Mathieu's Climber
Mathieu is a passionate cyclist, riding both mountain bikes on rough trails and road bikes on smooth, winding asphalt. He has ridden all types of machines and frames: light carbon, more durable titanium, and finally steel, the origin of cycle manufacturing in France and around the world.
He contacted us because he's attached to the idea of having a personal, unique machine, perfectly adapted to his riding. More than a bike, Mathieu was looking for his own bike. With this in mind, we designed the Victoire n°526 with him.
Mathieu initially contacted us to design a Gravel bike, which we are so fond of at Victoire. However, after a few discussions, Mathieu decided to change his specifications. Although he rides mountain bikes and Gravels wherever his travels take him, he reserves his road outings for exceptional places: the Vosges, next to where he lives, Portugal, where his partner is from, and the great Alpine passes he encounters on vacation. To live up to the high standards he sets for his road outings, we designed a magnificent road bike for him.
His initial specifications were fairly straightforward, with common threads such as durability, consistency of assembly for road use and minimization of carbon footprint.
We had the opportunity to discuss a number of aesthetic details with him, which we present below.
For Victoire n°526, we chose a set of Colombus XCr tubes in an extremely limited edition. The Italian manufacturer has produced a series of 10 tube sets to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Victoire. These stainless steel tubes are dedicated exclusively to road use.
We're celebrating this long collaboration with Columbus with a logo that evokes our two companies.
In addition to its total resistance to rust and increased durability, stainless steel offers the aesthetic possibility of keeping weld seams visible. Unlike traditional steel, there's no need to apply an opaque anti-rust coating. So you can let the raw colors of the steel and silver (which, when alloyed with other metals to form our welding rods, gives a soft golden hue) used to weld the frame show through, blending perfectly with the white of the rest of the frame.
To equip this exceptional machine, the choice of a Campagnolo drivetrain and wheels seemed obvious. The Super Record groupset is the lightest in the Italian manufacturer's range, and the Bora Ultra WTO 45 wheels complete the perfect setup for a beautiful Italian machine. We've heard that the toughest mounts in the Vosges have already lost a few percent of slope...
The main color is pearl white, enhanced by a glittery red reminiscent of Super Record typography. This red is found on several elements of the frame, including the stem and an aerial view of Puy Mary on the top tube. Auvergne's cyclists and hikers are no strangers to the slopes of this iconic mountain.
To protect the frame's paintwork from the friction of the cables coming out of the shifters, we've affixed a steel bar to the side of the head tube. This subtle aesthetic trick has become one of our trademarks, as has the seat tube clamp integrated into the seat stays.
The geometric transition between the white and bare steel of the frame was designed especially for Victoire n°526.
Several hours of polishing achieved a perfect transition between the painted and the bare (but clear coated) parts of the frame. The light reflects seamlessly off the frame.
To accompany the Puy Mary, we painted a small buron on the inside of the fork. Mathieu loves the Cantal region, and will probably come across this type of stone building many times on his rides.
The aerial view of Puy Mary appears before Mathieu's eyes, close to the stem. The red of this figure is also found on the stem and rear derailleur rollers, in the frame's signature cartouche and on the Super Record components.
Mathieu got help in choosing the colors for his future bike: his children Maël and Noé gave their opinion and helped us a lot!
Maël joined his father to pick up the bike. He wants to be a frame builder when he grows up, a very good choice in our unbiased opinion.
"I remember my first rides perfectly. Aesthetically, I was more than convinced, but what about its behavior on the road? Did the Cycles Victoire team translate my expectations into their work? Will it be comfortable yet sporty? Will it be easy to ride over bumps? Will I find the lively side of steel? I was impatient to find out, but also a little anxious, afraid I wouldn't feel what I'd been looking for in a craftsman. I set off on a Vosges loop that I was used to doing, with no other objective than to discover the machine. 100 km for 1900m positive climb, passing through Dabo, La Hoube, the Col des Pandours, the Col du Donon, Saint-Léon and Hommert. It was a faultless ride! From the very first pedal stroke, I felt connected to the road. A feeling that's hard to explain in words, but it clearly made you want to swallow up the kilometers. The position was perfect, thanks to the postural study and the resulting tailor-made frame. Arriving at the foot of the Donon, a pass I know well and have climbed many times before, I decided to push it a little. And what an easy machine it is!"
My 526 seems to break the sacrosanct rule of comfort versus performance. I'd find out later at the end of the ride that it wasn't just an impression, because that day I shaved almost a minute and a half off my previous PR. For the record, I had done this PR 5 years earlier on a carbon bike with runners, a good kilogram lighter than my Victoire... I was out of words! The liveliness of the steel, the quality of the design, the precision of the settings, the performance, the comfort, all converge to create an incomparable riding experience.
"In conclusion, I'd like to pass on a message to those who are reluctant to take the plunge. To take this path of craftsmanship is to leave behind the status of simple consumer and become a consumer-player in your own bike. Yes, you have to be patient, yes, it's a leap into the unknown, yes, the prejudices dictated by the mass bicycle industry are hard to resist, but you won't be disappointed. Quite the contrary!"
