The Man in Blue, emblematic cyclist of Limoges, died when hit by a motorist

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His name was Jean-Marc Chatard and he was 74 years old. This former mason was well known to Limougaudians who saw him traveling around in overalls and boots on his bike.

Friday evening, “the man in blue” was hit by a motorist who fled. Injured in the neck, the retiree died in hospital.

The loss of an emblematic figure

“Limoges is losing its emblem,” declared Charles, a restaurateur in town, at Popular in the centerthe local newspaper, which devotes a front page appeal to this accident.

You can imagine the importance of this character. He had, without having asked for anything, his Facebook page, a newspaper bearing his name. He was the Man in Blue, but I have the blues.

“He was the emblematic cyclist of Limogesknown to everyone for decades. We mourn the memory of the man and the symbol he represented,” said the Véli-Vélo association in a press release, which called for paying tribute to him next Saturday in front of the Limoges town hall.

“We are worried about the increase in motorized violence against cyclists. This is the 2nd fatal accident of cyclists in 2 months on 2 km of this road, and the 4th cyclist killed in one year in Limoges Métropole”, adds the association which calls on the Department to develop “real cycling infrastructures along its roads.”

Conflicting coexistence between cars and bicycles

The death of Jean-Marc Chatard comes a little less than a month after that of a cyclist crushed by an SUV driver on October 15 in Paris, which highlighted the sometimes conflicting coexistence between bicycles and cars.

In 2023, 226 cyclists were killed on the roads of France, or 18% more than in 2019. The majority of these fatal accidents took place in rural or peri-urban areas.

Source: AFP

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