GravelMan Series Côte d'Azur

The Côte d'Azur edition of the GravelMan Series follows the series' simple idea: ride an unmarked GPS trace in full autonomy, managing your own food, water and repairs, with no race and no ranking. What riders come for, the organisers say, is not a result but the Mediterranean appearing round a ridge and the stranger who becomes a riding companion for thirty kilometres.

In mid-October the traces leave La Napoule in the low autumn light, with the sea still dark behind and the Estérel rising ahead, its red rocks lighting up one by one as the tracks climb into the quiet hinterland. Riders choose between a morning by the water, a full day inland or a whole night linking cols by headlamp, on gravel or on road.

There is no shuttle to count on: riders plan their own navigation, supplies and way home if they stop. GravelMan also asks for a light footprint, and dropping litter on the road or in nature can mean immediate exclusion.