflects how humans have shaped the landscape and biodiversity through their centuries-long interactions with nature. “We can collaborate with plants but we can’t dominate them,” Kalice says. “Even if we cultivate them, there’ll always be some wildness.” After Lazaret, we headed to La Darse beach in Villefranche, and then further, to Saint-Jean Cap Ferrat on the coastal path. As we did, we took in everything that surrounded us, wandering in the pine forests of Cap Ferrat. “Plants can take us on a journey,” Kalice said. When you’re cyclo-foraging, every day is different, but here are the plants we saw: 1. Sea fennel: regulates water, fights cellulite and swelling. Antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, diuretic 2. Fig tree: symbol of Mediterranean gardens, relaxing, digestive, antispasmodic, laxative 3. Eucalyptus globulus: native to Australia, Expectorant, antiseptic, decongestant. Cleans swamps, allows life in unsanitary territories 4. French or butterfly lavender: relaxing, healing, analgesic 5. Rosemary: a sacred plant, stimulant, antioxidant, general tonic, detoxes the liver 6. Olive: symbol of peace and longevity, lowers blood pressure, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory Check out Botanicool here.

Paris–Nice, AKA la Course au Soleil Paris–Nice, AKA la Course au Soleil (the ‘Race to the Sun’), has long been one of our favourite races. Besides being traditionally the first European stage race of the season – the first chance to see the grand tour racers fight it out that year – it has always had an air of romance. Winter can linger on in northern France, and the départ from the ‘City of Lights’, which always falls on the first Sunday in March, often takes place under grim grey skies or cold wind and rain. The race then processes towards the south, winding through the bare vineyards of Burgundy, flirting with the foothills of the Alps and diving deep into the Provençal countryside. Somewhere along the way, the sun begins to shine, and, by the time it reaches the Côte d’Azur, the peloton has emerged from the long shadow of winter into the Mediterranean spring. Paris–Nice promises better days to come for all of us, and that long warm summer rides will return – that perhaps they’re not even very far away. We also love Paris–Nice because it loves our home roads. For many years the finale took the form of a time trial stage up Col d’Èze, which starts metres from our HQ and is our go-to lunch ride. These days, however, a traditional road stage closes proceedings, riding the rollercoaster of hills closest to the Mediterranean before plunging into town and skirting around the port en route to a finish on the Promenade des Anglais. Customers spectating on the TV screens in our café often run outside at the last minute to watch the peloton thundering past! Paris–Nice is also a connoisseur of the arrière pays Niçois, the backcountry behind the beaches, and before its date on the Promenade it usually fits in at least one proper mountain stage. In previous years it has tackled favourite climbs like the Col de Vence, and summit finishes on the Col de la Couillole and 1,607-metre-tall Col de Turini. This year it will head over Col St Martin/La Colmiane (1,500m), before finishing with a 7.2km climb to the ski resort of Auron. The current champion, Tadej Pogačar, will not be coming this year to defend his title, but the action will be no less intense because of it; all eyes will be on his compatriot and long-time adversary, Primož Roglič. Paris–Nice has also seen some stars be born, including, not so long ago, a young Peter Sagan, whose Paris–Nice stage win at the age of 19 was only the start of his impact on cycling. Which future star will make their début at Paris–Nice this year? Over eight days and 1,220 kilometres, we’ll very soon find out. If you’re planning to be in town, come to the café for good coffee and big screens showing the action on race days. Hire a bike and explore the roads ridden by the pros – just ask our staff for recommendations on where to go.

