• The Vélo-Cité association, in connection with the national structure AF3V, offers cycling lessons to adults in order to facilitate their social and professional integration project.

  • The objective is to provide autonomy in travel for people who did not have the opportunity to be introduced to cycling in their childhood.

  • The vast majority of beneficiaries of the association's school bikes are women, aged 15 to 70 years.

“You have to look far ahead,” advises Jean Labille, a volunteer with the Vélo-Cité association in Karima, 49, who is taking his third course on the Bordeaux quays this Monday.

She and Nabilla, 41, live in Cenon near Bordeaux and did not have the opportunity to learn to ride a bicycle as a child.

Supported by the Vélo-Cité association and AF3V (French association for the development of cycle routes and greenways), they are taught to familiarize themselves with the little queen, very gently.

"I have balance problems ..."

“For now I'm going to work by bus but I would like to go by bike,” explains Karima. It's also for fun, to be able to go for walks with my daughter and my husband ”. She had never tried to ride a bike but had no particular apprehension. This Monday, the two students go back and forth like a balance bike to tame the balance, an essential first stage. “I know, I'm old to learn to ride a bike,” smiles Nabilla. I have tried several times on my own but I have problems with my balance, I even have a bike at home that I don't use ”. But once you're more on the verge of a fall every time you get on your bike, the learning is just beginning. "Knowing how to ride a bike is not to master your balance but to be autonomous in your movements", emphasizes Sébastien Rousseau,mobility educator within the Vélo-Cité association

“We train around 200 people per year through group lessons (socio-professional integration or recovery sessions) and private lessons,” explains Sébastien Rousseau.

The expresS bike system, carried by AF3V, “makes it possible to recruit people looking for mobility, with a social and professional integration project,” he points out.

The objective is to teach them to ride a bicycle and to make them autonomous ”.

"We are in contact with the Departmental House of Solidarity and Integration of Cenon (MDSI) for the recruitment of learners", specifies Sophie Verdellet, head of the Express bike project at AF3V.

The association has established similar partnerships with local associations in eight departments in France.

"Cries and tears"

The public welcomed by the association in its courses is very female (80% of learners) and is between 15 and 70 years old.

“It's very difficult to get on the bike and they are very courageous to do so, insists the bike educator.

We do not realize the difficulties of people who come from abroad, they do not know the signage, for example ”.

If the first sessions can be a bit laborious, when confidence is installed it is a real reward for the volunteers to see the joy on the faces of their students.

"They are cries, tears sometimes, we are always thanked for what we do, yet it's very simple," says Sébastien Rousseau.

And when they are a little more sure of themselves, they all want to "go around the bridges", the typical Bordeaux walk of around seven kilometers.

“It's a bit like the final exam, the consecration,” jokes Jean Labille.

Karima believes that she will have achieved her goal when she can be "independent" in her travels. 

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  • Mobility

  • Aquitaine

  • Bike

  • Insertion

  • Social