2025 has been a vintage year of dust-eating, rut-dodging, world travelling gravel racing with Numéro 31 par Café du Cycliste. Axelle Dubau-Prévôt and Hugo Drechou rolled into the early season at the Gravel Earth Series Santa Vall in Spain with quiet ambition… and by the season’s end, as double French national champions, the gravel world knew their names.

After a second place for Axelle at the Traka360 showed some early-season promise, the pair then went on the road, but racing in the U.S. was a real steep learning curve, and the pair endured difficult days at the Lifetime Sea Otter Classic and Unbound. They bounced back, however, with a win for Axelle and a podium place for Hugo at the UCI Gravel World Series leg in Millau, France.

With the season end in sight, they hit form when it really counted. At the UCI World Series 66 Degrés Sud in September, Axelle won the women’s race, while Hugo Drechou finished 2nd among the men. And later that month, at Gravel Fever, both Hugo and Axelle were crowned French gravel champions at the first-ever National Championships!

Not content with that, they lined up for their final race of the year, the inaugural Gravel Burn: seven-stages of brutal South African racing dreamed up by the Cape Epic team. What followed was one of the greatest comebacks of the season: Axelle, starting the final stage in fifth and nearly nine minutes down in GC, launched a solo attack with 30 km to go, crossing the line alone to claim the win, the stage and the overall title. In the men’s race, Hugo held on for 3rd overall, adding another GC podium to the team ledger.

It’s been a privilege to share the journey with them, and to provide performance race kit (including prototypes of our speedsuit that will go on sale in 2026) to these two champions. Go well Axelle and Hugo, enjoy the off-season and come back even stronger in 2026!