Winter cycling is all about coffee stops! Our next instalment in our guide to the cafés, boulangeries and climbs of the Alpes-Maritimes takes us on a classic off-season ride from Nice to Italy.

The founder of SWET tells us about the roots of the brand and how cycling inspires how he makes his hot sauce…

A mountain-bike adventure deep into the heart of Morocco's Atlas Mountains…

Yannis Pelé celebrates the freedom the bicycle can give, on a bikepacking trip to Corsica.

The Queen of enduro mountain biking talks about her career, the evolving attitudes towards women and girls in sport, and her decision to take a break and have a baby.

The fourth instalment of our guide to the best refuelling stops close to our favourite climbs near Nice takes us to Sospel, at the foot of the mighty Col de Turini.

Our series spotlighting great cafés on our favourite rides out of Nice continues with something a little different: Bar La Grotta, in Italy.

Our guide to the best places to stop for coffee, pastries, sandwiches and tarts while cycling the famous cols and climbs in the mountains of the Alpes-Maritimes around Nice. Number 2: Col de Braus.

Our guide to the best places to stop for coffee, pastries, sandwiches and tarts while cycling the famous cols and climbs in the mountains of the Alpes-Maritimes around Nice. 

Café du Cycliste athlete Juliette Bruley was, in her own words, “born on a bike”. Now, she’s taking to the streets of Paris as a bike messenger. 

Comic book artist Tony Concrete paid us a visit in Nice, and gave us a peek into his world of manga and bike-riding witches. 

The cyclists of Paris's Montmartre Vélo Club go from one 'mont' to another...

Is there anything more exhilarating than chasing a dream on a bike? 

A group of friends enjoy a relaxed springtime gravel trip in an enchanted corner of Normandy.

TRANSMISSION | JEAN-STEPHAN & ANDRÉA MIFSUD Jean-Stephan and Andréa Mifsud are familiar faces: you might have seen Jean-Stephan in some of our shoots, and Andréa is part of the Café du Cycliste Gravel Team 2024. Recently, they lined up for the Traka, the gravel race outside Girona, northern Spain – both racing the 200km event in their Café kit. But more normally you’ll find them riding in the hills outside Nice. A real local family, they both grew up in the Nice area and both learned their love of cycling on these roads. Jean-Stephan inherited his passion from his grandfather and he passed it on to his son as soon as Andréa was old enough. “I didn’t choose cycling, cycling came for me!” Jean-Stephan says. They now live together near Nice, and train together too, pushing each other to go harder – though Jean-Stephan admits that Andréa always gets the better of him. And so he should: for the past four years Andréa, 25, has been a professional cyclist with the local Nice Métropole Côte d’Azur team – before making his gravel debut for Café du Cycliste this year. Cycling wasn’t his first love, however: as a kid he’d been a talented footballer, and he was being tracked by OGC Nice – the local first-division club – when a cruciate ligament injury put an end to his hopes to make a life playing the beautiful game. It was impossible to operate, as he was still an adolescent; only swimming and cycling remained open to him. Andréa made his choice, got a racing licence and entered his first race – a local cyclocross event on a bike he’d borrowed at the last minute. He won. Then the road season started and he won some more – and he hasn’t looked back since. “It became addictive,” Andréa says. Jean-Stephan adds that Andréa’s successes are down to his own motivation alone: “I’ve never been a coach, always a dad,” he says. For Andréa, racing is about transcending the self. Every race is an invitation to dig deeper, find new wells of energy inside himself, go beyond his limits. As for Jean-Stephan, there’s also an inner exploration going on: “Only when you pin a number on can you truly know yourself,” he says. And every win he chalks up as a veteran is also a victory over the passing of time – the ultimate time trial. Increasingly, they have added gravel to their riding routines, finding new routes through the Niçois backcountry, where the seasons and the weather create an ever-changing landscape and the roads and trails are among the best in the world. Niçois gravel stood them in good stead for the Traka 200, just outside Girona in northern Spain, where they prepared together, collected their race numbers together, took the start line together… a passion made even stronger by being shared. Check out Andréa and the Gravel Team here.

