Emmanuel will be packing up his skis this month and getting out his bike as the French Alps embrace Le Tour.
A ski tour driver over the winter in Val D’Isere, so he can ski, the Belgian doppelganger for Kevin De Bruyne, keeps the legs rotating in the summer on his bike.
Well, he is Belgian.
And he is not the only one as mountain men and women do the same in France.
Ride on
If you don’t know it, Morzine is a car-free village, and home to 34 hotels, 52 bars and restaurants.
And 16 mapped routes totalling 1200kms around Morzine.
This year Morzine will play host to the 109th Tour de France with riders rolling into Chatel on July 10.
They will enjoy a day’s rest in Morzine the next day before departing on July 12 to compete the 10th stage, a 148km run towards Megeve.
More on everything two-wheeled and the resort has been awarded the Accueil velo label and the Hebergement Cyclo label.
And that guarantees quality and expertise for cyclists, and sports shops offering specialist bike services.
The centrally located Hotel La Clef des Champs also offers guests six electric bikes and charging points. From €29pp.
Electric dreams
It used to be the case, of course, that bikes came in only one shape.
Unless you’re talking about bicycles made for two, unicycles or Penny Farthings.
Now we’ve done the oul dual bike, or should that be duel, as The Scary One pulled one way and I the other in Majorca.
While left to my own devices I passed over the alternative attraction of electric bikes in Saint Tropez for a Fiat 500 drive around the mountains.
I was, of course, due to drive myself only for the tour coordinator to slam the brakes on that and take the wheel himself.
I had stalled on the. old gearstick on the dashboard.
The mountains are calling
There was too a gentle ride through the lakelands of Quinto da Lago in the Algarve.
Before my competitiveness got the better of me and I skidded off the path and scared the spoonbill birds on the water.
Better, of course, to just pose then with the bike than try to be Eddie Merckx, or Emmanuel.
So it was the obligatory picture next to the Pyrenees cyclist statue on a trip up to Le Pic du Midi.
Isn’t it better to let the experts, the superhuman cyclists, do the heavy lifting?
And sit back in your picnic spot, break out the wine and cheese and baguettes and take it all in as the French Alps embrace Le Tour.