Pedalling fiction

Tim Krabbé’s classic novel The Rider describes a bike race in the south of France. While the event may be fiction, the route is very real, as Cyclist discovers

The Tour de Mont Aigoual features ‘a real bastard of a climb’, two windswept plateaus, three gorges and a descent that makes ‘legs go wobbly with fright’. Its figure-of-eight loop is 137km long and features 2,700m of climbing in a far-flung corner of France. It’s ‘the sweetest, toughest race of the season’.

There’s just one problem – the Tour de Mont Aigoual doesn’t actually exist, except in the pages of a slim 1978 novel that has gained cult status amongst a certain type of cyclist. This detail, however, hasn’t stopped me and my riding partner for today, Gerry Patterson, from measuring out the finishing straight as described in The Rider. This involves us dodging in and out of groups of strolling holidaymakers on the pretty main street of Meyrueis and counting out 250 paces from the second of two 90° turns that are separated by a small stone bridge over the river Jonte. The event may be fictional but its route is real, and tomorrow Gerry and I plan to cycle it in homage to a book that has been a big influence on both our lives.

Pain, joy, life and death

As well as being an account of a bike race, The Rider also tackles the bigger themes of pain, joy, life and death. Its author, Tim Krabbé, only took up bike racing at the age of 29, having previously been one of the top 20 chess players in his home country of Holland.

Although the event at the heart of the novel is fictional (or is it? See author Q&A on p131), a lot of the book is based on Krabbé’s own experience as a modestly successful amateur. During the course of the Tour de Mont Aigoual, he recalls details from his own career as well as events from the professional ranks involving legends such as Merckx, Gaul and Hinault.

Add to this his existential ruminations on everything from nature (how we should embrace bad weather rather than flee it) to sex (specifically whether one of his rivals really did manage to seduce a woman in the crowd during a criterium or not) and The Rider isn’t to everyone’s taste. But I’ve read it about half a dozen times since it was first published in English in 2002, and the route and characters have become embedded in my imagination.

When I eventually located Mont Aigoual on a map – it’s a southern peak of the Massif Central in the heart of the Cevennes National Park that has featured in the Tour only once – the next step was inevitable. I had to go and ride the Tour de Mont Aigoual myself.

Gerry is one half of 445 Cycling Tours, a company that includes the roads of the Cevennes on many of its itineraries. He and business partner John Helmkamf

It’s a celebration of suffering and a compelling insight into the psyche of a racing cyclist