A CAFFEINATED ADVENTURE! Tom and Anouche are an offbeat adventuresome duo who joined the Café du Cycliste tribe around a year ago. A creative pair, their passions extend to running, hiking, film- and image-making, and even to being baristas – an activity that has led to the creation of Anom Café Club. They dreamed up the idea of creating a premium coffee brand last winter while enjoying the breathtaking views and balmy climate of South Africa’s Cape Province. There, they spent six months finding the best roads, lining up for races and getting to know the local cycling community. After each ride they made a beeline for the closest café, to share a moment with friends and discover the local specialities – Anouche enjoying mochas and lattes while Tom explored the region’s best espressos – and began to develop a passion for exceptional coffees, particularly those awarded more than 80/100 by the Specialty Coffee Association. When they got home to France, their first sips of coffee were a revelation – but not a good one. What they found was burned coffee made with low-quality, chemically treated beans produced by underpaid workers… how could coffee culture, which has such deep links to cycling, be in such a poor state in the home of the Tour de France? They decided to take a stand. “When we decide on a project we move fast, it’s in our DNA as entrepreneurs,” explains Tom. Less than two months after that first germ of an idea, the first packet of Anom Coffee Club coffee beans arrived. Sips of adventure. For Anouche and Tom, coffee represents many things: tasting pleasure; sharing with others, and, of course, caffeine! But coffee is also a way of exploring the world: since the best coffee is grown in mountainous regions, every sip is a story of geography, climate and adventure. Mexico was their first destination when buying beans, thanks to Tom’s love of the country and the complexity of its coffees: some of the best anaerobically fermented beans come from there, and so it was an easy choice. And both Anouche and Tom found something they both loved in Mexico, the kingdom of coffee: Cafe de Olla. This heady brew mixes coffee, raw dark sugar and cinnamon for a tastebud-tickling sensation. Next stop? Maybe Rwanda – but there are so many places to explore. Some might find the task intimidating; for them, however, it’s a challenge they’re eager to tackle. During their meetings with producers, they were amazed by the warm welcome they received from these passionate artisans. Tasting a freshly picked coffee cherry was an unforgettable experience. Now, with hundreds of tastings and even more kilometres behind them, their passion for this precious grain has only grown, thanks to the range of the world’s finest coffees they’ve tasted. But it has also opened up a world of adventure. While exploring high-altitude coffee plantations in Guatemala, where taking part in the harvest was almost akin to mountaineering, they decided to climb Acatenango, the country’s highest volcano. It was a sizeable challenge: after a 3 a.m. start they were heading through the jungle in the dark, to the sound of distant booming. Then, on the climb, the sun rose: it was “breathtaking”, according to the pair. “It was like we were the only people in the whole world.” After 1,600 metres of ascent in only 8 kilometres, it was a dizzying climb, but their courage was rewarded: from the summit they could see across the coffee plantations to the growling, grumbling Fuego in full eruption. In just two weeks, Mexico changed their ideas about coffee forever. It transformed coffee into a story of friendly faces, men and women dedicating a lifetime’s hard labour to a quest for exceptional beans. As the local saying goes: “La vida es sólo una taza de café tras otro y no preocuparse por otra cosa” “Life is just one cup of coffee after another, and nothing else really matters” Tom and Anouche returned home with their pockets full of beans and mouths full of tastes! They’ve thrown themselves into putting extraordinary coffee into our cups, and they’re not stopping there. If you live in their environs, they’ll deliver to you by bike by the pannier full. Or how about a taste test… that could be arranged! Having tested a Bialetti of their first Mexican beans, we can say, you’ll be in for a tasty journey.

