► Geolocate drinking water points
Pedaling makes you thirsty. So when you want to fill your water bottle – and avoid buying plastic bottles – where can you find a water point? Hoali, a Breton start-up, has created an interactive map, called #Gourdefriendly, to geolocate all the fountains, bars, restaurants, hotels and shops that provide a free charging point, throughout France. La Vélodyssée, a “bicycle route” between Brittany and the Basque Coast, has just been associated with it. Cyclists (and everyone else!) can therefore reference where to find an unlisted water point. The menu, in fact, still needs to be expanded!
► All about your biclou
After the hut and the potato, review Useful (Out!laugh) saddle up. This young periodical, which wants to support its readers in the transition to more sober lifestyles, is devoting its new issue to cycling. Through reports and meetings, Useful treats in all lengths the phenomenon of “velorution”.
Even Jeannie Longo talks about it! But it is above all the practical sections of the magazine that will serve bicycle enthusiasts. Anatomy of a bike, itineraries, and DIY files (for “Do it yourself”, or “Do it yourself”) populate the pages to become a cycling pro. We learn how to tinker with a luggage rack or reveal a wheel with… a pen!
► Persuade your loved ones to get started!
Fifty ideas and as many illustrations to convince family, colleagues or recalcitrant friends to take up cycling: here is what Stein van Oosteren, tireless promoter of the bicycle, and the designer Clod (who has already worked in our pages), offer in their book with a sparkling cover, published by Makisapa, a small publishing house in Angoulême.
The challenge: to change the way you look at cycling. The result is a lot of good reasons, illustrated with lightness and poetry, and varying the tone. Funny : “The bike allows you to be punctual: if the track is empty, it’s because the cyclists have already arrived! » Practical : “A parking space can accommodate 10 bicycles. » Instructive: “In the Netherlands, seniors between the ages of 65 and 75 form the largest group of adults who travel by bicycle. » Without forgetting the essential: good idea n° 49, “cycling makes you happy. » (50 good reasons to ride a bike, let yourself be transported!116 p., 14 €)
► Go on a cycling holiday
Want to travel differently? France Cycling Tourism encourages you to get on your bike to cover part of the 25,000 kilometers of routes laid out in mainland France. Created in 2011, the association of general interest provides practical advice on its site to prepare for your journey. How to equip? How to travel with children? How to orient yourself on the national and European cycle routes? There are also route suggestions, for example 100 itineraries, for a weekend, departing from major cities. France Vélo Tourisme is also developing a Accueil Vélo label. It lists more than 8,000 establishments (restaurants, hotels, campsites, bike repairers, etc.) offering services to cyclists.
► Light pedaling
Two young engineers from Eure-et-Loir developed, in 2022, the application Velolight, which allows cyclists to travel without being encumbered. They can thus reserve their camping equipment – a tent, ground mattresses, pillows and duvets, a mallet and a stove – throughout their journey. The price ? Between €12 per night for a single person and €30 for a family of four. This season, around thirty campsites, located on Véloscénie (between Paris and Mont-Saint-Michel), Vélo Francette and Loire à Vélo, have agreed to be partners. The application will gradually be extended to other western cycle routes, then to the entire national network.
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