Ride & Create | Juliette Bruley It is a truism that artists have a horror of the blank canvas, and writers of the fresh white page. How could one possibly spoil its infinite possibilities by making a mark? Sometimes it is in finding limitations that creativity is set free. And what for a painter could be more limiting, more awkward, than a bicycle frame? Juliette Bruley is a born-and-bred Parisian, and also – if there can be such a thing – a born-and-bred cyclist. Growing up, she remembers her grandfather riding from Paris to Nice. While she hasn’t ridden quite that far, the bicycle has been her companion from her earliest years and today is her indispensable tool for her daily life in the north-eastern suburbs of Paris. It’s both a passion and the medium for her art. As well as a love of cycling, Juliette also inherited a desire to understand how the world worked, to get under the skin of things. At the age of 17 these two things combined when she built her first fixed-gear bike. She began working in a bike shop as a mechanic, then got her qualifications and became a workshop manager. But it was at a place called Stolen Garage that her passions became further intertwined. Here she learned the art of painting frames – Stolen Garage runs, to our knowledge, the only training course specifically for those people wishing to paint bicycles – and now she handles all the paint jobs that come through the Stolen workshop. And what a workshop it is. One half of Stolen’s premises is a café and showroom, serving locally sourced, seasonal produce and coffee roasted in Paris, with a side of conviviality and cycle style; the other half, separated by a giant soundproof window, is where Stolen makes its custom frames from premium Columbus tubing, and fine-tunes, customises and repairs bicycles of all flavours. An ‘open kitchen’ concept but with bicycles on the menu, where you can come and drink a coffee and watch your very own frame take shape. Juliette’s jobs might be resprays, or they might be the first time paint touches pristine metal. Sometimes customers come with a definite sense of what they want; sometimes they give her creative sensibility free rein. Either way, the responsibility is huge: to create something that satisfies her own artistic sense, corresponds to the customer’s wishes and respects the form of the bicycle. This latter is no easy task. Traditional tubing is 1” in diameter, and even the oversized tubing more commonly used today is barely bigger. The angles and curves present challenges… and opportunities. Stencils and masks can be drawn up digitally, but in the end, creating a compelling paint job on a bicycle requires projection, visualisation and a dynamic aesthetic sense. Colour is Juliette’s favourite aspect of the job. What colour would you like to smear across the landscape at 40 kilometres an hour? Despite the limits of the traffic, the bicycle offers Juliette the freedom of the city streets. And since she recently became a parent, she has found out that the bicycle is for all seasons of our lives. Just as her parents did with her, she can’t wait to share her passion with young son. Who knows, perhaps a ride from Paris to Nice is still on the cards. There’ll be a coffee and a pastry waiting on the Café du Cycliste bar when she arrives. Photos credit: Mathieu Pellerin

Travel deep: hiking the Mercantour There are many different ways of travelling. In the spring and summer, it’s good to travel far, and travel fast; but in the autumn, with months of adventures in the legs, it’s time to travel deep. In the high backcountry behind Nice lies the Mercantour National Park; many of our favourite roads pass through it, like the Col de Turini and Col de la Bonette, both of which will feature in the final stages of the 2024 Tour de France. But because of the terrain and the park’s regulations – which forbid any development or construction, any off-road cycling, any hunting, mushroom picking and even dogs! – there are vast areas that are inaccessible even to mountain bikes. These are trails and passes you can explore only by foot. We set off for a late-season hike in the last of the year’s sunshine, to deepen our knowledge of the spaces between the roads. The aim was to do a tour of Mont Bégo, a 2,872-metre-tall mountain in the heart of the park whose flanks are covered with bronze-age rock carvings. Why they are there, nobody knows, but these hidden valleys have been regarded as special – sacred even – for thousands of years. Away from the trailhead, we were quickly swallowed by silence and light. No cars or motorbikes buzzing up and down the roads, only fresh, still air and low-angled sun. In peak season there is a good network of high-mountain refuges that welcome travellers, but in this shoulder season, after the summer and before the snow, only a single one was open, in the ‘Valley of Wonders’ itself. But this was enough to help us complete our loop, and we stayed there two nights, separated by one night in a bivacco. This basic, unattended cabin just over the border in Italy provided bunks, blankets and a roof; everything else we had to carry in with us – and, of course, carry out again. Life for these few days was gloriously simple: walk, eat, drink, sleep, and walk again, into forbidding cirques seemingly without an exit and up scree slopes to forgotten passes; or down, through larch forests ablaze with colour next to rushing, babbling streams. A path, however small or indistinct, is a friendly thing. It is a sign someone has been here before – and gives hope that, somewhere near its end, is a warm welcome, a cold beer and a place to lay down your pack. We walked 70 kilometres over those three-and-a-half days – around the same distance as three hours riding a bike. We moved slower, thought slower, experienced slower and saw so much more. You could walk these trails for years without ever quite seeing or feeling the same thing twice. Perhaps, I think, even a single valley might be enough to explore, through rain, sun and snow, watching the shadows change and the trees grow and the years pass. In the short time since we descended back to civilisation, the season has turned and big storms have again ravaged the valleys behind Nice. It’s a reminder of how hard life can be in these mountains and that they are not always as benevolent, which makes the memory of time there in the sun all the sweeter. READ MORE Ultra Spirit & Anomadventures | A Human Adventure. A unique trail running event, Ultra Spirit takes place in the Haute-Savoie Alps and consists of teams of three runners accruing points rather than the average race against time. TRANSMISSION #2 | Serge and Carla Lamy. The second in our series of profiles on the family connection of cycling, capturing on film mother and son, Carla and Serge Lamy. Etienne Hubert | From Kayak to Gravel: Traversing the Alps. The summer months are synonymous with heavy training loads for the kayak racers of the French national team. 2023 was no exception to the rule. An Outsider’s Guide | Trail Running Mont Cima. Convenience isn’t just on the street corner, it’s in the palm of our hand, strapped to our wrists, counting every step, click, beep and tap.

