“Philippe regularly came to train here.
Single and childless, he enjoyed walking, paragliding, music, astrophysics and cooking.
He was very caring for others.
"It is with these words full of emotion that Christine Nassiet-David has, this Sunday, paid tribute to Philippe, her brother.
The latter died on June 18, one Sunday morning, following a violent collision with a truck, on the Longchamp ring which goes around the racecourse.
It was four days earlier.
This 57-year-old cyclist, professor of physics and chemistry at the Lycée Molière (16th century), had violently collided with a parked vehicle just after the crossroads of the stands.
He died in hospital without regaining consciousness.
The victim's sister hung a white bicycle on a lamppost, at the place where the tragic accident occurred, during a ceremony, organized with the Vélo Longchamp association.
It brought together nearly a hundred cyclists and anonymous people.
Read alsoCyclists killed on the road in Greater Paris: "Let's take real measures", claim the associations
At the end of her speech, Christine, overcome with emotion, let her anger erupt. She said she had lodged a complaint against the driver, "who was parked on the cycle path prohibited for vehicles", and the town hall of Paris, last July. “Wanting to develop cycling in the capital is a good thing. But we must also take care of the cyclists, ”she blasted.
“All Parisians and Ile-de-France cyclists come here.
40,000 kilometers are covered every day by hundreds of cyclists, during the week, and thousands, at weekends.
This ring is the most
curled
in the world.
It should be the most secure, ”claimed Gabriel Blanchong, president of the Association Vélo Longchamp, created in 2019 and which has 1,700 members and around thirty clubs.
"This sector is very accident prone"
Bernard Picot, a member of Paris en Selle - an association aimed at developing cycling in Île-de-France - has also sounded the alarm. “Last April, an accident between a bicycle and a car was narrowly avoided. This sector is very accident prone. Today, the racecourse hosts 250 events and demonstrations, generating the circulation of numerous delivery vehicles. The site has become much more dangerous than in the past. "
This portion of the road from Sèvres to Neuilly, east of the Hippodrome de Longchamp, between the crossroads of the Route de la Seine and that of the avenue de l'Hippodrome, is shared over a few hundred meters between cyclists. and motorists.
It is part of the famous Longchamp ring, where Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx and Louison Bobet cycled.
This cycle loop, created in 1880, has not changed since.
“In November, the Paris Council made a commitment to remake the Longchamp cycle ring, in order to make cycling safer and put an end to fatal accidents, as well as to perpetuate the closure to motorized traffic of the road to Sèvres, between Neuilly and the Bois de Boulogne, to secure access to the golf course and to review the signage on the site, ”recalls the city of Paris.
The reopening of the section to motorized traffic on November 8, after a four-month ban, provoked the anger of cyclists and velotaffeurs.
