Calloused hands, chin pressed into his down jacket, Yannick Ploger hacked gables this Thursday in front of the RER station of Evry-Courcouronnes (Essonne) while the Minister of the Environment was in the city to announce the creation and funding of training to support 250 bicycle repairers in the coming months, then 500 mechanics per year.
It is an almost mechanical continuation of the announcement of the "repair check" of 50 euros to repair the biclous stored in garages and thus put the French back in the saddle after the deconfinement. Yannick is listed on the “bike repair boost” platform and this self-employed repairer takes advantage of this state-funded measure to change gears.
1,000 km of temporary trails already created
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“There was really a cycling click in this very particular period; 1,000 km of temporary cycle paths have already been created in France. The bike boost operation took off in an almost unexpected way, "said Minister Élisabeth Borne. Even if it means creating traffic jams on the ultra-full appointment books for the mechanics of the little queen.
“In Évry - Courcouronnes, there is the Decathlon and Yannick and that's it! “Says Maryvonne Mateu, from the local association Dare-dare (to move differently in the Evry region). Yannick, he learned to ride and dismount two-wheelers in the cycling world: former racer in a club, he trained "by dint of using the equipment" and launched in 2014 when he wanted to buy a used ATV for his son. "Validating training will also be a way of upgrading very useful professions, of the circular economy", points out Élisabeth Borne.
20-day training
Concretely, for those who would be tempted to enroll at the Academy of cycling trades, it will be a 20-day training funded by the State. Where to register? How to access the course? The answers are not yet known. "The focus on post-containment cycling allows us to have projects in a few days that took years to emerge, but we are building this program", explains Olivier Schneider president of the FUB (federation of users of bicycle) who will pilot this training.
The lack of repair workshops is an obstacle to cycling, not only in Essonne. Thus, on the “Bike repair boost” platform, 3200 repairers have registered. Of course, it is only a few days old, but compared to the 30 million bikes owned by the French, that's not much. There is a high demand to maintain or repair two wheels "especially among women, Yannick slips, because they have less self-confidence and they are more attentive to safety too". Besides that with the development of electric bikes, repair, more technical, will be more and more a business for pros.