SOPHIE GATEAU | Adventure in the Ardennes The heatwave of summer 2023, which blasted through the southern half of France, was in the end a blessing. Our initial bikepacking project in the Pro-vençal mountains suddenly presented itself as a crossing of a furnace rather than an adventure discovering the trails of the backcountry. So, we switched channels. Goodbye cicadas and hello frites, our summer will be spent in Belgium. Over the years, I have compiled a hit-list of routes to ride one day or another, and thanks to the excellent site bikepacking.com, I had gratefully spotted a 366km offroad trail nestled in the mountainous forests of south-eastern Belgium. The route is lovingly called Ardennes Arbalète and the creator, Kevin Machtelinckx, declares it to get straight to the heart of the matter – adventure... We opt for a two-step approach. By taking the train to Charleville-Mézières, a station close to the Franco-Belgian border, we give ourselves time to gauge what awaits us by approaching the Ardennes massif via the long cycle path along the banks of the river Meuse. It drags us towards the hills, as if it has caught us in its tractor beam. The tone is set, tourists are rare, the landscapes are magnificent, and the temperatures are mild. The Franco-Belgian border no longer exists, materially speaking, so we cross it virtually at the bend of a stony path. Only the car registration plates indicate that we have moved into another coun-try. History is always present, however. The Ardennes were the scene of fierce fighting during the two world wars, and the memorials and defensive construc-tions which line the route constantly remind us of the madness and fury of mankind. But mankind also creates as well as destroys, and following a trail made by someone else is a most pleasant experience. We let ourselves be carried off on a mystery tour that this person has beautifully constructed. We wonder why they chose to take us this way, rather than that. We abandon ourselves and we enjoy the moment. Ardennes Arbalète is a mix of beautiful rolling forest tracks, small roads without cars and single-file trails that are a little difficult but always allow two wheels to traverse successfully. The name Ardennes is said to be of Celtic in origin, meaning ‘dark and deep’. This term applies entirely to the dense forests that we cross as well as the black slate cliffs that pierce the landscape here and there. We imagine a land of ancient legends and magical creatures living in these massifs which seem impenetrable by mere mortals. Forests alternate with steep valleys, peat bogs with verdant pastures, moors with rocky escarpments, and multiple rivers with ancient stone villages. The region is also full of campsites which often introduce us to the local gas-tronomy, always accompanied by a very local beer. If you’ve been to Belgium you will be more than aware of the huge number of breweries per square metre. Most impressive and highly refreshing. Our bikes are fitted with tyres to get through even the trickiest of trails, and our panniers are kept light to maintain manoeuvrability on steep paths. Our pace is intentionally slow, no more than 70-80 kilometres per day to be able to enjoy and appreciate the countryside we are discovering. We complete the trail in eight days without rushing, returning home with a crazy desire to come back as soon as possible. READ MORE A Tour of the Volcanoes of Auvergne. Sophie Gateau explores the Auvergne region, where there are probably more cows than humans per m2, armed with our camera, a tent and a knife. Sculpting the Seine River Trail - Sophie Gateau. A river is an invitation to travel, a reptilian receptacle of a million stories, a living, majestic guideline to new places. Trail Running Guide Mallorca. A demanding yet highly rewarding territory not just for cyclists, but also runners, you can really uncover this enchanting island in the middle of the Mediterranean with just a pair of running shoes. The Major Seven - 3 riders, 7 mountains, 24 hours. Yes, it’s the adventure of the summer, the Forever Outsiders spirit, an unforgettable experience with a little bit of a laugh (and maybe some tears).

