With their bike bags still strapped to the racks and smiles on their faces, Gabin G\u00e9ly and Baptiste Annequin-Digond dismounted at Place du Casino in Monte-Carlo on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n
It marked the end of a journey they had set out to make unforgettable.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“It was incredible, both for the scenery and the people we met,” Gabin G\u00e9ly said.<\/p>\n
“Physically, these are the kinds of challenges we enjoy. We find pleasure in suffering like that.”<\/p>\n
Their parents were waiting in the square with colorful flower leis to celebrate their arrival.<\/p>\n
Throughout the journey, both families had followed their sons\u2019 progress via GPS and kept in touch through a WhatsApp group created for the adventure.<\/p>\n
Finding places to stay with locals was one of the challenges along the way.<\/p>\n
“We had a bit of a tough time. We were turned down a lot,” Baptiste Annequin-Digond admitted.<\/p>\n
But the two friends from Is\u00e8re also encountered remarkable generosity.<\/p>\n
In Villar-Saint-Pancrace, near Brian\u00e7on, they were given an entire house for the night, complete with three bedrooms and two bathrooms.<\/p>\n
When they found themselves without anywhere to cook, a couple they met at a campsite gave them pasta, apples, bananas, chocolate bars and ketchup.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s not pity. It\u2019s about helping each other out,” G\u00e9ly insisted.<\/p>\n
Col du T\u00e9l\u00e9graphe Proves the Toughest Challenge<\/p>\n
The two friends had mapped out their entire route in advance, stage by stage, using cycling apps.<\/p>\n
They even turned down several suggestions from locals to change their itinerary.<\/p>\n
Their route alternated between bike paths and more technical stretches, including the descent toward Monaco via La Turbie.<\/p>\n
There, they encountered an impassable trail and had to get off their bikes.<\/p>\n
The toughest day, however, was the 127-kilometer ride from Annecy to Valloire, which included climbing the Col du T\u00e9l\u00e9graphe in intense heat.<\/p>\n
It came the day after an evening spent at the Lake Annecy festival.<\/p>\n
“We tackled the pass with 110\u00a0kilometers already in our legs,” Annequin-Digond recalled.<\/p>\n
Despite riding entry-level bikes, they completed the trip without a single puncture or major mechanical problem.<\/p>\n
That was particularly good news for G\u00e9ly, a Formula 1\u00a0fan who used the final climb toward Le Rocher to soak up a little of Monaco\u2019s racing atmosphere.<\/p>\n
“You always hold out a little hope of running into a driver,” he said with a laugh.<\/p>\n
Already Thinking About the Next Adventure<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“We go from nothing to everything,” G\u00e9ly said, surrounded by the Gucci and Dior boutiques of Monte-Carlo.<\/p>\n
Despite the fatigue, the two friends say there were no serious disagreements during their seven days on the road.<\/p>\n
“We tell each other when something\u2019s wrong, so we never stay angry for long,” Annequin-Digond said.<\/p>\n
And the journey has only fueled their appetite for another adventure.<\/p>\n
Annequin-Digond is already dreaming of cycling the Grande Travers\u00e9e des Alpes, this time tackling all the mountain passes along the route.<\/p>\n
G\u00e9ly, meanwhile, has something wilder in mind, away from the roads.<\/p>\n
Perhaps Iceland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With their bike bags still strapped to the racks and smiles on their faces, Gabin G\u00e9ly and Baptiste…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[16],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-113516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alps","tag-alps"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/117069809328465195","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}