Video: Exploring the French Riding Scene with Nico Vouilloz, Loic Bruni, Loris Vergier & More in 'French Lines'

Jan 11, 2022 at 2:09
by genepi film  


The French are famous for taking the line less ridden.

Say what you will about their style, but there are more rainbow jerseys here in the South-East corner of France than anywhere else in the world. French Lines is a feature-length dive into the personalities, the riding spots and the culture that makes these riders better, faster, stronger (and yes, Daft Punk are French too).

Starring:



Fabien Barel




Loic Bruni




Loris Vergier



Nico Vouilloz




Adrien Dailly




Dimitri Tordo






Follow Genepi Film

Must Read This Week
Review: The Orbea Wild M-LTD Raises the Bar for eMTB
45611 views
Check Out: Mons Royale's SS 23 Apparel, A Tiny Torque Wrench & Key Lime Pie Protein Powder
43574 views
Pinkbike Poll: Clipless vs Flat - What's Your Pedal Preference?
38780 views
Tech Briefing: May 2023
38397 views
Slack Randoms: Triangle Wheels, Gee Atherton's Backcountry Ride & More
37087 views
British Cycling Limits Transgender Women Competing in Female Categories
28947 views
Must Watch: Brandon Semenuk's Fools Gold
28163 views
Ragley Releases 2023 All-Hardtail Lineup
23846 views

79 Comments

  • 29 2
 French are strong in all outdoor sports. The more extreme is the better they are. Weird nation..

And since Alsace is my neighbourhood may I suggest a fine bottle of Prestige Pinot Noir d'Yvorne barrique? Don't mind if I do. Goes well with Raclette.
And since I'm not Swiss I'm allowed to skip those freaking potatos. Trust me on this one! Just take several soft Tortillas, fill them with Raclette (French one) and microwave them for 2, 2.5 minutes. Delicious!

