With their bike bags still strapped to the racks and smiles on their faces, Gabin Gély and Baptiste Annequin-Digond dismounted at Place du Casino in Monte-Carlo on Friday afternoon.
It marked the end of a journey they had set out to make unforgettable.
The two 17-year-old friends cycled from Geneva to Monaco in seven days, to mark the end of high school with an unforgettable adventure before beginning university.
“It was incredible, both for the scenery and the people we met,” Gabin Gély said.
“Physically, these are the kinds of challenges we enjoy. We find pleasure in suffering like that.”
Their parents were waiting in the square with colorful flower leis to celebrate their arrival.
Throughout the journey, both families had followed their sons’ progress via GPS and kept in touch through a WhatsApp group created for the adventure.
Finding places to stay with locals was one of the challenges along the way.
“We had a bit of a tough time. We were turned down a lot,” Baptiste Annequin-Digond admitted.
But the two friends from Isère also encountered remarkable generosity.
In Villar-Saint-Pancrace, near Briançon, they were given an entire house for the night, complete with three bedrooms and two bathrooms.
When they found themselves without anywhere to cook, a couple they met at a campsite gave them pasta, apples, bananas, chocolate bars and ketchup.
“It’s not pity. It’s about helping each other out,” Gély insisted.
Col du Télégraphe Proves the Toughest Challenge
The two friends had mapped out their entire route in advance, stage by stage, using cycling apps.
They even turned down several suggestions from locals to change their itinerary.
Their route alternated between bike paths and more technical stretches, including the descent toward Monaco via La Turbie.
There, they encountered an impassable trail and had to get off their bikes.
The toughest day, however, was the 127-kilometer ride from Annecy to Valloire, which included climbing the Col du Télégraphe in intense heat.
It came the day after an evening spent at the Lake Annecy festival.
“We tackled the pass with 110 kilometers already in our legs,” Annequin-Digond recalled.
Despite riding entry-level bikes, they completed the trip without a single puncture or major mechanical problem.
That was particularly good news for Gély, a Formula 1 fan who used the final climb toward Le Rocher to soak up a little of Monaco’s racing atmosphere.
“You always hold out a little hope of running into a driver,” he said with a laugh.
Already Thinking About the Next Adventure
Arriving in Monaco, the pair were particularly struck by the contrast with the vast landscapes of the Col du Galibier, which they had crossed just four days earlier.
“We go from nothing to everything,” Gély said, surrounded by the Gucci and Dior boutiques of Monte-Carlo.
Despite the fatigue, the two friends say there were no serious disagreements during their seven days on the road.
“We tell each other when something’s wrong, so we never stay angry for long,” Annequin-Digond said.
And the journey has only fueled their appetite for another adventure.
Annequin-Digond is already dreaming of cycling the Grande Traversée des Alpes, this time tackling all the mountain passes along the route.
Gély, meanwhile, has something wilder in mind, away from the roads.
Perhaps Iceland.