59 sleepless hours and a Josephine
Starting on the 6th of September, the ‘1000 du sud’ (which means ’The South’s 1000’) is not a race, it is what’s known as a brevet. Brevets are long-distance, free-paced cycling events. Each rider can ride at his own pace.
And it actually gets more complicated as riders don’t have a support vehicle, they must be self reliant and of course there are the time limits reducing the down time and forcing you to ride at night...
At the beginning of the last century, a brevet was a certificate given to the finishers of some cycling event, and one was required in order to sign up for the biggest races of that time.
Participants are called randonneurs but people also call them crazy ! Indeed, a bit of craziness is necessary to ride for 59hours and 12 minutes without sleeping a wink.
Our friend and hero Michel did exactly that. A tough rider that you might spot on our website pictures but most of the time you will find him out there riding long distance and testing our products.
Even if there is nothing to win, (apart from the piece of paper), he took 2nd overall, riding the 1000 kilometres and the 15500 metres of elevation that the route offers.
Michel was lucky enough to have the opportunity to ride through wonderful places such as Luberon, the Haute Provence boardering Mont Ventoux, the Vercors massif, the Dévoluy, the Ubaye valley, the col de la Cayolle, the Vésubie valley, the perched villages of the Arrière pays Niçois, the Verdon gorge and et the Sainte Croix lake...
All this had to be done within 75 hours, which is the condition to get the certificate...with 59 hours, Michel has it for sure.
Michel was wearing our Josephine bib shorts and Violette jersey for his adventure. 60 hours of riding almost in a row. On that type of distances everything has to feel good, and comfort is the key.
We believe that the highest praise and best testament of all is hearing from a 1000 du sud finisher who says he still loves his bibshorts-even after 59 hours of sitting on it!
