Larry Warbasse presents his favourite route in Michigan: "I’ve been pretty fortunate with the places I’ve lived"

'My Favourite Ride' is a new series from GCN, in which famous figures from the world of cycling talk us through the rides that mean the most to them. First up is Larry Warbasse, former US champion and current WorldTour pro with AG2R Citroën. Larry is based in Nice, where there's stunning riding to be had, but he's taking us back to his home roads of Michigan.

"This is Leelanau, and my favourite ride is a big loop of the whole peninsula," Warbasse opens. "I would say that, in the US, this is one of the best places I’ve ridden a bike. In Europe I live in Nice, which also happens to be one of the best places you could wish to ride a bike, so I guess I’ve been pretty fortunate with the places I’ve lived."

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"Where I’m from, it’s not like we have mountains, but we do have a lot of hills. You won’t find any climbs that are more than five or six minutes long, but you can easily get above 2000 metres of elevation gain in a few hours. It’s just continuously rolling. What I like to do is try and hit all the hills I can on the peninsula."

"I still ride this loop with old friends. There were some guys who I would go out and train with when I was younger. They were already masters racers when I was a junior, but they’re still riding, so I’ll go out with those guys when I’m back home. When I was younger, there weren’t that many people riding out there, but now there’s a tonne. Every time I go back, I see more and more cyclists out there on the Leelanau Peninsula, and I appreciate that."

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