Gerry arrived in the south of France in 2008. He had a bike, a few Michelin maps and a fair amount of time on his hands to get out and explore. He began sharing his adventures on a blog and a few people started reading, leading to him meeting others who either cycled, lived nearby, or were in the tourist industry. John was one of these.
One thing led to another, and in 2010 Gerry began making cycling maps for local B&Bs and giving the occasional guided ride. A year later he organized his first self-guided tour in southern France. In 2012 a fortuitous meeting with a few South American riders led to our first real tour – a 7-day romp through the French Alps with 18 mountain-mad Colombians!
By then the enterprise doubled (from 1 to 2) and things began to ramp up. John brought energy, lots of cycling experience and impressive organizational skills to the game. Suddenly we were offering full-service week-long tours and we were discovering that, hey, we kind of dig showing people around the marvelous area we have here!
In 2014 we made the commitment to focus our energies 100% on tours. The result is 44|5 Cycling Tours (44N, 5E are the nearest whole coordinates to Mont Ventoux, our ‘local hill’). We continued to create new tours and refine existing ones, offering guided tours in many parts of the area we live in, as well as further afield in the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Italian Dolomites and Spain.
Apart from these traditional tours we became an official tour operator of the biggest sportive event in Europe: The Etape du Tour
In 2022 John moved on in a different direction and Gerry came full circle to run the show solo again! Fortunately, after many years in the cycling world, he has lots of friends to help him out, so from 2023 and beyond we will continue to offer fun and high-quality bike tours all over Europe.
Hope you can join us for the ride!