An Outsider’s Guide | Trail Running Mont Cima. Forever Outsiders. The world is smaller than it used to be. For those privileged enough to travel around it for work & pleasure, commercial aviation, smart-phones and location services allow you to zoom into anywhere almost instantly. Convenience isn’t just on the street corner, it’s in the palm of our hand, strapped to our wrists, counting every step, click, beep and tap. And now if you venture out into the wild, did it really happen if you don’t post it to your feed? Don’t worry someone else will take the pictures. God loves a hiker, not a liker. To really explore this rock they call Planet Earth, you need to use your own organic matter. Log-off, lace-up and stride out to see what nature can offer you. If it’s out into the wide-open air, to places you’ve never been before, or simply a local, well-known route to feel your heart beat, there’s nothing much more rewarding than Trail Running. Simplicity. Outside you expand your lungs, your mind, and your horizons. Push just that little bit further, beyond the average path, and reconnect with real world movement and sensory fulfilment. As experienced riders and runners, and busy working folk; many of us turn to our running shoes as a versatile and time-efficient way to get out and breathe a little deeper. Exploring a new city by bike should be done at a leisurely pace and sometimes the clock and baggage allowance doesn’t enable one to sling all their riding accoutrements along for the trip (although bike rental is available at both our Nice and Mallorca locations). Anyway, put bluntly, more and more riders appear to be running. And we are they. We ride, we run, we swim, we have fun. We are Forever Outsiders, forever out riding, sliding, grinding and exploring. We cannot be categorised beyond our passion for adventure. Trail Running is perhaps the combination of our love for the off-road, the beauty of the wild and the suffering that makes a day out that little bit more interesting. Our latest trail route, taken on by colleagues Maïlys, Thibault and Lucie struck out from the small village of Aspremont (25-minute drive or 70 min bike ride from Nice), running a voluptuous loop ‘peaking’ at Mont Cima. Our trio are linked by a taste for the mountains and the desire to explore ever further. Thibault, former high-level cyclist, Lucie the gravel adventurer and Maïlys the dedicated runner. No matter their individual level, the goal was to enjoy this hinterland we are so blessed to have on the doorstep. Living in Nice with the sea and mountains by your side, allows you to move seamlessly into natural surroundings. The name of Aspremont translates as ‘rough mountain’ and the landscape and terrain around the village certainly proves to be rugged for runners, walkers, riders and everything in between. Aspremont lies on the eastern slopes of the lower section of the Var, the valley that links the Alpes Maritimes and Nice. This ancient village was formerly protected by a castle, which you can still see the remains of. Straight out of the village towards Mont Cima is a serious warm up for the thighs and lungs. Like most trail routes around here, it is easy to quickly accumulate elevation, rising fast due to a strong gradient. The topography is a mixture of rock and a little greenery. Then once at the top, a change of landscape, and a descent into the forest, perfectly timed for some recovery under the canopy. The diversity of the landscape in this area is incredible. The vegetation thins out as the trail climbs once more to the summit. Looking around, you will see the sea in the distance and in front the ever-changing view of the Alpes and the Niçoise backcountry. Millions of tourists, cyclo and pedestrian, flock to the Côte d’Azur every year. The adventures on offer are infinite, and we know how lucky we are to have so much on our doorstep. A wonderful climate, the mountains, the ocean, and incredible views and smells around every bend. It’s a paradise we give thanks and praise to every day. This is why we are Forever Outsiders – to identify who, why and what we run jump, pedal, and explore for. READ MORE CAP D'AIL TÊTE DE CHIEN Here you are, in Cap d'Ail for a trail that will take you straight to one of the most beautiful views of the Principality of Monaco. SAINT JEAN CAP FERRAT This is one of the easier trail courses that you can find on the Côte d'Azur, its 120 metres of vertical drop provide a playground for novice runners and the experienced athlete alike. MOUNT BORON You glide alongside the port, then past the beach where the coastal path begins. It’s magical on the side of the rock, overlooking the sea. NICE TRAIL RUNNING GUIDE What leads up the garden path… trail running is to the road runner what gravel riding is to the road cyclist.

Sculpting the Seine River Trail A river is an invitation to travel, a reptilian receptacle of a million stories, a living, majestic guideline to new places. This is the starting point of an adventure. The Seine River Trail is 859 kilometres long. We are a trio of travellers – two Parisians and a Dijonnais; Sophie, Pierre-Charles and Camille. The desire to create an adventure accessible to gravel and bikepacking enthusiasts along the Seine brought us together. We wanted to somehow become part of the landscape too. This is a long-term project, and so nothing has been left to chance when creating it. There is a bike lane that runs along the Seine, intended for cyclists, but our objective is to establish an alternative route, using rustic paths and roads, suitable for a gravel route from Dijon up through Paris to Le Havre at the river’s mouth. One that allows divergences from the banks of the river to better return there later, to find a point of view in height or to escape the motorised traffic. The route less taken. The trail starts in Dijon, the historic capital of Burgundy, with the sources of the Seine a few kilometres away. The symbolic start of this adventure is a sculpture of the goddess Sequana, nymph of the sources of