The Velocity Nerd

Bye bye 👋👋 2025, une année challengeante de re-construction qui se termine (enfin)!

Merci à tous ceux et celles qui m'ont supporté 🫂

Bienvenue 2026, une année qui s'annonce prospère et remplie de self love 😘

Let's go! 🍾🥂

Il était temps...

Temps de passer à autre chose. Après plus d'un an à naviguer dans un climat d'incertitude dans plusieurs sphères de ma vie l'une après l'autre et en même temps. C'est en gardant le cap sur mon phare, ma vision, que je suis arrivé à bon port.

Il y en a eu de la vague 🌊
Maintenant c'est le temps d'être en mode plaisance

En ce jour du souvenir 🏵️, je me souviendrai de ce combat houleux pour mieux naviguer vers ma prochaine destination ⛵

De tout mon coeur, MERCI à tout l'équipage (Vous savez qui vous êtes)!

Vincent

🍂 Cette photo a été prise il y a un an, alors que je perdais/quittais mon emploi. Je m'étais donné un an pour me ré-orienter, me re-construire...

J'aimais mon travail, surtout les conditions, mais l'environnement était rendu nocif pour moi. J'ai vu cette opportunité comme une occasion de grandir et de trouver mieux.

Big Red 🍒 already two weeks have past

Wasn't my time record, but I had a great day on the bike (or should I say on the beach⛱️?) and it was nice to see the larger gravel community once again 😁 so money well spent! 🥞

This weekend is my main event for the summer a 800km gravel bikepacking"race" in Ontario and Outaouais (Quebec), I'll have a tracker and I'll share the link in my bio so stay tuned on my stories coming up!

As always, thanks to for the robust steed 🚵

Son dernier rodéo 🤠 avec moi 🥹

Cette fin de semaine je me suis lancé dernière minute dans un petit projet bikepacking pour rendre honneur à cette monture avec laquelle j'ai passé beaucoup d'émotions.

Une aventure bikepacking de 2 jours (282km) dans le Parc Papineau Labelle afin de faire la paix. Le parcours est inspiré du , format 2 jours un peu plus aéré.

Cette semaine, je vais préparer la monture pour son nouveau propriétaire.

Oui oui... Une nouvelle s'en vient! 😊

Merci de me permettre de vivre ces aventures avec autant de confiance!

Nouvelle passion réparation/rénovation 👷

En 2024, avec le nouvel achat on a eu plusieurs surprises. Voici une petite sélection de photos de certains travaux: installation complète d'un lave-vaisselle au 2e, réparation d'un shim de balcon, changement de valves de bain du 2e et réparations de gypse, puis résolution du problème de sécheuse.

Ça va faire changement de mes photos de vélos habituelles 🚵

Wanna learn more about ultra-bikepacking? Listen to the Bikepack Adventures' latest podcast!

Link 🔗 👇🏼

Do I love Gravel in Vermont? 🏞️
Hell yeah! 💩

Last week was Super 8 Grand Départ. I was up for the North Lobe.

Spirit and vibe was good. I sent off for 440km of gravel with 8400m of steep vertical climbs with chunky stuff 🪨

It was savage! I cannot even imagine the South lobe which is even more rough 🥵

After some chain l**e problems with a l**e I bought on the ride (forgot my own l**e in the car 🤦🏼), that brought it's plethora of mechanical issues slowing me down. I still finished in 2nd place 🥈in 1d 7h 13min

Congrats to for 🥇on his single speed steed 😮

Thanks as always for the support plus the fast machine and robust machine

I had a blast! Now onto the off season 🍂

Ps. Yes that groomed trail was a lie 🤥

La tempête m'a rappelé l'hiver bric à brac que l'on a eu 🌨️🌦️ Il y a tout de même eu quelques moments mémorables. Voici une petite sélection.

Awaye printemps! 🌞

TCR recap D12-13
Final stretch 🇬🇷🏁

Another hot day in Greece, after crossing and another TCR rider at a bakery in a village early in the morning. I pass by a few villages in the mountains looking to cool myself off with frozen treats, keep hydration and salt levels high to not fall from fatigue. I have such a nice view on the Polyfytos reservoir lake. I get to Kilkis where I try to find a frontal light quickly before dark, since I had trouble charging mine lately, without success.

