#ThisIsMyRide – BikingMan by Jocelyn Fourmont

“This Is My Ride” is a series where we share the most memorable, unique, or challenging rides from our community. Maybe it’s a first century ride, an epic climb, or a regular Sunday ride with friends: we want to hear about that special something which makes this particular ride epic for you – and your Argon 18. Want to share your ride? Email us at marketing.web@argon18.com.

BikingMan is a series of seven self-supported long-distance cycling events ranging from 800km to 1000km. The rides took place in France, Portugal and Brazil in 2021. The idea is to search out the most difficult and least visited route, and to discover beautiful places and experiences along the way.

My brother Anthoni and I did BikingMan in Corsica in 2021, and when we finished, our first thought was “never again”. But as time passed, the memory of the pain faded – and another event was announced. This time it was in Basque Country, where my brother grew up... so of course we had to do it. We knew the biggest challenge would be the 23,000m of altitude gain, and the distance itself: 1000km. But as an Argon 18 employee I’m always ready to put myself – and my Krypton Pro – to the test. It didn’t take much to convince Anthoni as well.

Let's start with the lows. Finding a place to eat was very challenging because the villages we passed through were very small and the opening hours of restaurants and stores vary a lot. It was a bit like rolling the dice every day, but in the mornings we were usually successful.

The accommodations also gave us a hard time. Spending the first night sleeping in a city park wrapped in our survival blankets didn't help with our recovery. To make matters worse, during the night the sprinkler system clicked on, and we had to put our water bottles over the sprinklers to stay dry. For the rest of the time we managed to find hostels or small hotels, or camp when we found space.

The highlights: definitely the landscape. I love our mountains, the Pyrenees. They have a beauty that is hard to explain. It feels huge and the scenery is always changing. It’s literally majestic. You feel tiny.

The beauty of the event also comes from other participants that we met. We would talk about everything and nothing, but the subject of those conversations often turned to "I can't ride anymore" and "will you sleep now or tonight" to know what rhythm each person was moving at.

The organization was also amazing. Didier and David, our sherpas of the road, were always hiding somewhere to take pictures or just to cheer us up. They are called the "race angels" and they make sure everyone is safe.

It definitely took me a long time to recover from this one. After a fall on the descent of the Col D'Iraty my hip wasn't feeling too good. My hands were numb for about two weeks but now they’ve recovered.

When we crossed the finish line - two minutes before the cutoff time - a huge feeling of accomplishment came over us. The organizers were there, as well as our parents to congratulate us. We had a beer to celebrate our arrival at 4:58am and then took some time to decompress. At the time we didn’t quite absorb what we had accomplished, but now that we’ve had time to reflect I can say I’m pretty proud to have finished – and in the allotted time.

I doubt I will ever do it again - in fact, I’ll say no, right now. We did what we had to do, and I will always have the memories! But the ratio of 2500m climbing per 100km is tough, especially with all the gear. But it’s so beautiful in the mountains, there’s almost a love/hate relationship with each climb.

I'm looking at RAF (Race Across France) for my next challenge I think – it's longer, 2300km, but the cutoff time is more flexible and the elevation gain is less intense. There are still high peaks to cross - like the Ventoux - but this event interests me a lot.

To be continued!

Thanks to:

Argon 18, especially Martin Le Sauteur for giving us the opportunity to participate in this kind of event; Argon18's R&D team for building such beautiful bikes for this kind of challenge (Mathieu and Vincent); the BikingMan organization (Axel, Didier and David); my parents (Helene and Patrick) for their moral support and for letting me ride for so long even if they sometimes wonder why; my girlfriend Nia for her daily messages to keep my morale up; my cycling club, Messorem CC (Fred, Adrien, Lucas, Mathieu, JP and Brian) for their texts when it got hard. And saving the best for last, my brother, Anthoni without whom this adventure would not have been the same - it was a real inspiration to have him by my side despite our age difference of 16 years.