I wish you all a wonderful evening my friends!
  • 43 2
 I'm calling the cops, swat are on their way
  • 11 0
 Now this is a comment I can get behind! Mountain biking, good wine and food. Bring it on!
  • 9 1
 You're right: making wine is an outdoor sport, and froggies are not too bad at this Smile
Cool that you've found your marks in Alsace, nevertheless the french Raclette is certainly not as good as the swiss one (correct me if I'm wrong), and the Petite Arvine is a pretty good swiss wine as well!
Cheers Camarade / enjoy!!!
  • 6 17
flag curendero (Jan 15, 2022 at 18:21) (Below Threshold)
 Except speaking English outdoors...
  • 16 1
 @curendero: pourquoi faudrait-il toujours s'adapter à ta connerie?
  • 4 1
 Aussschaffen, aber subito!!!
  • 1 0
 Quartararo Is French and won the MotoGP Championship but he moved to Spain as a young teen and learned to race in Spain so not sure that counts. Especially since France has not won in 73 years but Spain dominates.
  • 1 0
 If you do those weird stuff outside our border with french cheese then yes you are allowed. It's not raclette anymore. You can even call it how you want. It's not our problem anymore... hahah Cheers mate !
  • 2 0
 @krumpdancer101: Are we talking about MotoGP?
  • 1 0
 @Cocorico: I was referring to the very first statement.
  • 1 0
 @krumpdancer101: so watch WRC, it's more accurate as outdoor/natural thing, there are some Sébastien bien de chez nous Wink
  • 1 0
 @Clem-mk: lol I am more a 2 wheel rider/racer and I prefer the Baja 500 for 4wheel drive stuff.
  • 26 2
 I do agree with Loris at the end. There's something boring about perfect flow trails. I can ride the same janky tech trail 10 time and still find things on it. But after 2 runs on the same flow trail I want to see something else.
  • 15 0
 People who only ride A-Line are readying their pitch forks.
  • 12 0
 Great little doc. Cool scenery, excellent riding ofcourse, killer music. What I really appreciated was getting a sense for the French mentality about riding and racing. I think I respect and appreciate French riders a little more after this. Loris is obviously super fast, but his style is now put into context and that's really cool. Thanks for this!
  • 4 0
  that means a lot, thanks.
  • 8 0
 Quelle fierté de voir mes sentiers locaux mise en valeur par des riders d'exceptions que j'ai la chance de croiser régulièrement dans une vidéo qui fait le tour du monde. Merci.
  • 2 0
 The creator of the French Lines is Christian Taillefer, mid-90s, as he was more than famous for finding borderlines lines, yet really "creative" ones. He won many races that way, and then it become the french signature for most of top french riders.
  • 1 0
 Ah, I thought it was Fabien Barel who invented the French line (during the first EWS series). Were the ones from Christian Taillefer already called "French Lines"? It was quite diverse though, what Fabien did. Once he was caught for riding a shortcut that apparently wasn't allowed, even though that section wasn't taped. Another time he took an uplift on a transfer section where he should have been pedaling up.
  • 1 0
 Merci pour ce film. Ca fait plaisir de voir autre chose. Je suis superfan de Vouilloz, Barel et Bruni, et l'idée d'expliquer cette concentration de talents de par la spécificité géographique du terrain est excellente, mais je trouve que les images choisies n'illustrent pas toujours le propos. Le montage à la "clip musical" de temps en temps c'est cool, mais ça dévalue un peu la qualité du riding. Ca serait top de varier entre montage très saccadé et passages plus "RAW" où la technique est vraiment visible. Surtout quand on a autant de maîtres à disposition!!
  • 4 0
 I love the terrain, such a cool variety of trails and landscapes.
  • 5 1
 "French lines": that doesn't mean, what you think it means
  • 1 0
 If it's within the tape then it's fair game. That said the course modifying and tape cutting/moving is clealy cheating. As a former commissaire/stewart I have seen undeserved winners...
  • 1 0
 It was an awesome story but it would have been cool to see more of tbe raw natural trails and hitting the "French Lines" they talked about instead of a bunch of smoothish jump trails.
  • 2 0
 There is a lot of French Lines in the riding scene, and those trails are the opposite of smooth in real life. That’s the talent of those riders, it looks like easy ride, but when you ride there, you realize that’s crazy lines.
But I understand your feeling, and that means that I should have shown more the difficulty of those trails.
Thanks for your feedback
  • 2 0
 @genepifilm: Nothing but respect man! Its one of my favorite videos I've seen in a long while. I would like to see more of the difficulty shown like you said and hitting the "French lines". Ill keep an eye out for part 2!
  • 1 0
 Must have been really tough to find some French women with decent biking skills… Showcasing so many different generations and disciplines, that you would expect some of the heavy hitter females in there.
  • 2 0
 Our frenchies… some subtitle in any international language would have been really appreciated
  • 12 1
 Press the right button into the Youtube subtitles options to get it in martian Bro Smile
  • 3 0
 Hello Ferenooo, English subtitles are available in YouTube player.
  • 1 0
 @genepifilm: thanks mate
  • 2 0
 Video link has surrendered, all I get it "this live event is not longer avalible"
  • 3 0
 Merci @genepifilm pour ce cadeau
Toujours un travail incroyable.
  • 2 0
  merci bcp
  • 2 0
 Such a great doc!
Thanks Pinkbike, M. Acheverry & Genepifilm for sharing for free Wink
  • 1 0
 Thanks for the support
  • 1 0
 Thanks for the mobile info, I was on my phone looking. But heck of a way to confuse if all. His whole post about saying bye to Fox made me wonder anyway.
  • 2 0
 and Thibaut Daprela, Florian Nicolaï, Remy Metailler, Yoann Barelli ... and for the futur, Hugo Marini, remember his name !
  • 2 0
 Totalement d’accord avec ton casting. Hugo Marini est déjà dans le film... clairement un pilote à suivre !
  • 3 1
 Seems kinda weird not to include Amaury Pierron eh?
  • 14 0
 It's about a specific area in France, that is known to have seen many great riders originate from. Pierron isn't from there.
  • 4 10
flag danstonQ (Jan 15, 2022 at 12:25) (Below Threshold)
 A pity that Cécile Ravanel is not part of it. She lives South East like the others, more or less, and she's both super talented and super funny to listen to.
More generally, this film is OK but globally disappointing IMO. I expected much MUCH more.
  • 6 0
 @danstonQ: merci d’avoir pris de ton temps pour laisser un commentaire.
Toutes les personnes qui ont bossé dessus te remercie.
  • 2 5
 @genepifilm: Vous avez fait un super boulot, non exhaustif certes, mais il y a tant à faire et à dire...
Les prises de vue sont magnifiques, les interviews enrichissantes, le rythme est bon.... mais y'a pas Cécile Ravanel (!!!) et ça fait quand-même un peu chier Smile
  • 2 1
 @xavierp: The title of this article suggests that this is about all of France ("The French riding scene").
  • 6 0
 @xavierp: Yes, we are talking about Alpes Maritimes, not Auvergne, Amaury's home. Loïc mentions it in the video.
  • 2 0
 Missing the awkward super euro style of Flo... And the Freerider frenchliner Bron...
  • 7 0
 @danstonQ: il manque énormément de Riders / rideuses, je n’ai mêmes pas pu filmer tous les talents du 06.
Il y aura un autre documentaire orienté sur les pilotes féminines.
Je serais ravi de raconter des histoires de Cecile.
French Lines est née dans les Alpes Maritimes, il n’y avait pas de connections avec elle pour ce projet.
++
  • 2 0
 @genepifilm: Merci pour cet épisode déjà ! Sympa le coup d'oeil dans le rétro, la french line connection, ça donne envie d'aller couper quelques épingles dans le 06...
  • 2 0
 @Ricolaburle: Merci du soutien , au plaisir de se croiser sur nos épingles ✊
  • 2 0
 @genepifilm: could I also suggest T. Daprela ? A real monster. And then, come to Auvergne ;-)
  • 3 0
 @philippec555: Avec plaisir. Pour la petite histoire, l’entretien avec Loïc dure 1heure, quand il évoque l’Auvergne, il me disait avoir roulé sur un des plus beaux sentiers de sa vie... une terre parfaite, des virages de folies, bref avoir pris du plaisir comme rarement
Et concernant Daprela, évidemment il manque au casting, mais j’espère bien qu’il sera présent sur le prochain.
  • 3 0
 @genepifilm: oui, j'avais noté l'allusion de Loic. Si je ne me trompe pas son entraîneur (et celui de Myriam) est ici. Bref, je discute, mais je m'associe aussi à tous les autres pour dire un grand merci ! J'ai le même âge que Nico. Le revoir, Barel, Amour, Dola ... c'est top. Merci !!!
  • 1 0
 @genepifilm: 1h!? Vivement le making of...
  • 2 0
 @Ricolaburle:
  • 1 0
 Video no more available?
Has someone a new url for this please??
  • 1 0
 youtu.be/ExEZB5a5bQ0

