Genesis

Rémi is the director and co-founder of Café du Cycliste, the French brand of high end cycling apparel. Cycling is for him a family business. His father, Paul-Louis, is a regular cyclist who handed on his passion to him. They ordered a couple of Victoire Versus, with the same geometry, to share rides together on roads and tracks. However,  each of them added some personal details to adjust perfectly the bike to their riding and their needs. 

" My goal was to get a bike who can ride both on roads and tracks, but also carry some light luggages. Wether it be in France or abroad, I like to explore the places where I am and lose myself on the roads to see where they go. My current road bike is not really adapted to this and it has suffered my last trips, like in Morocco recently. The solution seemed to be obvious: I needed a more robust and versatile bicycle. I do not travel independently with all the essentials in the bags, but I like to carry a little bit more than the contents of my pocket during an all day long journey. The backpack option is very uncomfortable and unadapted, so I asked to Julien to design a small removable rack where I can fasten a little bag and some accessories... like a fishing rod to fly-fish in the backcountry! I also wanted this bike for our express lunch rides. When I just have an hour, I like to go for a ride with my collegues on tracks next to Nice.  A gravel bike is really funny for that! That is why I wanted a pretty light bike, with a removable rack to race in the climbs with my friends." 

Fabrication

From these specifications expressed by Rémi, we could start to design his custom bicyle. To fit his riding, we drew a comfortable geometry for long distance rides. The frame is made of Columbus tubing in Niobium, the most high-end alloy from the Italian manufacturer. The homemade bended seat tube provides more clearance to the rear tire, while keeping a reactive rear triangle. This set-up makes the bike both fun and reactive. The "triple-triangle" junction between the seatstays and the top-tube allows to have a complete internal routing for the rear brake. We also designed a custom bridge. Identical but asymmetric to the one on Paul-Louis' bike, Remi's dad, it draws a "V" when the bikes are side by side. At last, we brazed eyelets to fasten the rack, tailor made according to Remi's demands. 

Equipment

To match the frame's philosophy,  we selected hydraulic disc brakes and a Sram Force1 1x11 drivetrain. Such an option allow to save weights and increase reliability, two important points for a bike aimed to travel around the world.  The wheelset was chosen with the same goal: NoTubes Grail rims combined with Tune King Kong MTB hubs, a reference. They get the excellent WTB Nano 40c tires. Crankset, stem and seatpost came directly from the Black Forest where our German neighbours of Tune are settled.  

To contrast with his father's model, Rémi chose a copper clear coat for his bike, that is already on the way to French Riviera. 

Riding

Rémi enjoys his Versus, both on short lunch ride or on longest adventure like during the Bunker Research Tour : a three-days trip with Pannier.cc on the path of Camille McMillan and Max Léonard's book, Bunker Research. Find the complete story on Café du Cycliste website : http://lagazette.cafeducycliste.com/lannee-2016

This Versus has also been elected by the brand of the French Riviera, bike of year 2016, among - no less - Peter Sagan's Specialized Tarmac, Baden Cooke's Factor and Max Léonard's Stinner :

" Against his wishes, we are selecting our co-founder Rémi's custom Cycles Victoire adventure bike as the most influential bike we've encountered during this rotation of the sun. It climbs and descends like a carbon MTB, rolls like a relaxed racer and holds the essentials like a Land Rover doing the East London school run...

Honourable mentions go to Baden Cooke's Factor One, Peter Sagan's Tarmac S-Works and especially Max's custom Stinner and it's stunning 650b Compass tyres. Yes, we just relegated two Tour de France Green Jersey winners' bikes behind steel touring donkeys. #sorrynotsorry... "