Nature is Bike might not be an event that you’ve heard of before, particularly if you’re not French, but as Claire Frecknall found out recently, this gravel riding and bikepacking festival is a real gem and is worthy of adding to your “must ride this next year” list.
Washing gritty, sweat-tinged water out of my eyes with the water from my bidon is not how I had hoped to spend my holiday, yet here we are. It’s mid-June and I find myself soaked to the skin again, an emerging theme for 2024. Whilst some of it’s coming from the sky, at least half is the grubby road spray which is hitting me straight in the face from the back wheel of the rider in front. Five of us are pushing on as fast as we can to cover the last remaining miles of what was otherwise an incredible weekend and somehow even in the challenging conditions, we are all still smiling, it’s astonishing what good company and the promise of a free beer and a hot meal will do for morale.
Nature is Bike is now in its 4th year and despite attracting over 10,000 visitors it remains relatively unknown outside of France. It’s a three-day gravel festival held in the city of Angers in the beautiful Loire Valley. It’s a bike-friendly city that welcomes around 200,000 cycling tourists a year who arrive along an established network of well-marked cycle routes that pass through the region. One of the routes, the Velo Francette, is perfectly placed to route UK visitors all the way to Nature is Bike, as it runs from the port town of Caen-Ouistreham (which has regular sailings from Portsmouth). A plan is already forming in my head for next year. Being so accessible by ferry from the UK makes the event an excellent option for those looking for a no-fly holiday whilst still wanting to enjoy the traffic-free riding, top-class croissants, inexpensive wine and getting a cute little stamp in their passports.
The event offers routes to suit everybody, there are longer options of 300 km on the Friday and 200 km on Saturday which can be combined to create the 500km “Gravel Legend” if you’re up for it. They also offer a two-day 290 km bikepacking route or more beginner friendly 100 km and 70 km options on the Sunday. For casual riders there is a 45km “Guinguette” ride that showcases the best of the region with three stops along the riverside featuring regional food and drink, local musicians, crafts and workshops. The whole event has a very laid back and friendly atmosphere that encourages all abilities without some of the snobiness and heavily branded ‘influencer’ atmosphere that you might find at some other events. You will see riders on high-end bikes and kit alongside others in Decathlon ‘house’ brands and there seems to be a lot less importance placed on being seen in the ‘right’ labels here, which is quite a refreshing change from that weekend I spent in Girona…
Although (for legal reasons) none of the events are officially races, the longer distances have a very competitive field - the first man home on the 300 km route was ex-pro road cyclist Victor Bosoni, who finished in just 11 hours 28m. The top spot in the women’s field was taken by ultra-distance cyclist and world record holder Nathalie Ballion. You do get to feel like a pro even if you’re not, as there’s a motorcycle lead out and marshals to stop cars at major junctions. With fast-rolling gravel roads you can expect a keep a high pace if you want to stick with the lead pack. We travelled over with our friend Richard who’s quite handy on the XC and gravel race scene. He’s also quite good at speaking French, which came in handy too and he found out what the 300km route was like.
“I turned up to the event village on the Thursday afternoon to a friendly welcome and was guided to registration to sign in and collect ride packs, before a thorough bike/equipment check-in, to ensure all the specified items from the kit list were being carried. Each rider was given a GPS beacon so that the organisers could find you in case of emergency and also so that friends and family could check on your progress through the event.
The next day we set off from Angers at daybreak from the event village and accompanied by a motorbike cavalcade, a fast peloton formed at the front. The motorbikes then went ahead and stopped traffic at the different road crossings to give us a clear path (a contrast to the UK when generally they stop riders until there is a gap in the traffic… the quietness of the roads probably helps here…)
After a couple of hours, I let the front group go so that I could ride at my own (slower) pace, as there was still a long. long way to go. For me, this also meant I could enjoy the event more, as it was much easier to pick my lines and I had time to look at some of the amazing scenery (and even slow down to take photos) rather than just focusing on what the riders around me were doing.
There were three checkpoints along the way at nice intervals, later ones getting closer together, with a warm welcome at each one, along with water and a selection of different things to eat.