Great video and amazing tunes.
  • 1 0
 Loic bruni rides for canyon???
  • 1 0
 Nvm, photos mixed up on mobile.
  • 1 0
 France is well known for their french lines and their douches
  • 1 0
 Que beu país !
  • 3 5
 Did Bruni sign with canyon without anyone noticing?? Look at the pants and bike.
  • 2 1
 I was confused at first too. I think the photos are just out of order.
  • 5 1
 And Barel found the fountain of youth
  • 3 0
 @pumpjumpnflow: Their names are beside their pictures.
The Canyon rider is Dimitri Tordo.
Bruni is in his usual Specialized, Fox & Red Bull kit. (B&W photo)
  • 4 0
 The photos were aligned on a computer with their names, unfortunately mobile strips the code away - I spent the best part of an hour working on the alignment only to find this morning that it was a waste of time.
  • 1 0
 That's Tordo I guess
  • 2 4
 Given the perfect scenery. trails and lift access......the real story here is why haven't they won more!!
  • 12 0
  Good point,
So let me give you some numbers (only from riders from Alpes Maritimes):
36 titles of world champions
93 titles of National Champions

MTB racing making it’s debut in 90’s... I think it’s pretty good stats.
Below threshold threads are hidden





You must login to Pinkbike.
Don't have an account? Sign up

Join Pinkbike  Login
Copyright © 2000 - 2023. Pinkbike.com. All rights reserved.
dv42 0.032583
Mobile Version of Website