The brief was clear from the start: a bicycle for long-distance riding, not for speed. Joël covers 7,500 km a year, mostly on 100 to 150 km rides from his home in Finistère, sometimes stretching to 200 km in a single day. He wanted a randonneuse in the direct lineage of those that have crossed France for the past century — Mac'h-houarn, the iron horse in Breton — with enough comfort not to compromise the next day's ride. In the same spirit as François's updated randonneuse, we started from a simple base: steel tubing, a single-chainring Campagnolo groupset, and dynamo lighting.

The frame of the Victoire n°596 was built by Marc in our workshop in Beaumont, using Columbus Omnicrom tubing — the heat-treated steel developed by the Italian manufacturer in partnership with the Institut de Soudure. As on all our frames, the parts that interface with components (bottom bracket, dropouts, bottle cage inserts) are made of stainless steel to prevent long-term corrosion, a meaningful choice on a bicycle meant to ride through Breton rain. The seatpost clamp is integrated directly into the seatstays, a detail we frequently offer for a cleaner silhouette. Every Victoire bike carries, painted on its seat tube, the names of the artisans who worked on it: here, Marc for the framebuilding, Max for the paintwork, Antoine for the assembly.

The drivetrain is built around a Campagnolo Ekar GT groupset — the latest evolution of the Italian manufacturer's single-chainring gravel group, which we particularly like for this kind of versatile machine. You'll also find it on Bertrand's glacial and Julien's endurance bike. The 38-tooth single chainring simplifies both the mechanics and maintenance without sacrificing range: the 13-speed 10-48 cassette comfortably covers the spread required, from coastal flats to the steep climbs of the Monts d'Arrée.

The cockpit is built around our René stem, the signature model from the workshop, named in tribute to the framebuilder René Herse, who won the pre-war Concours de Machines several times. As on Fabien's light randonneuse, it is shaped from three Columbus Max tubes, which allow for a tall stem without spacers for a clean look. The headset is a Chris King NoThreadSet anodised in Mango — the splash of colour that visually echoes the rear hub, chosen in the same finish. The Salsa Cowchipper handlebars in polished aluminium, wrapped in natural cotton bar tape, round out the classic vocabulary of this randonneuse.

To carry everything needed for his day rides, Joël has front and rear racks that we made to measure in stainless steel in our Beaumont workshop, in the same philosophy as those on André's Victoire n°566 and Alain's against-the-tide randonneuse. They carry bags by Gramm Tourpacking — handmade in Berlin by a small team we admire — with the Diamond Bag mounted on the handlebars and a matching frame bag. The lighting runs off a SON dynamo built into the front hub, powering a discreet SON tail light fitted to the rear mudguard and, at the front, a Sinewave Beacon headlight (the SON Ladelux originally planned wasn't available at build time — the Sinewave, already fitted on many Victoires such as Fabien's light randonneuse, does the job very well).

Max signed the paintwork of the Victoire n°596 with a metallic midnight blue that plays with the Breton light, applied to the frame, fork, stem and rear rack. The dropouts are left in a copper tone that echoes the anodised Chris King parts — headset and rear hub finished in Mango. The Victoire laurel and the numbered inscription are painted on the seat tube, alongside the names of the three artisans who worked on the bike. For the classic touches, a Gilles Berthoud leather saddle in natural leather — made in Fleurville, like the one on Alain's against-the-tide randonneuse — and polished aluminium mudguards round out the build. The mudguards are fixed through leather washers, a detail that ranks among Joël's favourites.

Joël came to collect his bike at our Beaumont workshop (the « rue Victor Hugo » plate visible on one of the photos above is right outside our door), then headed back to Finistère. His first Breton ride, on 24 February 2026, was a 115 km loop via the Mont Saint-Michel de Brasparts at the summit of the Monts d'Arrée. A few weeks later, a 167 km ride with 2,000 m of climbing along the Vélodyssée, in driving rain and a 50 km/h headwind, settled the matter — including on the muddy tracks that run along the sea.