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Glorious Gravel / Glorieuse garnotte

  • September 9, 2021
  • Mountain Life Media
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words :: Peter Oliver // photography :: Endurance Aventure. For French-language text, click here or scroll down.

Martin Le Sauteur and his daughter, Beatrice, know cycling. They have devoted their lives to the sport. Martin is CEO of the Argon 18 bicycle company and has toured extensively around the world. Beatrice has pushed herself through the competitive crucible of road racing. Nothing in cycling, presumably, could possibly be new to these two.

Glorious-Gravel-two-riders-Quebec-Endurance-Aventure
Martin Le Sauteur and his daughter Beatrice along the Gravel Bikepacking Challenge 500 course. / Martin Le Sauteur et sa fille Béatrice sur le parcours du Gravel Bikepacking Challenge 500.

Then they discovered the Gravel Bikepacking Challenge 500 (GBC 500).

The event was an idea conceived as a child of COVID-19, an escape from pandemic anxieties into the outback of the Eastern Townships. Individual riders, or teams of two, were to be set free in August 2020 on a network of dirt and gravel roads, turning social distancing into a form of personal exploration and discovery. The backdrop was a sparsely populated landscape of forests and low-slung hills, barns and silos, cattle and hayfields, tiny hamlets and long stretches of emptiness.

Neither Martin nor Beatrice had ever cycled 500 km in just four days. (GBC 500 riders are allowed up to 168 hours to finish.) And it wasn’t just about the daunting distance. The challenge of 500 km on rugged, hilly roads was an order of magnitude greater than the same distance on smooth pavement. There was also the business of carrying all their gear on the beefy machines, tipping the scales at 20 kilos when fully loaded, needed to complete the journey.    

Glorious-Gravel-drone-landscape-Quebec-Endurance-Aventure
Father and daughter riding on gravel roads. / Père et fille sur les chemins de gravelle.

Beatrice was accustomed to streamlined road bikes and pounding the big gears of hardcore racing. Pedaling short gears on a muscular gravel  bike weighed down by tools, spare parts, clothing, and food—this was a gazelle morphing into a beast of burden. A shift from her racer’s mindset was also in order. Rather than trying to get to the finish as fast as possible, the GBC 500 was about “wanting to spend more time on the bike,” she says. The result: “A sense of freedom—like being a kid on a bike for the first time.”

To keep pace with his race-fit daughter, Martin chose an e-bike from the Argon 18 stable, mostly for help up the many hills along the route. He used the electrical assistance sparingly; he relished the physical exertion of unassisted riding, but he didn’t want to hold Beatrice back. “I wanted to work,” he says, “but I saved myself sometimes by pressing the button.” The two were able to stay together for the full ride, often drafting off one another, and that was the point—father and daughter, sharing and bonding.

Vie en montagne Summer-Fall Issue Out Now / édition été-automne, disponible dès maintenant

They rode mostly in favourable weather, stopping at small villages along the way for snacks and meals, spending the night and sending texts at pre-assigned checkpoints to assure organizers that they were not only keeping to the route—no shortcuts—but were also safe. They covered 120 to 140 km a day. When they encountered a drenching rainstorm on the last morning of the ride, they took shelter in a barn until the storm passed.

As the finish neared, they felt a surge of rejuvenation, “like horses wanting to get back to the barn,” says Beatrice. And the consuming feeling, upon crossing the line, wasn’t just personal satisfaction or exultation. “We were proud,” says Martin; “proud of each other.” Proud to have completed, together, a new challenge—the rugged grind of long-distance gravel bikepacking, brightly revealed in the summer sun of the Quebec backcountry.  

Glorious-Gravel-sign-Quebec-Endurance-Aventure
Glorious Gravel finish podium Quebec Endurance Aventure
On the finish podium. / Sur le podium d’arrivée.

Charlevoix: Quebec’s “Secret” Paradise

Martin Le Sauteur et sa fille Béatrice sont des experts en matière de cyclisme, y ayant consacré tous les deux leur vie. Martin, PDG de l’entreprise de vélos Argon 18, en a pédalé des kilomètres partout sur la planète, alors que Béatrice s’est taillé une place dans le monde de la course sur route. On peut donc supposer qu’ils n’ont plus rien à apprendre.

Jusqu’à ce qu’ils découvrent le Gravel Bikepacking Challenge 500.

Tel un enfant de la Covid, l’événement a été conçu pour fuir les angoisses de la pandémie. En août 2020, des cyclistes se sont lancés, en solo ou en duo, sur un réseau de chemins de terre et de routes en gravier dans l’arrière-pays des Cantons-de-l’Est, faisant ainsi de la distanciation sociale une quête de découvertes. En toile de fond, un paysage où alternent forêts et collines, granges et silos, bétail et champs de foin, minuscules hameaux et vastes étendues désertes, où les habitants se font rares.

Ni Martin ni Béatrice n’avaient déjà parcouru 500 km en aussi peu que quatre jours. (Les cyclistes disposaient d’un maximum de 168 heures pour y arriver.) Certes, la distance impressionne. Mais parcourir 500 km sur une chaussée asphaltée ne se compare en rien au défi de parcourir la même distance sur des routes cahoteuses et vallonnées. Sans compter le poids, frisant souvent les 20 kg, des vélos et du matériel à transporter pour accomplir ce périple.    

Béatrice était habituée aux vélos de route profilés et aux gros braquets. Utiliser des petites vitesses sur un robuste gravel bike, alourdi par les outils, les pièces de rechange, les vêtements et la nourriture, c’était comme transformer une gazelle en mastodonte. Aussi, fallait-il changer sa conception de la compétition sur route. Plutôt que d’essayer de franchir la ligne d’arrivée le plus rapidement possible, le Gravel 500 se voulait « une occasion d’étirer le plaisir à vélo », précise-t-elle. Le résultat : « Un sentiment de liberté, comme un enfant qui roule sur un vélo pour la première fois. »

Quebec in Summer: Our Top 6 Photos

Afin de suivre la cadence de sa fille, Martin a choisi un vélo à assistance électrique d’Argon 18, surtout pour l’aider dans les nombreuses ascensions du parcours. Il n’a utilisé l’assistance qu’avec parcimonie ; il aime l’effort physique de pédaler sans assistance, mais ne voulait pas ralentir Béatrice. « Je voulais travailler, dit-il, mais je m’économisais parfois en pesant sur le piton. » Ainsi, le duo a pu rester ensemble toute la durée du défi, se relayant souvent l’un l’autre. Père et fille unis et solidaires.

Ils ont roulé généralement par beau temps, s’arrêtant dans de petits villages en cours de route pour se ravitailler, se reposer la nuit et envoyer des textos aux points de contrôle préétablis et ainsi rassurer les organisateurs qu’ils respectaient non seulement l’itinéraire – pas de raccourcis –, mais qu’ils étaient aussi en sécurité. Ils parcouraient de 120 à 140 km par jour. Le dernier matin, une pluie diluvienne les a contraints à s’abriter dans une grange jusqu’à ce que l’orage soit passé.

À l’approche de l’arrivée, ils ont été poussés par un surplus d’énergie, « comme des chevaux qui rentrent à l’écurie », rigole Béatrice. Et le sentiment d’accomplissement, après avoir franchi la ligne, était bien plus qu’une satisfaction personnelle. « Nous étions fiers, résume Martin, fiers l’un de l’autre. » Fiers d’avoir relevé, ensemble, un nouveau défi, un dur et long parcours en bikepacking, sous le soleil éclatant de l’arrière-pays du Québec.

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