the river, she will be our muse. The eastern part of the route, between Paris and Dijon, was directly inspired by a bikepacking event organised and piloted by Pierre-Charles. July, this section becomes an incentive to ride the Seine River Trail, and so we ride it together for a few days, in good spirits. After a few adjustments to the existing route, we only have half of the full distance from Paris to Le Havre left to plot. We take advantage of the long winter evenings to trace the missing 400 km. We are on well-documented ground to imagine the crossing through Paris, but the rest of the route remains abstract. Despite an in-depth study of the maps, the recommendations left by other users on Komoot and the listing of the points of interest of the different regions crossed, we must check in real-time whether what we have imagined corresponds to our expectations. The first major reconnaissance will take place in mid-December, in the opposite direction, from the port of Le Havre moving southeast to Mantes-la-Jolie. The days are short in winter, the temperatures are negative. The spectacle of frost in the Normandy fields and the mist rising from the river delights us every day, however, despite the biting cold. We are riding against the tide, with Paris as our goal, along unknown paths and tracks. Most of the terrain that we had imagined from looking at the screen pixels turns out to be what we hoped for. Some parts need to be completely reinvented though. Our method consists of taking out our phones, analysing the map on the Komoot app, separating so that everyone explores a different path and meeting a few kilometres further to combine our impressions and our feelings. If the alternative route is too technical, we choose to eliminate it, if it is too easy or uninteresting, we continue to look for another route. For some parts of the recce, more than four passes will be necessary for us to be satisfied. The Seine is a permanent state of tension between wild nature, landscapes that have inspired so many modern painters and brutal manufacturing and industry, especially oil. On the section that we survey from Le Havre, it is the refineries and the oil tankers that punctuate the landscape. The Seine is very wide near its mouth and the bridges that span it are few and far between. We choose to pass the track through the ferries that transport pedestrians, cyclists and cars from one bank to the other. Crossing the river by boat offers a new dimension and another rhythm to the journey, connecting us even more to the flow of the Seine. A river hollows out the landscape, shapes it. The Seine has sculpted our bike course wonderfully. We alternate between towpaths and forest tracks located on the plateaus at the top of the banks. The Norman villages with their typical architecture and thatched roofs appear on these clifftops, also offering us welcome breaks in the village cafés. At the end of spring and after multiple round trips from Paris to check the latest route options, the course is finally ready. A weekend with some friends riding the route ‘blind’ allows us to validate the recent modifications and to collect the first impressions of other bikepacking enthusiasts. The vegetation has changed dramatically since those naked and frozen winter days. We rediscover our very own hand-drawn route with unbridled pleasure, the line we have sculpted, like the statue of Sequana, with our bodies and minds. Everyone is delighted with the kilometres that we have helped them discover. We can finally launch this route publicly. Mission accomplished. Seine River Trail is an 859 km track that follows the Seine from near or far. It is public and free. VIEW MORE Isabel Del Real : A bike, a drawing kit and a graphic novel later. Isabel Del Real – long-distance cyclist and ‘documentary cartoonist’ – came to Nice to share her story and brush strokes with us. VIEW MORE RIDE & CREATE: Jade Robertson. It's clear that Jade’s cycling life feeds directly into her art. Movement and textures fly out of the canvas like the road or trails in front of you. VIEW MORE TRANSMISSION – GUILLAUME NERY. Cycling is a gift. From when you are first taught to push the pedals down the street, to crossing the finish line with your arms raised in thanks. VIEW MORE Ride & Create | Laurianne Melierre. On her bright orange Brompton, Laurianne Melierre skilfully navigates the beautiful neighbourhoods of Paris with equal parts curiosity and power. VIEW MORE

RIDE AND CREATE | Isabel Del Real ‘Seeing new landscapes is a real source of inspiration.’ Isabel Del Real is a long-distance cyclist, illustrator and author. Born in San Francisco and growing up on the coast of Brittany, she spent most of her childhood outdoors and reading books. A curious creature with natural wanderlust, she decided to take some time out post-university to travel. This quickly blossomed into a year-long bike-packing adventure from France to Iran, where she rediscovered her love for exploration and storytelling. A friend of Café du Cycliste, she visited Nice recently to talk about her passion for long distance cycling and how it powers her artistry. Already hooked into hiking and with an obsession for the mountains and ancient maps, Isabel Del Real dreamt of a big trek east through all the highest points in Europe and into Asia. She started with a high Pyrenean hike, and loved it, but realised that it was going to take three years to get all the way on foot. She discovered that the way to carry herself and her gear was by bicycle. Building her bike with friends out of various spare parts and a Surly Ogre frame, she also sewed together her own panniers, ready for a serious bike-packing adventure. Isabel decided she wanted to travel to Tehran from her hometown Plouër sur Rance in northwest France. And it was this adventure that led to the 26-year-old documenting her travels through illustration. Having loved drawing when she was younger, sketching and colouring all the time, but never studying it, she found on her bike trips that she