After 2 months with significant restrictions in France from March to May 2020 due to the Covid-19, we could finally go out freely. We had this idea with Kilian that we will go out and ride on the very 1st day (on May 11th 2020) as soon as possible whatever the forecast. He picked me up at 5 am by night and at 6 am we were up there on the Parmelan mountain above Annecy under a gentle rain with a nice foggy atmosphere. It was Kilian's first mission post-lockdown before all his next adventures he did like his "Tout de France" as you probably watched the video.
Since the 30th of October, the French Government has decided that we will be locked-down once again for one month...
6:14am. It's a bit cold, it's dark and wet, and we are alone in the mountain. The feeling of being out there is great. A word describes this perfectly: freedom.
Mother nature had 2 months without seeing any humans here, we could feel it. We crossed the path of a lot of snails that were happy with this rainy weather.
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 Kilian loves nature as much as I do, this is why he is almost every day out there, riding his bike or running. |
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| A few minutes after starting our way to the top, I stopped there and said to Kilian: "Can you ride somewhere here?" The foggy atmosphere under the trees was amazing and the wet rocks made the track very technical, but I knew Kilian could do it as he is a real cat on the bike! It was still very dark, this is why I brought 2 flashes with me. I wanted to pay justice to this misty atmosphere, and I guess we did it well. At least we were both very happy with this shot! |
Same place, different part and a challenge for the man on the bike. He told me to be ready as he won't do it a lot of time. This rock was very slippery and the parts before and after made the whole thing very difficult to ride. He did it 3 times. The 3rd time he almost crashed on me!
This one was Kilian's idea. I love shooting with creative riders like him or Jey Clementz. He loved the trees in the background but we didn't know how to pay justice to this spot with some nice almost flat rock slabs. I finally went down, put the camera on the ground with a fisheye lens, and Kilian managed to do a nose turn above me. It took us a few minutes to nail it as we had to be very precise, both of us.
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| On our way up, where climbers start to feel good with rock walls on the side of the track, there was this kind of a cave entrance here. I was a bit upset with Kilian as he didn't wear any colored outfit, which can transform a "ok" photo to a "great" photo. Hopefully, the flashes made the difference and Kilian was no longer consider as a rock in this grey/green landscape! |
The fog was about to disappear as we were higher and we could feel the sun coming behind the clouds. So it was time to shoot the last image like this!
Some snow was still there as Kilian carried his bike on our way to the top. I like when he looks badass like this, but the second after this portrait we laughed together! It's hard to find a Kilian Bron unhappy when he is with his bike.
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| I have to say that this part of the Parmelan mountain is not really fitted for Mountain Bikers. But if Kilian Bron doesn't carry his bike once during a ride, it's not really a proper Mission, and it doesn't fit the man. So here we are, climbing to the top with a bike on the back looking like Mike Horn fighting with the elements on the other side of the planet! |
And here we are with riding sketchy things just because it's fun and it can make a cool picture!
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| The clock was ticking as it takes time to climb a mountain while taking some pics. I saw this spot as the last opportunity to do a last action snap as we could finally see what was around us and it was not raining anymore. |
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| End of this small mission my friends. It was time for us to go down, and I let KB ride down to his next big missions across the country. |
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Looks like a nice big platform.