Leaving Kilkis behind, I could see a first storm ⛈️ since Slovenia ahead of me. I was 🤞 that I wouldn't get too wet. Luckily the worst part of rain hit me where I could get some shelter from a tree. After approximately 10min I was back riding. I could see bright flashes around me. As I was climbing the final Parcours, the storm was probably around the mountain and I got somehow lucky. I was riding in the dark only on the dynamo and emergency settings of the frontal. Going up I barely had light, and going down it was shaking a lot with the bumpy rocks, this is when the frontal light is usually very helpful to point a bright light directly where I want to see with my head 🔦 Unfortunately as I was descending, with probably a little too much confidence, my front wheel got stuck in a crack that I didn't see on the right. My bike tilted forward and I flew straight over the handlebars with a front flip landing 🛬 on my back. After 30s self assessing that I was O.K. 😵‍💫 I got back on my feet, put the bike back in order and continued my way out of this endless roller coaster 🎢

I slept a quick 30 min power nap on the side of the road next to Kerkini lake. I had a nice view as the sun came up, but I think I slept on an ant's nest! As I was going downhill pretty fast, enjoying the last long descent before the finish, I got stung by a wasp on the nose. The adrenaline kicked in!

I finally reached Thessaloniki, the TCR organizers really wanted us to do some sightseeing (and burn the last few muscle fibers we had left). A few steep walks and minutes of sightseeing later, I was there, the FINISH by the sea after 13 days and 14 hours across Europe!

TCR Recap D11 🇬🇷

I start my day with a climb to the sunrise 🌄. I did it on purpose for the view 😉

I stop at a village, waiting for the bakery to open. I figure that there is a Post office in the village. I had a foldable backpack with only a few items left inside that I wanted to remove from my back for comfort. I thought it was time to ship the extra road tire, Garmin Varia radar and battery that are no longer working or useful since a few days. As I get my package prepared I encounter a duo of TCR racers that ask me what am I doing? Apparently it is unclear whether this is within the rules or not. I double check the rules online, still cannot find any clear information that this is forbidden (later on, the race director confirmed it was forbidden… 🤦‍♂️)

I was eager to see what the gravel shortcut between Parcours 4a and 4b looked like.
It was a very steep service road with broken slabs of asphalt that then transformed into big rocks 🪨. About halfway through the way up it was difficult to find the proper route. Komoot, again, was pointing to a trail that didn't exist. So I went back and picked another trail that seemed to go around. I got to the beginning of long steep gravel laces reaching a pass. I was getting tired with the heat and all the climbing, I fell off the side of the bike a few times with the gradient. When I finally reached the top of the pass, I looked back and realized what I accomplished. It was probably one of the most memorable views and achievements of the trip.

After that I went through corn 🌽 fields between Trikala and CP4 in Meteora, it was steaming hot! I finally reach the last checkpoint in Meteora (before the finish line).

I get an interesting view on the monastery on the rocks with the sunset. I finish Parcours 4c in the middle of a gravel road. It was dark and after a few kilometers I realized I had some weird sandy gravel road for a good stretch. I couldn't wait to hit the tarmac back again. After a long climb, I went to sleep behind a billboard in a village. The stray dogs barking kept me half awake. I probably got around 2h of rest/sleep…

TCR Recap D10
🇦🇱Albania - 🇬🇷Greece

Out of the hotel I see a nice sunrise 🌄 on the beach. I couldn't wait to reach Greece, leaving behind all the broken roads, dust and lavazh stations. Stray dogs hanging around in the streets next to people setting fires in ditches or shooting guns on a stop sign.

I could smell the wildfires burning my lungs as I was approaching the Greek border. I stopped by a cafe that was slowly opening to get a freddo cappuccino. It was the last “few” kilometers before the last destination of , Greece! The country I was really looking forward to for its food 🥙, beaches ⛱️, landscapes, history and the finish line! 🏁

It would have been too easy to get straight to the finish line from North Macedonia obviously, so the TCR had a last checkpoint in Meteora, with 4 Parcours around before Thessaloniki!

It was a beautiful day to finally reach the Greek border. A few hills later I finally reach a first Greek supermarket, time to fill myself up! 🫃On the descent there was a really nice homie Greek restaurant so I stopped by for the first tzatziki, Miammmm!!! Tradition in Greece is to give a small frozen dessert when you pay the bill. I am already in love with this country! 🍦

After a nice sunset on the Greek mountains, I find myself descending some laces of a mountain in the dark with only my dynamo light working. My frontal light had some problems charging.

Close to the foot, I sleep on the side of the road in a hollow 🌝