BICLOU, EPISODE 39 - It's bitterly cold around the Rungis market.
It's Sunday, almost all the trucks are at a standstill, the temple of supplying restaurateurs and traders in the Ile-de-France region is asleep.
Then a group of fifteen cyclists passes.
He is closely followed by other sports souls, in roller skating.
And at the head of this peloton, a strange double bike on which Yann and Pierre pedal.
"The tandem is a feeling of freedom" says Yann, on the back of the bike.
“My pilot, he's my eyes,” he adds, smiling.
Because Yann is blind.
In 2003, while playing his favorite sport, cycling of course, he was hit by a car.
“I had a head injury.
And there you have it… I went from the sighted world to that of the blind, ”he says modestly.
"But I said to myself, it's not because I had an accident that I have to stop doing what I want" specifies Yann on the handlebars of his tandem.
"It was a leitmotif for me, not to stop living"
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Live like everyone else
"It is above all an experience of friendship" says Pierre, one of Yann's three pilots, who takes him to ride almost three times a week.
His words to describe his friend are flattering: "Yann, we don't even realize that he's disabled, he's a good roller and he has a great character"
And when he's not pedaling on his tandem, Yann repairs bikes.
Surveyor before his accident, he recently had to retrain to become a cycle mechanic.
"It's the continuity of my passion, I ride a bike and I repair bikes".
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In the Vélogik workshop, a Vélib 'subcontractor, where Yann works, his colleagues are full of praise for him.
"For me, he works as well as an able-bodied person" slips Stéphane, his work partner.
There have been some adaptations of course, "for example I only repair the Vélib'mécaniques, because I cannot repair the Vélib' Électrique connections" explains Yann.
And the list of repairs, Yann dictates to his recorder, so as not to have to depend on the tablet used by the other mechanics.
"Thanks to that I am autonomous".
“This job allows me to live like everyone else and I am grateful to society for that,” says Yann, his hands in the sludge of repairs to Vélib '.
Nevertheless, he remains critical about the integration of people with disabilities into the French working world. “Unfortunately, there are too few companies that do what is necessary to accommodate people with disabilities, and that's a shame.
"
Pedaling with an invisible handicap
In France, 12 million people have a disability according to INSEE statistics.
For 80% of them, this handicap is "slight", sometimes invisible.
This is the case for Marc Biarne, 37 years old.
2 years ago, he fell in the middle of a sprint during a cycling competition.
When he wakes up in the hospital, he is paralyzed in half of his body.
“Today I recovered a lot, but I still have a big weakness in my left hand, and a little in my leg,” says Marc.
So this athlete adapted his bike, to be able to access the brakes more easily.
“With my handicap, I have a slower reaction time, and it's dangerous in town,” he says.
Marc identifies two main problems in terms of accessibility of cycling infrastructures: the presence of small obstacles on the road which oblige him to brake regularly.
And the discontinuity of the tracks in certain Parisian districts, because of which it must cross and cross the road of many motorized vehicles.
“Paris wants to level up for cyclists and the cycling adaptations are there” tempers Marc.
He concludes: "I like it, but we will have to judge in the long term and ensure that it is not dangerous for cyclists with a handicap".
Find all the episodes of the Biclou series.