RIDE & CREATE "BOTANICOOL" | KALICE BRUN The Côte d’Azur is known as much for its cities, culture and chic resorts as its natural beauty. But outside the hustle and bustle, often just behind the tower blocks, gardens and resorts, there still exist wild places on our shores. And in these wild places you just might find Karine Brun. Also known as ‘Kalice’, she’s a herbalist, naturopath and therapist, exploring and exploiting the secrets of the indigenous plants of the Riviera. Brun was born in the Nice back country and growing up spent her summers in the haven of biodiversity now protected by the Mercantour National Park. However, she also formed a deep attachment to the sea, coming regularly to swim at Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. She also spent time near the coast at her grandmother’s, where, in the back garden, she collected plants and made mixtures in the outside basin. “It was forbidden to disturb me,” she says. “I was convinced I was making magic potions.” She made these healing potions with the same intensity as she did her adventuring. These days, she lives in Nice and makes herbal remedies – real magic potions! – seeing herself as a kind of mediator between the human and plant worlds. She also creates podcasts, writes books and runs nature-writing workshops and wild food experiences to spread the word about the power of plants. Every day, she comes to Café du Cycliste for her morning coffee, sometimes spending the day there at work looking out over the port. She goes by bike everywhere, so – as we’ve just launched our Botanicool capsule collection – we asked her to take us on one of her ‘cyclo-foraging’ tours. These ‘olfactory voyages’ use the plants they discover to shed light upon and interrogate her clients’ experiences, intentions, their links with nature, life path. This work mirrors exactly what plants do: grow into the light. “There are two impulses in my everyday interactions with plants,” she says. “An intuitive part – an encounter, a touch, a smell – that leads me to follow threads of information, and an olfactory part: why not use that particular plant as an essential oil, to work at things from the inside as well?” And the tours combine the scientific with the sensory – sight, smell, touch, taste – providing an education both in the unique flora of the region and responsible foraging practices, as well as precious meditation time surrounded nature. Because – it’s important to note – foraging is not allowed everywhere, and certain species are protected. Kalice always forages and teaches – in a responsible and sustainable way. On a beautiful early spring day, we took a morning coffee at the Café before riding out behind Kalice, foraging bag on her back. First stop were the gardens in front of the prehistoric site of the Lazaret cave, on the outskirts of Nice. Here, where wild nature was gaining the upper hand on the planted species, it wasn’t hard to imagine the prehistoric people using the same plants to cure and heal in their turn. It was the perfect place for her to expand upon the concept of the ‘garden world’, promoted by the botanist and gardener Gilles Clément, which reflects how humans have shaped the landscape and biodiversity through their centuries-long interactions with nature. “We can collaborate with plants but we can’t dominate them,” Kalice says. “Even if we cultivate them, there’ll always be some wildness.” After Lazaret, we headed to La Darse beach in Villefranche, and then further, to Saint-Jean Cap Ferrat on the coastal path. As we did, we took in everything that surrounded us, wandering in the pine forests of Cap Ferrat. “Plants can take us on a journey,” Kalice said. When you’re cyclo-foraging, every day is different, but here are the plants we saw: 1. Sea fennel: regulates water, fights cellulite and swelling. Antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, diuretic 2. Fig tree: symbol of Mediterranean gardens, relaxing, digestive, antispasmodic, laxative 3. Eucalyptus globulus: native to Australia, Expectorant, antiseptic, decongestant. Cleans swamps, allows life in unsanitary territories 4. French or butterfly lavender: relaxing, healing, analgesic 5. Rosemary: a sacred plant, stimulant, antioxidant, general tonic, detoxes the liver 6. Olive: symbol of peace and longevity, lowers blood pressure, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory Check out Botanicool here.

