On the occasion of the shooting of his film Chambéry-Les Arcs, entirely devoted to his passion for cycling, Gérard Courant met the writer and journalist Pierre Vavasseur, the scriptwriter and journalist Alain Riou and the filmmaker Luc Moullet with whom he shares this passion. Pierre Vavasseur, from Le Parisien, invited Gérard Courant to follow a mountain stage of the Tour de France and Alain Riou, who is used to the great passes of the Alps, suggested that the filmmaker cycle with him on the same stage a few days before the riders.