When I first heard about the event at the beginning of this year I got immediately excited: a race of traditionally built bicycles in the style of the great French builders of the 1940s and 50s. Bikes and designated riders have to pass three different tests, a 235km long road race with more than 4000m of altitude gain, a 55km time trial up and down a mountain, and 70km of gravel tracks, three days in a row in the beautiful area of Ambert, in the region of Auvergne.