#1047 Making it to the pro-MTB ranks was surreal. From my first rides with my dad to actually making more back than I paid out to ride my bike. Base miles and big-ring drills, diet and core strength sessions. Attention to detail in every aspect of training and racing life. When you are into it, it is all-consuming and as a younger rider in that moment in your life, it’s the most important thing, the top priority. Shredding single track will forever hold a place in my heart. Combining it with a maximal aerobic effort, fuelled by the competition and the adrenalin might have been a serious addiction for a while. The team kit, the sponsored bikes, the team training camps made it a special experience – a constant balance was required to remember on the one hand that I’d earned it but on the other hand had to stay on the top of my game to keep it. Race-day rituals got me through the butterflies in the stomach to the sprint to the first corner. Pinning numbers to my jersey and the plate to my handlebars was an obsessive activity. The numbers changed from race to race but my attitude didn’t. Because I am not a number. I AM NOT A NUMBER #6027 In amongst the masses of riders herded into the starting pens like cattle, ready to go on the ‘b’ of the bang. VIEW MORE #80 On the map, I’m just a dot from a GPS signal - a pair of coordinates and a ticking clock. VIEW MORE #112 Alpine skiing was the first competitive sport I ever participated in. And I was coming from an island where there are no ski slopes. But I am not a number. VIEW MORE

#6027 In amongst the masses of riders herded into the starting pens like cattle, ready to go on the ‘b’ of the bang and take on the 135km mountainous ride. L’Étape du Tour was the biggest event I’d ever done. And I didn’t even have my own number. I had to buy it off the internet because the demand was such that entries sold out within a few days. So I had Gil’s number. Gil is a Portugese rider I never met, we just exchanged messages via social media. L’Étape is, in fact, an event of numbers. Thousands of entrants who take on a parcours whose statistics have been poured over, followed immediately afterwards by data analysis of how those statistics were conquered – the classic parameters of total time, average speed, and elevation gain. Numbers are compared with those of the winner, with those in your age group, and most importantly, with those of your friends. Now and again, it’s nice to know where you stand in the grand scheme of these sporting things. But I am not a.... I AM NOT A NUMBER #1047 Base miles and big-ring drills, diet and core strength sessions. Attention to detail in every aspect of training and racing life. VIEW MORE #80 On the map, I’m just a dot from a GPS signal - a pair of coordinates and a ticking clock. VIEW MORE #112 Alpine skiing was the first competitive sport I ever participated in. And I was coming from an island where there are no ski slopes. But I am not a number. VIEW MORE

This is bikepacking seen through the eyes of the riders of PCR Gravier. Nine (not) wise men on bicycles loaded with luggage went to Slow-venia on their annual voyage of discovery. Afterwards they (in particular the talented Renaud Skyronka) put together a manual, in video format, consisting of their eight tips for a successful bikepacking adventure. Warning before watching: 1. It will give you wanderlust and may lead to some rash decisions to forget working life and get on a train with your bike2. No-one cares about your watts on Zwift... You can also read their written (and equally entertaining) considerations HERE

What happens when movie-makers meet a cycling clothing designer? Answer : the product development suggestions become more and more interesting.

Roots beget routes Have bike, will ride. The long and short of cycling in the Southern Alps, from road to the rougher stuff.

Fuji On Film Magical Fuji. Three Tokyo-based riders - Norifumi Kajimoto, Nobuhiko Tanabe and Mikihiro Fylfot - explain the power of Japan's most famous mountain and go off piste to find Fuji's B-side.

Two Wheels and Waves Ride the back-country, set up camp by the sea and surf until sunset. Then choruses at dawn.

Due South on film A view from the road, heading Due South from Nice to Mallorca.

AW18 - THE FILM Je vais aller un peu plus haut, un peu plus loin.

TCR checkmate on film The start line of the TCR. And many (many) lines after.

I'm coming to Nice Plan it. Book it. Ride it. Nice in a day (or more).

Due North on film From the sun to the city. And everything in-between.

Tour du Terroir: Truffes Deep in the back country, down dirt tracks, in the folds and crevices of our local mountains, there are many secret truffle spots and it’s surprising to think that on any ride you may be cycling past thousands of euros of buried black gold.

Emotion from motion And it was written. Thoughts from the canon of French literature, interpreted as reasons to ride. As if reason was necessary.

AW17: The film Shot on the roads we ride, inspired by the cols we climb. AW17 on new fangled celluloid.

Gild your loins Someone once famously said 'any colour just as long as it's black'. And then life moved on.

Les Zinzins de Turini The aim is to scale the Col du Turini by at least three of the principle routes (Sospel, La Bollène-Vésubie and L’Escarène via Luceram and the 'lacets' Baisse de la Cabanette).

Mont Vial Mont Vial is one of the few peaks of the backcountry behind Nice that is recognisable from the sea, and cyclists riding towards the Var valley can orient themselves by it, too: it will float in and out of view as the roads dip and turn.

Col de Vence It is the furthest west, and therefore the furthest of our favourite climbs from the great spine of the Alps, divider of peoples, trapper of clouds that lifts itself between France and Italy.

Col de Turini Across its sylvan slopes thread innumerable trails and roads. Some are fit only for wild boar, deer and, in the autumn, an army of people attracted by the wild mushrooms that thrive in the cool damp shade of the chestnuts, larch and pines.