Paris–Nice, AKA la Course au Soleil Paris–Nice, AKA la Course au Soleil (the ‘Race to the Sun’), has long been one of our favourite races. Besides being traditionally the first European stage race of the season – the first chance to see the grand tour racers fight it out that year – it has always had an air of romance. Winter can linger on in northern France, and the départ from the ‘City of Lights’, which always falls on the first Sunday in March, often takes place under grim grey skies or cold wind and rain. The race then processes towards the south, winding through the bare vineyards of Burgundy, flirting with the foothills of the Alps and diving deep into the Provençal countryside. Somewhere along the way, the sun begins to shine, and, by the time it reaches the Côte d’Azur, the peloton has emerged from the long shadow of winter into the Mediterranean spring. Paris–Nice promises better days to come for all of us, and that long warm summer rides will return – that perhaps they’re not even very far away. We also love Paris–Nice because it loves our home roads. For many years the finale took the form of a time trial stage up Col d’Èze, which starts metres from our HQ and is our go-to lunch ride. These days, however, a traditional road stage closes proceedings, riding the rollercoaster of hills closest to the Mediterranean before plunging into town and skirting around the port en route to a finish on the Promenade des Anglais. Customers spectating on the TV screens in our café often run outside at the last minute to watch the peloton thundering past! Paris–Nice is also a connoisseur of the arrière pays Niçois, the backcountry behind the beaches, and before its date on the Promenade it usually fits in at least one proper mountain stage. In previous years it has tackled favourite climbs like the Col de Vence, and summit finishes on the Col de la Couillole and 1,607-metre-tall Col de Turini. This year it will head over Col St Martin/La Colmiane (1,500m), before finishing with a 7.2km climb to the ski resort of Auron. The current champion, Tadej Pogačar, will not be coming this year to defend his title, but the action will be no less intense because of it; all eyes will be on his compatriot and long-time adversary, Primož Roglič. Paris–Nice has also seen some stars be born, including, not so long ago, a young Peter Sagan, whose Paris–Nice stage win at the age of 19 was only the start of his impact on cycling. Which future star will make their début at Paris–Nice this year? Over eight days and 1,220 kilometres, we’ll very soon find out. If you’re planning to be in town, come to the café for good coffee and big screens showing the action on race days. Hire a bike and explore the roads ridden by the pros – just ask our staff for recommendations on where to go.

Ride & Create | Juliette Bruley It is a truism that artists have a horror of the blank canvas, and writers of the fresh white page. How could one possibly spoil its infinite possibilities by making a mark? Sometimes it is in finding limitations that creativity is set free. And what for a painter could be more limiting, more awkward, than a bicycle frame? Juliette Bruley is a born-and-bred Parisian, and also – if there can be such a thing – a born-and-bred cyclist. Growing up, she remembers her grandfather riding from Paris to Nice. While she hasn’t ridden quite that far, the bicycle has been her companion from her earliest years and today is her indispensable tool for her daily life in the north-eastern suburbs of Paris. It’s both a passion and the medium for her art. As well as a love of cycling, Juliette also inherited a desire to understand how the world worked, to get under the skin of things. At the age of 17 these two things combined when she built her first fixed-gear bike. She began working in a bike shop as a mechanic, then got her qualifications and became a workshop manager. But it was at a place called Stolen Garage that her passions became further intertwined. Here she learned the art of painting frames – Stolen Garage runs, to our knowledge, the only training course specifically for those people wishing to paint bicycles – and now she handles all the paint jobs that come through the Stolen workshop. And what a workshop it is. One half of Stolen’s premises is a café and showroom, serving locally sourced, seasonal produce and coffee roasted in Paris, with a side of conviviality and cycle style; the other half, separated by a giant soundproof window, is where Stolen makes its custom frames from premium Columbus tubing, and fine-tunes, customises and repairs bicycles of all flavours. An ‘open kitchen’ concept but with bicycles on the menu, where you can come and drink a coffee and watch your very own frame take shape. Juliette’s jobs might be resprays, or they might be the first time paint touches pristine metal. Sometimes customers come with a definite sense of what they want; sometimes they give her creative sensibility free rein. Either way, the responsibility is huge: to create something that satisfies her own artistic sense, corresponds to the customer’s wishes and respects the form of the bicycle. This latter is no easy task. Traditional tubing is 1” in diameter, and even the oversized tubing more commonly used today is barely bigger. The angles and curves present challenges… and opportunities. Stencils and masks can be drawn up digitally, but in the end, creating a compelling paint job on a bicycle requires projection, visualisation and a dynamic aesthetic sense. Colour is Juliette’s favourite aspect of the job. What colour would you like to smear across the landscape at 40 kilometres an hour? Despite the limits of the traffic, the bicycle offers Juliette the freedom of the city streets. And since she recently became a parent, she has found out that the bicycle is for all seasons of our lives. Just as her parents did with her, she can’t wait to share her passion with young son. Who knows, perhaps a ride from Paris to Nice is still on the cards. There’ll be a coffee and a pastry waiting on the Café du Cycliste bar when she arrives. Photos credit: Mathieu Pellerin