had the peace and solitude to reignite her love for illustration. Overcoming the fear of the blank sheet and the need for perfection, she made lines she liked and began to feel good when putting pencil and ink to paper. During her trip to Tehran she drew more and more; gaining confidence in herself and her form. One of the results of this voyage is a graphic novel she has recently published called Plouheran (a contraction of Plouër and Tehran). Now, on every journey, she retransmits in drawing the emotions she feels on her bike: loneliness, encounters, nights in bivouacs, friendships. The eternal act of ‘looking to the end of the road’. Isabel’s creativity is very much a product of riding her bicycle. She pulls a fresh copy of Plouheran out of a box and looks it over, saying: ‘You have so much freedom physically and mentally when you ride a bike, the body is busy but the mind can think. It brings peace, and it is this serenity of mind that will allow you to be creative. It develops the imagination to have large landscapes in front of you, mountains that make you dream, you can project all your thoughts on them.’ During her trip from Brittany to Tehran she found it gave her the opportunity and inspiration to draw. As she pores over different landscapes and details, Isabel continues: ‘When you travel long term, you need moments of pause, sometimes there is no internet, no books to read… We have time to occupy, which is an immense luxury. The mind is really linked to the pedals, for example there are very frustrating things that we somehow exorcise when we climb, and things linked to freedom and happiness when we descend. It’s a vehicle for reflection and we can find a real organization of creativity on the bike.’ We ask the obvious question about how this kind of travelling and exploration influences her creative work, and how it manifests itself on paper. ‘The two are really linked but in fact they are conducted in different environments… When you do comics and cycling, you are brought between two phases, the outdoor phase, when you're on the bike finding inspiration and looking for stories to tell. But at some point, you have to sit down and create the comic strip; which is extremely demanding. You lock yourself in your studio and draw and take your time.’ Isabel’s process for creating her stories obviously begins with sketches but also photos and notes on the phone, plus that old fashioned thing called human memory. ‘When you're not looking at the photos and your notes, the question to ask is, “what do you remember?” Memory is a screenshot in your head. Sometimes the mind distorts a little but it's a memory so it's a strong image. For my graphic novel Plouheran, I used what I remembered the most. I now travel to find stories. Afterwards, you have to work to shape these stories into something more than just experiences... There are so many joyful memories you take from cycling. Every day I was happy on my bike. You are in nature, so you see beautiful things. You exercise, you feel good. Like riding in the Euphrates Gorge, a magnificent gravel road, with friends I’d met along the way, it was one of the most magical moments and in the evening you make your bivouac. Pure adventure.’ Those magical moments are the driving force for Isabel, she does not consider herself as a pure cyclist, but really an ‘outsider’. But it’s clear that as soon as she reaches another new destination, she makes herself right at home with conviviality and enthusiasm for whatever and whoever she sees and meets. ‘I wanted to go somewhere, and the bike was a way of getting there. Today, I have a hyper-rational love of cycling. It’s the best form of transportation in the city or anywhere. Cycling isn’t just a sport – it’s a means of travel, of escape. I didn't think I would call myself a cyclist but now I think that from the moment we ride a bike, it doesn't matter what we are, we are cyclists. Everyone has their own way of cycling.’ Café du Cycliste first teamed up with Isabel in 2021, supplying her with some essential kit (including her trusted Alizée which she takes ‘everywhere’) on her trip from Brittany to Tehran. Isabel’s first time in Nice was memorable for those same reasons that so many keep returning; the mountains, the sea, and the culture. ‘Nice has inspired me to draw. The city is that of the sportsperson but also that of the traveller. The tiled roofs, greenery, and boats. The colours, the churches... and the socca. The atmosphere of the city feels very Italian. It's a beautiful, relaxing city and feels like an endless summer vacation.’ READ MORE RIDE & CREATE: Jade Robertson. It's clear that Jade’s cycling life feeds directly into her art. Movement and textures fly out of the canvas like the road or trails in front of you. VIEW MORE Ride & Create | Laurianne Melierre. On her bright orange Brompton, Laurianne Melierre skilfully navigates the beautiful neighbourhoods of Paris with equal parts curiosity and power. VIEW MORE Ride & Create : Andrea Sarri Italian Michelin Starred Chef Sarri annually records more than 25,000 km on the clock.Andrea should have become a professional cyclist, but life decided otherwise. VIEW MORE Ride and Create : Anne Pesce. For over 15 years, Artist Anne Pesce has been repeating the same ritual every day. Just before 6am, when day is barely breaking or is still completely dark, she leaves her apartment on her bike to climb the Col de Vence. VIEW MORE

