The bicycle party responds to Tours despite the rain

The rain will not have been right for cyclists. Sunday, May 4, 2025, the bicycle festival was held in Tours, whose city center went into a car without car for the occasion. The courageous of the velovet opened the ball with a walk between 15 and 20 km in downtown Tours, from the morning.

“We had 3,100 people registered, but we had a little fewer presentsindicates Bastien de Marcillac, the director of Vélotour. In total, around 2,600 people participated in this 6^e Vélotour edition. »»

Bicycle, both leisure and professional vehicle

Participants who come “80 % of the agglomeration, including 40 % of the city of Tours”but which are especially of any age. “We have chosen a flat course, adapted to the greatest number, and which changes every year”continues Bastien de Marcillac.

Leaving from Place de Strasbourg, the cyclists were able to go through the Conservatoire, the municipal library, the Saint-Cosme priory, to the rich, but also by two of the companies of the Vélo pole in Menneton, Velop and Cyfac. “The idea is to say that in addition to being a leisure sport event, it is also a local cultural meeting. »»

Place Anatole-France is a village dedicated to the bicycle that had taken place. On the one hand of the square, the cycling collective 37 (CC37) had organized its bicycle purse. The principle was simple: the morning, the cyclists can bring the bikes they want to sell, while in the afternoon, buyers come to find the rare pearl.

“But the rain did not help us this morning”indicates one of the volunteers of the CC37, blue chasuble on the shoulders. About sixty bikes have been recovered and put up for sale by the cycling collective, “From € 10 to a few hundred euros, with even a bicycle at 1,800 €”. These bikes are “In very good condition” And they had the technical control carried out the same morning by the mechanics of the association.

But cycling is not only leisure. For the company for employment purposes (EBE) Co-Hop ‘, from the zero-term Sanitas-Velpeau zero-term territory project, it is also a professional vehicle. She has indeed launched her taxi bicycle service, “With the moment an already used bicycle and two others that we are arranging”indicates Patrick Oko, from Co-Hop ‘.

With a cost of € 7 per route (or € 35 for a card of 10 trips), this service is for now “Especially for seniors and vulnerable people”. But apart from the gentle mobility aspect, which makes the specificity of Co-Hop ‘taxi bikes, “This is the fact that we take time with each clientexplains Patrick Oko. If you have no other customer afterwards, you can wait for the person to have finished their appointment to bring it home, or you can help them unload and wear their shopping. The idea is that the person is comfortable. »»