Transmission: Guillaume Nery

TRANSMISSION – GUILLAUME NERY

Introducing a new series of profiles and explorations on the inter-generational connection of cycling and its positive impact on the world.

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. It is more than just a sport. It is a passion, a community, a family, a gift. Passed down from generation to generation. Passion, community, learning, self-sufficiency, and balance.

The premiere subject in the Transmission series is Guillaume, world-champion free-diver, lifelong cyclist, and resident of the Riviera, embodies the spirit of Transmission.

We joined him on a family outing with his parents and his daughter along the Italian cycle path from Ospedaletti along the Riviera Dei Fiori; three generations riding together and taking in tranquil coastal views towards the Ligurian Sea.

Since birth Nery would visit the family house in a small village in the Drôme. A summer tradition, it was here that he learned to walk, to ride a bicycle and, also, to swim. His first trips by bike, barely a year old, were sitting on an old bike seat behind his mother, Corinne, who would climb and descend cols with her baby. Once he learnt to pedal himself the bike was the ultimate tool of discovery, going for rides in the streets of the village by bike. It was around the age of five that he was able to escape on his own to discover the large expanses of countryside, and realise the bike was a magical machine.

As he grew, he would take more and more pleasure in learning all the local passes. His father, Joël Nery, noted everyone's times and the goal was to beat his times from the previous summer. ‘That was the first time I felt that competitive impulse to improve, year after year. Cycling was the sport where I understood my physical capabilities. I have vivid memories of racing with my parents, keeping rankings and awarding points to whoever reached the pass first. We even did intermediate sprints; our outings took on a Tour de France twist. It was magical.’ But the practice of cycling has evolved a lot since then. Cycling was Guillaume’s main sport during adolescence but then he discovered freediving.

Keeping a relationship with the bike as a training tool, it has been vital to his physical and mental condition for his underwater athleticism. Today he has a whole group of friends who come from freediving who also use cycling as a training tool. During the winters, they cycle together with the idea of diving deeper during the summer period.

‘I see the bicycle as a kind of symbol, a key to open mental as well as physical pathways. There are three main areas I see as the channels for development with the bike: Firstly, the Worship of Effort, because there is a physical effort, a movement. In a world and a society where we seek the idea of ‘progress’ as being in absolute comfort, this is negative. Cycling allows you to put your body back in motion and own your movement.

The second area is Organic Energy, a form of slowing down and using the human engine, compared to motorised forms of transport. Cycling is like travelling by foot, only faster. After all, the ‘velocipede’ was designed as that. It’s learning to find a slightly more natural pace of movement, to appreciate life differently.

And thirdly is the crucial act of Sharing, cycling is something we do together. [And this is rooted to the Transmission.] The idea of the mutual benefits of this sport, we support each other in difficult moments but we learn to be together, to help each other.’

Today the bicycle for Guillaume is very much a sharing tool, a form of communion. Riding with his daughter, Maï-Lou, and his partner, Audrey, whether it's to travel, to train or to go swimming. It has now become very rare for him to pedal alone. Before he often trained on his own; now it synonymous with friendship and love...

‘It’s my main means of transport in my daily life. The bike really allows us to discover new places, to travel at our own pace. The bicycle is present almost everywhere. I took my daughter on the bike as my mother did with me. As soon as she was two years old, he climbed some hills with his daughter in the baby seat. It is also the way we take her to school. And now she can ride her own bike, she has a taste for cycling, not the performance side but more the discovery aspect. We recently rode together in the Luberon over several days. ‘I think very slowly, something is being born, but I try above all not to force it. It’s about having fun.’ He would like to see that in a few years they go on an adventure for several months together and consolidate with her that beautiful concept of how cycling rhymes with travel and discovery.

‘Through cycling I hope to transmit a certain spirit of curiosity. The bike opens your eyes to the parenthesis you are placed in when travelling by car and plane, even the train restricts your experience… The bike transforms the journey into a source of observation, fascination, curiosity and discovery.

I want to pass that on to her, but also give her a taste for effort. Going through all the phases, the difficult moments where you want to give up, the experiences of euphoria, it’s nourishing for the soul and mind and gives great lessons that are useful in everyday life.’

As the family ride stops for lunch, we all sit down. Guillaume’s father, mother and daughter chat and laugh… He looks on looking very contentedly: ‘As I said, I see the bicycle as a kind of symbol.’

Guillaume continues to ride with his parents in the Drôme. He just got his father's old bike out of storage, one that he had ridden as a teenager in the 1960s. Guillaume is going to restore it to its former glory so he can ride it once more. Through the very nature of this object, we find the idea of Transmission. While he goes to make a phone call we ask Corinne, Guillaume’s mother, to share a few words about her son and the bicycle.

‘When he was 14 years old we rode Ventoux. We rode together for a little while and then all of a sudden, he was off disappearing from view, probably overtaking 30 cyclists or more on the way to the top of the climb. He was always riding faster and faster. This pleasure of cycling has never ceased.

Today was a very beautiful day, sharing the taste of cycling from generation to generation. It goes even further because Guillaume's grandfather was also a cyclist.

'For me it is the feeling of surpassing oneself. That feeling of freedom and not depending on anyone. On a bike, I rely on my own personal effort. To be detached from all constraints, to be close to nature. It is fantastic. It is the link between all of us as a family, a passion that has kept us bonded together.'

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It’s 6:27 am as we approach Étienne Hubert’s front door on the eastern edge of Paris. The professional kayaker and Caravan athlete resides a stone’s throw from Bois de Vincennes, the city’s largest public park. Today, we are here to follow him around as he trains and observe the life of sportsman who will not stop.

No Direction Home : Bike-packing in the Balkans.

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Guillaume Néry: Diving in at the Café.

It took five magical minutes to understand the dimension of free-diving champion and Caravan member, Guillaume Néry. To watch him sit and hold his breath for five minutes was a drop in the ocean on the way to understanding what’s required in this super-human sport.

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