Published by Lyn on 19 November 2012
Blogger Gerry Patterson has turned his love of cycling into a business – he's started running his own cycling tours in Languedoc. In this guest blog, he explains how he went about it.
I’m a cycling guide and tour operator in the south of France. I think that’s the first time I’ve actually ever written all those wonderful words together, but they happen to be true now. I certainly didn’t think I would be typing them nearly five years ago when I arrived here. Freewheeling France thought it might be interesting to write how it all happened, so here goes my best shot, in 800 words or less.
Aspiring tour guides, attempt this at your own risk!
I came to France to ride my bike. Yes, really. I had (and still have) a job that allowed me to live in any country that would let me in. I knew France pretty well already, from the saddle at least, so it really wasn’t a difficult decision. France is, hands down, the best place on Earth to ride a bike. As soon as my wife and I got here, figured out how to open a bank account, and convinced a real estate agent we weren’t illegal immigrants, I set out to explore the region (my region – Languedoc) on two wheels.
At the same time I started looking online for some help finding good cycling routes. It didn’t exist. It wasn’t long before someone in the household came up with the idea of me starting a cycling blog. The blog (originally Mr Patterson Goes to Languedoc – most recently morphing into The Vicious Cycle) highlighted two of my favorite things: cycling and maps, and each post had a new route with a Google Map attached. Accompanying these two things were bad photos and crappy commentary, but somehow it gained an audience.
The blog continued in this vein for a couple of years and, probably because I was the only one doing anything related to cycling in the region, I started making contacts, such as fellow cyclists, bike shops and B&B owners. My first venture into the business end of all this was making a few cycling maps emanating from a couple of the B&Bs I knew. This was when I began to think that there could be something in this industry for me to do, so in 2010 I started Cycling Languedoc, a website that was designed to help independent travellers get to know this great, sun-kissed region by bike. I spent two years building up a database of routes all over the region, supplementing them with a growing content base of practical information, like a listing of bike shops, markets in the region, transportation and, of course, wine.
Becoming a local expert
Cycling Languedoc changed the game for me because now I was seen (by some, I think) as an ‘authority’ on cycling here. I started collecting ‘cycling friendly’ B&Bs and hotels on the site in 2011 and giving them their own page, which has really expanded my network in the region, as well as made me a few new friends in the process.
Somewhere around this same time I began wondering if there might sometimes be people on vacation here who would like to have, say, a half-day guided ride near their hotel. I took the chance and put up a page on the site, et voila, a market existed. All of these guided rides have been great experiences for me and I began to realise that I really enjoyed translating my knowledge into something concrete and face to face, i.e. showing people around my neighborhood. More importantly, nobody ran away screaming or crying from the experience. There was hope.
In 2012 I thought I should get more serious and, with a good cycling friend here (who I found through my blog, incidentally), decided to transform Cycling Languedoc into a proper tour operator. This is a work in progress, but the site is revamped and can now be seen as two inter-linked entities – routes/information and tours/guided rides. It’s all very new, but seems to be working well and not confusing people too much. For the moment, Cycling Languedoc offers one guided tour in the French Alps and one self-guided tour in eastern Languedoc, and if I can find the time this winter, that number should double before next season. To accomplish this I am using the friends I’ve made along the way, for example renting the bikes I use on tours from a local shop and making sure that some of my cycling-friendly accommodations are included in our tours.
I see that 800 words is coming up fast, so I’ll just conclude by saying that, looking back at The Ride that has been this little adventure in France, I’m amazed at how perfectly it has worked out so far. I won’t say ‘effortlessly’, but it certainly has been fun. In the end I guess that’s the way it’s supposed to be, isn’t it? I’ve got much more to say, so if you’d like to hear it, come out for a ride!
More on cycling in Languedoc
You can read more about cycling Languedoc on Gerry's other guest posts for Freewheeling France: he has written us overviews of cycling in Languedoc, Narbonne, Nimes, Montpellier, Perpignan, as well as this overview of themed bike rides in Languedoc. (And, on an unrelated note, Gerry has also ridden the Paris-Roubaix and cycled the Trans-Ardennes Bike Path for us.)
Gerry's website is Cycling Languedoc and his blog is at The Vicious Cycle.
French cycling holidays
For more links to Gerry's cycling tours and other bike tours of France, see our French cycling tours section.