As the ride progressed smaller groups formed and with the friendly, chatty atmosphere, people worked together to get to the finish. This, along with the rolling terrain, kept the average speed high. However, my pace was tempered slightly by a recalcitrant puncture which, despite initially being fixed quickly with a plug and a few pumps of air, then proceeded to slowly unfix itself as the plug worked its way out of the hole after an hour or so. After stopping to re-plug a couple of times, at the last checkpoint I finally bit the bullet and put a tube in, only to find the super-lightweight TPU inner tubes I had with me were super-useless and wouldn’t actually inflate properly. Fortunately, the tech support at the checkpoint came to the rescue with an inner tube that worked and I set off on the home stretch. The great mix of trails, technical singletrack, gravel roads, wooded sections and empty back roads of the route kept the interest levels high and meant the 300 km flew by without me really noticing. It was also nice to discover a part of France that I normally drive through on the autoroute when heading off further afield.
Crossing the finish line a bit under 14 hours I was greeted by the organisers and with a very welcome beer and hot food. All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable event.”
Whilst Rich was powering his was around the 300 km course, Jo and I were enjoying a leisurely pootle along the banks of the Loire and exploring the city on the Guinguette route, sadly minus the food and drink stops that Sunday’s riders would be treated to. Our main event of the weekend (and Richard’s recovery ride) was “La Bikepacking” - a 290 km route split over two days which started on the Saturday morning. We arrived in time for the morning briefing, but as it was all in French, we simply assumed that the universal rule of “Don’t be a dick” applied here too, although it’s worth remembering that high-vis vests are a legal requirement for night riding here in France, so you need to have one with you even if you expect to be finished before dark.
Around 150 riders had signed up for La Bikepacking, so a large pack of laden gravel bikes rolled out of the park together onto fast gravel sections which were broken up by stretches of long grass along narrow paths and greasy singletrack through woodlands. I soon found who was a safe wheel to stick on the back of and who was best to give a wide berth for the more technical sections. I spent the first hour of the ride trying to either pass or drop back from one particular rider who had an unnervingly erratic riding style, only to somehow find myself near him again at the next tricky section.
Luckily the first big climb of the day split the peloton into more manageable-sized groups and I was able to relax, so much so that we stopped at the first village tabac we passed for an espresso and sweet canelé (a small pastry flavoured with rum and vanilla, with a dark caramelised crust). I was surprised to see that most riders from our earlier pack were not stopping to enjoy the moment, although as they were nearly all French, I imagine that a €1 espresso in a picturesque village square isn’t such the novelty that it is to us. This sort of thing would be £3.80 in an industrial estate back home, plus another £4 if you wanted a piece of cake... if only they knew.
From here on Rich, Jo and I covered ground fast, helped by silky smooth gravel paths and tailwind-assisted tarmac sections. Even the gravel tracks here put the state of the roads back home to shame and the lack of potholes meant we could take our eyes off the ground to enjoy the views over this vast and gently undulating landscape. Big skies were broken by a solitary tree as we rolled past a field of heavily scented sweet peas and expanses of golden corn blew in rhythmic waves in the wind. The miles quickly passed and we soon found a conveniently placed boulangerie for lunch at around the 100 km point.
It’s a route that makes it easy to find rhythm and flow in your riding, providing seamless transitions between empty roads, fast gravel and twisting woodland singletrack. Our average speeds are much faster when unhindered by the traffic, gates and beaten-up bridleways we come up against at home. Living in Sussex, our standard South Downs rides consist of a gate every mile, heavily horse trodden paths and enough dangerous driving and close passes to mean you can never really relax on your bike, so this was a real treat.
Whilst the weather had so far remained kind to us, the ominous black clouds that had been lingering in the sky had never been too far from our minds. By mid-afternoon the wind picked up and heavy raindrops started to fall when the forecast finally caught up with us. With no choice but to keep riding, we donned our waterproofs and cracked on to our checkpoint, Cave Robert et Marcel- Les Vignobles Edonis, a wine cellar within a 10 km network of caves with an optional tour and wine tasting. With stamps duly added to our brevet cards, we ventured into the depths of the cave for an audio-visual journey none of us were expecting, A far more interesting and educational experience than the standard mid-event table of energy drink, flapjack and sliced-up bananas, although a little local cheese and bread to accompany the wine tasting wouldn’t have gone amiss to fuel us for the final 20 km to the campsite.
Our destination for the night was Fontevraud-L’Abbaye, a small town built, as the name suggests, around a beautiful abbey. More important at this point was the bar, shop and boulangerie that sat along one edge of the town square, meaning that before reaching our campsite for the night we restocked our supplies and sat down for a celebratory beer, just as the sunshine peeped out from the cloud. There had been the option to book tent rental or bag drop when signing up for the event, so a lot of riders were collecting gear from the two vans at the entrance to the campsite.
