HAUTE E-CULTURE
in search of solace, i start singing aloud.
My inner monologue, fuelled by an intense mixture of fear and survival-instinct calm, is now being audibly expressed. Stay focused. Look ahead. Don’t look down. Don’t die. Just keep pedalling. The singletrack has narrowed to a foot’s width – it’s obscured by long grass, loose and dusty, with the trail ahead seemingly erased on one side, and hugging the mountain on the other like a long-lost friend. I’m doing my very best impression of someone in control, with every fibre of me wanting to look out at the majestic view, only to risk it stealing me away into oblivion. Flat corners aren’t my forté at the best of times, let alone halfway up a mountain, on an e-bike with questionable tyres. The sole thought racing through my head is of the repercussions of clipping a pedal. I won’t go into the song I was singing, I really can’t explain it – that one stays with me.
We’re in the Hautes-Alpes in south-east France, close to the Italian border. A place where the e-bike reigns supreme, and rightly so. MBUK’s production editor Chris and I are on a three-day mission with snapper Andy Lloyd, guided by Cyril and Martin from Guil E-Bike and local ripper Constantin, to find out what this relatively undiscovered area of the southern Alps has to offer, why the e-bike is the tool for the job and why this could be your next big
