Marc's Copper Randonneuse
Marc has been riding for more than fifty years. A cyclotourist with a deep attachment to the mountains, he first came across Victoire in the pages of 200 magazine, in the autumn of 2019, in an article about the Concours de Machines. He visited us in Beaumont in 2022, then let the project mature — some things are worth waiting for, and he had already taken five years to settle on his titanium Passoni. In 2024 he took the plunge: a one-of-a-kind machine, tuned for him alone, built around two brands he had grown up admiring, Columbus and Campagnolo. This is Marc's Victoire n°591, a copper randonneuse for riding close to home today, and further afield tomorrow.
Marc is no newcomer: a Perrin, a Follis, a production Cannondale, a titanium Passoni… he has ridden fine machines, and every one of them suited him. If he came to see us, it was for another reason: the pleasure of a machine like no other, drawn around his own wishes and nobody else's. He wanted a versatile touring bike, as happy on a thirty-kilometre spin taken purely for the joy of riding as on a long randonnée rediscovering the back roads. A bike for today, and for the climbs he still has in mind: Mont Ventoux — already conquered by Caterina's Victoire n°579 — and a crossing of the Pyrenees.
The frame is built from Columbus XCr, the Italian manufacturer's stainless steel tubeset. Stainless resists corrosion to the point of being practically everlasting, damps road buzz naturally, and offers one of the best strength-to-weight ratios among bicycle steels. Above all, it allows a touch Marc is fond of: the seat tube is left bare, the stainless simply brushed, unpainted, as on Loïc's randonneuse n°588. Our framebuilder Marc brazed the whole thing in the workshop and paired it with an ENVE fork and a Chris King headset, the faithful companion of very nearly all our bikes.
For the drivetrain, Marc wanted Campagnolo, one of the touchstone brands of his younger years. We went for the Italian maker's Ekar groupset in 1x: thirteen speeds, a wide-range cassette and hydraulic disc brakes — a light, effective package conceived first and foremost for gravel but perfectly at ease on tarmac and in the mountains, a choice also found on Taryn's Victoire n°543. The crankset stays in the Italian vein too: an Ingrid, whose textured arms and single chainring add a personal note.
The wheels remain in Italian hands as well: a pair of alloy-rimmed Campagnolos, chosen for their simplicity, shod with Hutchinson Overide tyres. This tubeless set-up, fast-rolling and reassuring in equal measure, leaves room for adventure — enough to string together the smooth asphalt of an evening ride and the rough lanes of a long randonnée without ever giving it a thought.
The cockpit is by Whisky: a carbon handlebar with a measured flare and a seatpost from the American brand. The stem, also Whisky, is painted to match the frame. Leather bar tape, bound with pale cotton at the ends and finished with wooden plugs, extends the bike's warm character and provides just the comfort needed for hours in the saddle.
Worth noting: the Whisky range, part of the QBP group, has been merged into the tyre brand Teravail. The name changes, the quality stays.
Made to go places, the n°591 carries a front rack we brazed to measure in the workshop, matched to the frame right down to its brass fittings and leather washers, in the spirit of Christophe's randonneuse n°589. It holds a Gramm handlebar bag in orange canvas, paired with a frame bag from the same house — light, waterproof luggage cut out for Marc's rides. Mudguards painted in one of the frame's tones complete the outfit, for riding in all weathers.
The paint, by Max, plays on a metallic copper fade that darkens towards a deep brown at the ends of the tubes — a clear, warm shade, set off by the Victoire logo and the gilded laurel, our emblem, on the head tube badge. On the bare seat tube, lettering painted in gold names the hands that brought this bike into being: Marco on fabrication, Max on paint, Antoine on assembly. A leather saddle, softening with use, rounds off an ensemble in which every detail counts — the very details, Marc says, that decided him to come and see us.
The words that come straight to mind are smoothness and fluidity, right down to the sound it makes rolling along. Getting on the bike, it feels "small": the position has been very carefully worked out, everything falls naturally into place — seat, feet, hands — and you become one with it. Great riding comfort, excellent tracking, the efficiency is there, and no aches after a three-hour ride.
In short, an excellent start and a pleasure renewed with every outing. A few months on, past 1,800 kilometres, the satisfaction is undimmed: the price fades, the quality remains, and to that you can add the pleasure — of looking at it, of riding it, of simply enjoying the bike.
