2023-08-07 18:41:00
When he crosses the streets of Antheit, where he lives, or when he spins with his machine on the quays along the Meuse in Huy, he does not go unnoticed. Incidentally, it would even be worth filming with a hidden camera the bewildered or amused faces of passers-by.
At 47, Jérôme Deloge is indeed not a road user like the others. A fan of recumbent cycling since 2005, it’s aboard a machine that looks like a…giant suppository that the 40-year-old has been covering thousands of kilometers for the past year. At first glance, the bike might make you think of machines participating in the Shell Eco-marathon. But make no mistake, there is no question of the engine here. The velomobile only moves forward using the strength of the calves. “This is the Milan tricycle produced in large series in Hanover by the German designer Räderwerk, explains the Wanzois. New, it costs around €10,000. This was loaned to me. The shell is entirely made of carbon, while the total weight is around 30 kilos.
Huge advantage of this machine with a futuristic look: its aerodynamics. “At a speed of 30 km/h, with a classic bicycle, you spend 80% of your energy fighting once morest the wind. On the other hand, with this velomobile, friction is reduced as much as possible and you can easily reach 50 or 60 km /h.”
The posterior a few centimeters from the ground “where you are comfortably seated, almost like in a deckchair”Jérôme goes almost daily to his workplace in Scry (Tinlot). “I start from Antheit, go through Pâturages, Ampsin, Amay, Ombret, and I reach Condroz via Yernée-Fraineux, details the cyclist. It’s a 19 km trip that I do in regarding forty minutes. Obviously, on the hills, it’s tough. Wearing a helmet, I am sometimes very hot in the cabin. I then lift the hood to ventilate.”
Downhill or on flat terrain, Jérôme Deloge necessarily respects speed limits in built-up areas. “I have never been arrested by the police, he smiled. Legally, it’s a bike like any other. However, I am cautious in assuming that I am not necessarily seen by motorists. In particular, you must be attentive to intersections, but also to the presence of low walls or hedges. I have never known fright. Contrary to conventional bicycles, there is also never any question of wanting to go up a line of stationary cars or to turn around on a road. The turning radius is atrocious.”
Jérôme has only rarely had to deal with gestures of irritation from motorists, other cyclists, or even pedestrians. “The view of people is rather positive, he slips. As I pass, I see a lot of jaw dropping or thumbs up.”
A 5th participation in the mythical race
If the velomobile is a classic means of locomotion for the Wanzois, it is also an object that encourages self-transcendence. For the 5th time, Jérôme will participate on August 20 in the famous Paris-Brest-Paris race which takes place every four years. Just over 1,200 km long, this cycling event, which will be in its 20th edition, will bring together some 8,000 athletes who must make a round trip to Brittany in less than 90 hours. In 2011, Jérôme accomplished this performance in 51 hours, sleeping only 20 minutes on his recumbent bike.
This year, the Wanzois aimed better. Much better. “If I don’t have a mechanical or medical issue, I hope to complete the course in around 42 hours. (Editor’s note: an average of regarding 28 km / h). I thus aim to sign a Top 10 in time, even if there is no real ranking”he explained a month ago.
But effusions of synovium in the knees came to disturb the preparation of the forties. “I was forced into a total cessation of sport for three weeks, he told us on Monday. I’m only going to get back on my velomobile for the first time this Tuesday, without having been able to complete the preparatory round trip to the Italian Alps that I had planned. I will therefore be a bit in the dark when I set off from Rambouillet on Saturday August 20 at 5:15 p.m. The runners leave in waves of 200 participants.
As long as the body holds, Jérôme hopes to lose a minimum of time throughout the course. “I’ll be eating granola bars, fruit bars and drinking lots of water with maltodextrin. I’ve also planned a few stops in passing towns to buy food.” If he manages, despite the recent setbacks, to cross the finish line in an honorable time, Jérôme Deloge will have well deserved a succulent… Paris-Brest to comfort himself.
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