At 67 years old, Robert will cross the Alps to help his grandson Gabriel who suffers from a rare disease

On August 8th, Robert, 67 years old, will set off from Belleville-en-Beaujolais to Nice for 17 days of cycling. 925 kilometers and 19,420 meters of elevation gain to raise awareness of bronchiolitis obliterans, the rare disease affecting his grandson Gabriel, 15 months old.

Months of hospitalization to a few months of life

Gabriel is 15 months old. Born healthy in Brazil in April 2025, he catches what initially appears to be a common bronchiolitis.

It does not heal. Worse, it worsens: five months of hospitalization, including three spent in intensive care, until his lungs can no longer oxygenate him on their own.

The diagnosis comes in late July 2025 with post-infectious bronchiolitis obliterans, a chronic disease with no curative treatment.

An almost invisible disease in France

“In France, people know about bronchiolitis, which unfortunately many children catch when they are young,” explains Robert, “but bronchiolitis obliterans, there are very very few cases in France.”

Scientific documentation exists, but almost only in English. Johann, Gabriel’s father, summarizes this notably when, after the diagnosis, he searched for the name of the disease on Google and found almost nothing in French to understand what was happening to his son.

It is from this void that Robert’s project is born.

Cycling as a means of raising awareness

“A 67-year-old grandfather cycling for his grandson and other children affected by this disease, that can sometimes interest both the media and people,” summarizes Robert.

The challenge, named “The Passes of Breath,” will take him through seven departments, 16 stages and 19 mountain passes, including Iseran, Galibier and Izoard. It is a project he was already carrying out before a training fall last year, and which he is dedicating this time to Gabriel.

The route is not an end in itself: “I am proud to help raise awareness of this disease.”

The electric-assisted bike that accompanies him carries, in his words, the same message as the entire challenge: “The electric assistance will be my oxygen on the bike, just like medical oxygen, and the oxygen to live, for children who are affected by bronchiolitis obliterans.”

Diligent preparation

“I was not an amateur, I was nothing at all, I did a ride about once a week when I was young,” Robert recalls. For him, cycling stopped when work took over as he was taking over a newsstand.

Retired in 2019, he got back on his bike the following year, “always as a hobbyist, once a week, or two…“, before “continuing to cycle, to climb, to do many more kilometers.”

But since May, preparation has intensified for the departure, with progressive rides and work over several hours to get his body ready for 17 days of mountains.

Robert trains three times a week in the Beaujolais vineyards, alone, under the conditions of the challenge: “I am happy to be on my bike, I turn off my phone, no one can reach me at that moment, and I put myself in the conditions of the challenge.”

But Robert does not hide his concerns, particularly regarding the weather: «I am a bit anxious. I am on the countdown […] with the weather we currently have, the heat wave, it does frighten me a bit.”

It is notably the stage connecting Bourg-Saint-Maurice to Val Cenis that worries him with 80 kilometers including «50 of climbing the Iseran pass.»

But these obstacles do not dampen his motivation, Robert says it bluntly «I have the motivation, in any case.»

Raising awareness, far beyond the challenge

Alongside the route, the challenge aims above all to raise funds for the Hope For Gabriel association, created in September by the family.

Supporting this, approximately one euro per meter of elevation gain, or 20,000 euros, intended to support research, help affected families and raise awareness of a rare disease.

Other initiatives carry the same ambition: “My son had the idea, following the challenge I am doing, to create an international community for bronchiolitis obliterans,” specifies Robert. He found a few families in Brazil, Argentina, Spain, France. The goal being that parents who are told this diagnosis no longer find themselves “helpless,” as Johann and his wife were.

“We really need to keep talking about it, even beyond this challenge, Robert insists, because everyone, all parents, can be affected”