RIDE & CREATE | Jade Robertson In early June we stopped by the studio of Jade Robertson, an abstract artist and lifelong cyclist who this year created an artwork for a campaign with Café du Cycliste. Originally from the UK, Jade is now based in the Bastille area of Paris. Her art is, in her words, ‘about energy’ and if you take a look through her catalogue of paintings you can see how Jade’s work is certainly dynamic, but also heavily influenced by nature and the environment in which she often travels by bike. Cycling for most of her life, and coming from a family of cyclists, Jade went on mountain bike holidays as a child, honing her technical skills and a love for the exhilaration of cycling. ‘I got a pink drop-handlebar bike for my 10th birthday and thought I was the coolest. I learnt a big lesson when I put the pedal down and turned into a curb and came right off. It hurt, and [laughing] I’ve never done it since.’ After graduating she moved to New York City to pursue a textile-design career working for large brands for almost 20 years. Jade grew despondent with the homogenous world of commercial fashion and was desperate to find a new outlet for her creativity. But it was cycling, rather than art, that pushed her in a new and far more fulfilling direction. ‘I wasn’t feeling inspired in my professional life, and that’s when I started cycling more in New York City.’ Having commuted on a CX bike, she met a group of cyclists in New York and upgraded to a slicker road bike. Soon she was riding twice a week with this all-male group, pushing herself to new limits every Wednesday and Saturday on chain-gangs from the Big Apple into New jersey state. ‘Cycling was my everything. It allowed for the expression and outlet that my job wasn’t giving me. I just couldn’t wait to get out on the bike. And cycling with the guys made me really strong.’ ‘It sounds a bit corny but that gave me the push to do my own thing in my career. You know, I’m thinking “if I can ride with these guys, and I’m taking turns to pull on the front…” It was metaphorical in my career, and I started to be true to myself. My job ended in NYC and since then I’ve been a freelance artist.’ Jade moved to Paris and began looking for a similar group to ride with. Here she met Christophe Flemin, in-house photographer at Café du Cycliste, and they got talking about the creative world. ‘One of the beautiful things about cycling is you meet amazing people. It creates a camaraderie… Since I met Christophe, he’s been a great advocate and contact for my work.’ Having worked on a project with Christophe previously, he contacted Jade for about a campaign to launch the new Café du Cycliste footwear category. ‘The beauty of the project was I’m a cyclist and I know what it feels like to ride on the road and off the road, I know the feeling – you know like riding through Paris at 6am in the morning with no one around, that thrill of the ride. and I wanted to emulate that in the painting.’ Influenced by many things alongside Japanese painting and French abstract expressionism, Jade’s work is undoubtedly full of the energy and dynamism found when travelling fast on a bicycle. But it’s also a window into her ecstatic take on the world around her. She loves to capture the duality of her experience, blending light and dark, calm and chaos. ‘Most of my painting is about energy, and a feeling. So this project with Café was not difficult for me to interpret. We did a few versions, but not many. I used a few different techniques like the spray bottle to create the splash effect. It was a really fun project to work on.’ It's clear that Jade’s cycling life feeds directly into her art. Movement and textures fly out of the canvas like the road or trails in front of you. And she clearly understood the brief, the DNA of Café du Cycliste as a brand. ‘Things like water on the road, the dust, the tyre marks, and I think Christophe didn’t need to say much to me as I knew what you guys were looking for... I love capturing the movement and energy and trying to recreate that from the experience on the bike.’ Jade’s bouncy demeanour is even more apparent when you meet her, she beams with positivity and it’s infectious. But it’s perhaps the toil and discomfort (maybe even darkness) of hours in the saddle, especially when climbing and overcoming a hill or mountain that creates this dissonance, and ultimately clears the mind. ‘Cycling is like therapy for me. It makes me so happy. What you can learn from cycling is endless. It’s very metaphorical for life. Like when I rode Mt. Ventoux, these moments are very humbling. Overcoming, you know. It’s not just a work-out, you can really clear your mind, focus on the present, it’s really good for your mentality.’ As with all our subjects in this series, we pose the question, are the two worlds of cycling and creativity symbiotic? ‘I think cycling and creativity are strongly linked. It’s hard to visualise what comes into my head, but it helps me to free my mind, and I don’t think I could do one without the other. It allows me to stay present and focus. The physical and mental side of both are so important to me.’ Cycling and art have one overriding thing in common for her: energy. And this is of course what turns the pedals, creates the brush strokes and ultimately makes the world go round for Jade Robertson. She harnesses that energy in everything she does. ‘Without getting too philosophical, I think cycling and art have saved my life. I don’t know what I’d do without them. It’s 100% who I am. I know it's not easy to be a successful artist. I just want people to feel good when they see my painting. That energy I want to portray, it’s something that’s really important to me.’ READ MORE Ride & Create | Laurianne Melierre On her bright orange Brompton, Laurianne Melierre skilfully navigates the beautiful neighbourhoods of Paris with equal parts curiosity and power. Ride & Create : Andrea Sarri Italian Michelin Starred Chef Sarri annually records more than 25,000 km on the clock.Andrea should have become a professional cyclist, but life decided otherwise. Ride & Create: Antoine Ricardou Founder of Paris-based Saint-Lazare / A.S.L agency and Montmartre Vélo Club (the MVC Paris), Architect Antoine Ricardou rode out with us on a rainy morning in Paris to share his thoughts on links between his creative practice and endurance sports. Ride and Create : Anne Pesce For over 15 years, Artist Anne Pesce has been repeating the same ritual every day. Just before 6am, when day is barely breaking or is still completely dark, she leaves her apartment on her bike to climb the Col de Vence.