This is a fantastic option for those looking to try bikepacking for the first time, those who wanted to travel light or for people like me who had stupidly forgotten to pack my tent poles. We had bought bivi bags but with the overnight forecast looking bad the organisers had kindly arranged to lend us a tent at late notice, something we were hugely grateful for when the heavens opened at 3am. Camping was in a network of interlinking hedgerows so groups could find their own private space and we managed to pitch our tents just before the rain started again and once changed into out evening attire (a fashionable blend of sleepwear, SPD shoes and down jackets) we made our way over to a large marquee for the food and drink included in our entry fee. We joined Dutch riders Emma and Iza over dinner and spent the evening talking bikes, travelling and adventures before retiring to our borrowed tent.
We rose fairly late in the morning and although we missed the morning drizzle, we found that most riders had already left by the time we sat down for breakfast. I expect they were making a vain attempt to get finished before the afternoon’s expected torrential rain started. Leaving the campsite we were on our own, delaying our journey home even further with a stop at the boulangerie and some photo opportunities as we passed through the grounds of the abbey. There was a lot of squealing with joy as a litter of tiny fluffy kittens scattered in front of us as we exited the grounds. We had some time to make up, but luckily the hilly start to the day, plus the overnight rain had made for some quite lively and slidey off-road sections that played perfectly into our well-honed UK winter riding skillset and we were soon catching other riders.
We had passed through the most technical sections of the day by the time the rain started to fall and we were greeted by Emma and Iza as we rolled into a town where it seemed everyone has decided to stop and take shelter. They made us coffee in the mini Moka pot they had carried with them and we agreed to ride on to the finish together. Fuelled by caffeine, chocolate and a desire to get home and dry we quickly covered ground, working as a team we were averaging 25 km/h for the second half of the day as long straight gravel roads meant we could stick closely on the wheel of the rider in front, stopping only to wash the gritty water out of our eyes and refuel on Haribo.
As we arrived back in Angers, the rain started to subside and by the time we rolled over the finish line, there was a glimmer of light through the clouds again. We exchanged our trackers for food vouchers and a cold beer, enjoying the atmosphere in the event village as the wet mud that covered us from head to toe dried into a crispy layer in the afternoon sun, much to the amusement of many of the visitors who had just come from the city to look around the stands. After sitting down for a hot meal, we spent some time soaking up the atmosphere, browsing the trade stands, eyeing up other routes and events that the regional tourist boards were displaying and finally queueing up for the jet wash that our bikes so desperately needed.
I can confidently say Nature is Bike is one of the best gravel events I've ridden, the route was varied and interesting but fast rolling, with a manageable amount of elevation and 100% gravel bike friendly. There were some muddy sectors due to the rain which proved challenging for those on slicks (as beautifully demonstrated several times by mud-on-the-left-side Emma) but nothing that required any more than a 35-40mm tyre. As there are a number of different distances on offer, it’s the perfect option for mixed-ability groups and a day of two could easily be spent exploring Angers and the environs if you wanted to bring a non-cycling partner. We extended our trip with days spent riding the area around Mont-Saint- Michel and through a twisting network of singletrack in the forest above Fougères. There are plenty of beautiful towns, castles, vineyards and chateaux along the way if you like to explore on two feet too.
Travel
Living on the south coast of England, we are lucky enough to live just an hour’s drive away from ferry terminals to France which makes for an easy gateway to blissful days spent riding along quiet lanes and through bike friendly towns without the stress and environmental impact of packing bikes into a bag for a flight.
Brittany Ferries offer regular sailings across the channel from Portsmouth or Plymouth that arrive at St Malo, Caen-Ouistreham or Cherbourg. We booked cabins on night sailings both ways which meant arriving early morning to make the most of our time in France. Once over the channel, the drive to Angers is around 2.5-3.5 hours. From Calais or Dieppe, the drive is around 5 hours. Train travel in France is possible with bikes but be sure to check the rules on each service as long distance fast services can require bikes to be packed in bags.
For those who prefer to travel without a vehicle, it’s a 300 km ride that could easily be added on to become part of the adventure. From Caen-Ouistreham there is La Velo Francette cycle route that will take you all the way from the ferry port to Angers on a route once voted Europe’s number 1 cycle route.
Brittany Ferries kindly provided the overnight travel for Claire, Jo & Rich.