Easing of lockdown – New travel certificate: no, you still can’t ride in a group!

On November 28, new lockdown rules come into force to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. While it is now permitted to travel within a 20 km radius of your home for a maximum of 3 hours for a walk or physical activity, the new certificate clearly states that all group activities remain prohibited, which of course includes group bike rides.

By Guillaume Judas – Photos: Pixabay.com / DR

After four weeks of a lockdown similar to the one imposed last spring regarding physical activities (1 hour per day within a 1 km radius of home), athletes can now get some fresh air starting this Saturday, November 28, with relaxed rules that now allow travel within a 20 km radius of home for 3 hours.
As a reminder, here is a site where you can calculate your new training area, which is 1256 km²:

Link to calculate the 20 km radius around your home: www.calcmaps.com/fr/

New lockdown rules mean a new travel certificate, which will remain mandatory at least until December 15.

You must carry this certificate to justify any travel, including physical activities, and it must be accompanied by an identity document. You can download it here: https://media.interieur.gouv.fr/deplacement-covid-19/

For those who were still wondering, it is clearly written in black and white that physical activity or walking must be carried out individually, and excluding any group activity and proximity to other people, except for minors (and their supervisors) and members of the same household.

This clarification therefore prohibits all group bike rides, in a peloton or club, whether with 2, 3, or 10 people. In practice, to avoid a fine, you would have to ride about ten meters apart, which of course removes all the interest of a group ride.

However, nothing prevents you from taking your vehicle to leave a city center to go ride in a forest, a park, or on a circuit, as long as it is less than 20 km from your home.

These decisions are poorly understood or not yet sufficiently applied given some questions or comments, and especially as we saw no later than today in the Paris region, with several groups of cyclists already encountered on the road.

After a first deconfinement in May which proved to be a failure due to a lack of respect for barrier gestures, it would be a real shame to live for many more months under the threat of this virus, with the risk of experiencing new travel restrictions after the end-of-year holidays and throughout the first part of 2021.