Travel deep: hiking the Mercantour There are many different ways of travelling. In the spring and summer, it’s good to travel far, and travel fast; but in the autumn, with months of adventures in the legs, it’s time to travel deep. In the high backcountry behind Nice lies the Mercantour National Park; many of our favourite roads pass through it, like the Col de Turini and Col de la Bonette, both of which will feature in the final stages of the 2024 Tour de France. But because of the terrain and the park’s regulations – which forbid any development or construction, any off-road cycling, any hunting, mushroom picking and even dogs! – there are vast areas that are inaccessible even to mountain bikes. These are trails and passes you can explore only by foot. We set off for a late-season hike in the last of the year’s sunshine, to deepen our knowledge of the spaces between the roads. The aim was to do a tour of Mont Bégo, a 2,872-metre-tall mountain in the heart of the park whose flanks are covered with bronze-age rock carvings. Why they are there, nobody knows, but these hidden valleys have been regarded as special – sacred even – for thousands of years. Away from the trailhead, we were quickly swallowed by silence and light. No cars or motorbikes buzzing up and down the roads, only fresh, still air and low-angled sun. In peak season there is a good network of high-mountain refuges that welcome travellers, but in this shoulder season, after the summer and before the snow, only a single one was open, in the ‘Valley of Wonders’ itself. But this was enough to help us complete our loop, and we stayed there two nights, separated by one night in a bivacco. This basic, unattended cabin just over the border in Italy provided bunks, blankets and a roof; everything else we had to carry in with us – and, of course, carry out again. Life for these few days was gloriously simple: walk, eat, drink, sleep, and walk again, into forbidding cirques seemingly without an exit and up scree slopes to forgotten passes; or down, through larch forests ablaze with colour next to rushing, babbling streams. A path, however small or indistinct, is a friendly thing. It is a sign someone has been here before – and gives hope that, somewhere near its end, is a warm welcome, a cold beer and a place to lay down your pack. We walked 70 kilometres over those three-and-a-half days – around the same distance as three hours riding a bike. We moved slower, thought slower, experienced slower and saw so much more. You could walk these trails for years without ever quite seeing or feeling the same thing twice. Perhaps, I think, even a single valley might be enough to explore, through rain, sun and snow, watching the shadows change and the trees grow and the years pass. In the short time since we descended back to civilisation, the season has turned and big storms have again ravaged the valleys behind Nice. It’s a reminder of how hard life can be in these mountains and that they are not always as benevolent, which makes the memory of time there in the sun all the sweeter. READ MORE Ultra Spirit & Anomadventures | A Human Adventure. A unique trail running event, Ultra Spirit takes place in the Haute-Savoie Alps and consists of teams of three runners accruing points rather than the average race against time. TRANSMISSION #2 | Serge and Carla Lamy. The second in our series of profiles on the family connection of cycling, capturing on film mother and son, Carla and Serge Lamy. Etienne Hubert | From Kayak to Gravel: Traversing the Alps. The summer months are synonymous with heavy training loads for the kayak racers of the French national team. 2023 was no exception to the rule. An Outsider’s Guide | Trail Running Mont Cima. Convenience isn’t just on the street corner, it’s in the palm of our hand, strapped to our wrists, counting every step, click, beep and tap.