The Tour 2023 –– High Profile Whatever you might be doing this summer, July generally means one thing in the bike racing calendar... All eyes are firmly set on France. The bunting is up, the sun cream is out, and three weeks of peloton prime time is ready to be devoured. Of course, we’ve always been here in the spiritual home (and key training location) of road racing, but that doesn’t stop the excitement fizzing about our corner of the Riviera like an unattended fire hose come July. As well as stunning scenery and very fast humans on bicycles, the Tour (pour hommes et pour femmes) tells you a lot about the diversity and culture of France; its regionality and eccentricities. And with Bastille Day falling in the middle of the race, the Tour is more than just a cacophonous bike race invading towns and villages. For many bike riders and lovers of the sport this time of year is the peak of the season. This year marks 120 years of this grandest of all the stage races and takes in five distinct mountain ranges: the Vosges, Jura, Massif Central and the Alps and Pyrenees of course. And as with every July, the anticipation for the mountain stages gets most people feeling highly effervescent. It’s the pinnacle of bike racing, and to see who can be first (and last) to the top of some of the world’s most storied and mythical mountain passes will never lose its appeal. Pulsating uphill battles and hazardous downhill hijinks abound when the gradient rises. The Big Cheese of the Tour, Christian Prudhomme, is certainly making a name for himself in terms of the difficulty and demeanour of the world’s greatest bike race in the 21st century. And as cycling is possibly more popular than ever, this should be admired… bums on saddles and all that. Not sure how some of the riders feel but alas it’s not supposed to be a holiday for them now, is it. Route planning doesn’t really get more high-profile (get it?) than this. Prudhomme’s relentless approach to creating punishing roadmaps is a testament to the rich terrain the country offers and also the origins of the Tour. Henri Desgrange, the creator of the race in 1903 envisioned a Herculean Odyssey through his native land that was so difficult only one rider would finish… Mystic pieces of history that still have relevance today. Whatever Desgrange might have thought of this route there is plenty for the professional teams competing as well as those watching at home and along the route to get nervous and elated about. So, let’s take a bird’s eye view of this year’s itinerary via each of the five mountain ranges. Pyrenees Departing from Bilbao and the Basque Country will ensure the race kicks off with a bang. Two hilly and lengthy stages to begin proceedings then take us to Stages 5 and 6 in the brooding peaks and troughs of the Pyrenees. The wilder more unpredictable cousin to the Alps, the Pyrenees, which demarcates France and the Basque Country/Spain is darker, more rugged and has some incredible riding for the hungry amateur and long-suffering professional alike. The Col du Tourmalet and Aspin feature on a fire-starter of a first week. Jura An unknown territory for the casual observer (and not to be confused with the Scottish island known for its whisky), bike riding and racing in the Jura is probably not as well-known as some of the more edible things you can find in the region such as Morbier cheese made with Comtè cows’ milk. This sub-alpine range of mountains runs along the border between France and Switzerland and the region is densely populated by evergreens (as well as cows). The region is also close to the vineyards that produce Beaujolais, so the stage here will be expected to produce a vintage day of racing with a very tasty finish. Alps What to say about the Alps and the Tour that’s not a cliché. If cheese is the food of cycling, then the Alps is a giant plate of tartiflette you won’t be able to finish after climbing for 30 kilometres. There are altogether five days of racing in the Alps this year including an uphill time-trial and a very undulating stage 15 in the Haute-Savoie region that will send the peloton up the Col de la Forclaz de Montmin, Croix Fry, Aravis and the Cote des Amerands. By the end of this second weekend the rider’s legs will certainly be feeling the heat. Massif Central Stage 9 finishes on top of the Puy de Dome, which was immortalised by an image from the 1964 race, where Jacques Anquetil and Raymond Poulidor locked shoulders riding up this volcano’s back. What the French public and media would give for a rivalry like that again. We may have to settle for the great Dane and the superhuman Slovenian to battle it out, but maybe not in the second week. We shall see. Vosges The first ever Tour stage over a mountain pass took place in the Vosges in 1905 up the Ballon d’Alsace and the final mountain stage of this year’s race could be just as historically significant. The profile reads like a cheese-lover’s cardiogram first travelling up the Ballon d’Alsace, and then onto to five other climbs… According to Prudhomme it may cause a bit of ‘indigestion’. Whatever that means, it will make for a very entertaining showdown. Let battle commence. READ MORE Le Tour; Dans la Chaleur. In more recent times we've seen weather protocols finally being introduced to protect riders from snow and freezing cold conditions. But the heat, 'La fournaise', is another matter. The Tour de France Ride. With Turini at the top and Eze by the coast this is a sea to sky ride to rival the best in the world. Another Tour : Morzine, July '22. The Tour is life. From the northern cobblestones to the Alps, the Pyrénées to the Champs Élysées. Every dog has its day. The highs and lows, the mountains and the valleys, on and on they race. Ventoux Times Two. Scenes from the road side of the Mont Ventoux on Stage 11 of the Tour de France 2021.