Julien Rebuffet, Director, Syndicat des moniteurs cyclistes de France
He eats, breathes, sleeps and lives by bike. It's his job, his hobby, his mission, too. For Julien Rebuffet, Director of the Syndicat National des Moniteurs Cyclistes Français, cycling is already revolutionizing travel. But it's also changing its followers, through the values it conveys.
Hello Julien! I know curiosity is a bad habit, but I'll take it. Could you tell me about your "first time" on a bike?
I grew up in a small village near Grenoble. I learned to ride a bike on the bumpy farm tracks. That's where my love of mountain biking was born. Even today, I'm fascinated by the "flow" I get from this activity, a mixture of pure adrenalin and pleasure, when the brain is 100% focused on the task in hand. This endorphin rush, so typical of extreme sports, is something you quickly become addicted to!
Can you remind us what MCF is and what role it plays in the cycling ecosystem?
MCF is a network of cycling professionals set up in Grenoble in 1999. We're a bit of a "two-headed" business: we're guides, who supervise bike trips and tours, and instructors, who give bike-riding lessons, in town or in the mountains. All instructors have both profiles. Some choose one path or the other, while others mix the two. Today, we have 1,400 MCFs throughout France.
"Cycling is the perfect medium for quality tourism".
What changes have you seen over the past 10 years in terms of the place of bicycles in our society?
The age of the bicycle is coming back, and it's regaining the place and interest it should never have lost, not only in everyday life, but also as a leisure activity and on vacation. I've been working in this sector for 20 years, and I've seen a real evolution over the last ten years or so. But the real turning point came after Covid, which put the bicycle back into people's minds. The government, too, is taking it much more seriously. There's a cycling plan, and more and more powerful players, like France Vélo tourisme and Vélo & territoires. A whole industry has been created, including a working group on bicycle tourism, of which MCF is a member. The industry now plays a key role in economic, climate and energy issues.
Why is bicycle tourism increasingly popular?
The desire to get back to nature, to slow down, to do things at the right speed. Just look at the growing interest in leisure and roaming experiences. As instructors and guides, we're seeing the arrival of a new generation, very different from the old-fashioned cyclotourists. This public is often more urban, they don't have all the knowledge of cycling, but they know that it's the perfect medium for quality tourism: with cycling, travel is an integral part of the journey and the experience. Speed means you can soak up the scenery, but also meet new people and recharge your batteries: on a bike, you can just as easily admire the landscape as let your thoughts wander.
"Cycling is a way of reclaiming a form of travel
that had been forgotten and neglected".
Where do you think this need to slow down comes from?
The "always farther, always faster, always stronger" attitude, we can see where that leads us... Cycling brings meaning back into our lives, without giving up on movement and travel. With cycling, it's not: "stay at home, stop moving, do nothing more, deprive yourself!" It's "come on, let's travel differently".
In 1800, the bicycle was a tool of emancipation for women. Could it also be used by all of us to change the face of tourism?
Absolutely! It's a flashback to the post-industrial era, and we're reclaiming a form of travel that had been forgotten and neglected, that of the quest. In those days, pilgrimages were more common. Setting off on the road to Santiago de Compostela was a story in itself. That's what's interesting about traveling: composing your own experience. The bike is just the thread that binds this itinerary together, but it's also the driving force behind it, allowing us to take charge of our journeys once again. It's a bit like the tourist sitting in the plane, sitting in the minibus, sitting in the bus, going down to take photos and then sitting down again, in a kind of passive frenzy. Temporality is fundamental to travel, and the bike responds to this: it's neither too slow nor too fast.
"We're knowledge brokers
What role does MCF play in the development of bike tourism in France? We have two main missions: we organize bike trips, whether free or supervised, and we help people to understand and appreciate destinations, guaranteeing the best possible experience. We take people to the right places, on the right routes. For the less knowledgeable public, there's still a lot to know about cycling and the optimum conditions for enjoying a quality ride. We pass on a wealth of information, knowledge and tips to help make the experience an unforgettable one. In a way, MCF is a bit of a scout: it prepares us for this adventure, the blind spots of which we don't always master, so that the fairy tale doesn't turn into a nightmare. And finally, we also help to amplify slow travel, by encouraging people to give it a try and become more discerning cyclists.
What battles need to be fought to ensure that this model of sustainable, eco-friendly tourism becomes a reality?
There's still work to be done on mentalities, in particular to make the tourism ecosystem more bike-friendly. In Spain, Portugal and Italy, we're well received. That's not always the case in France. We also need to move the goalposts. Today, we have a great label, Accueil Vélo, but it should be more accessible and less constrained in its development. For example, France under-exploits its network of secondary roads, which is gigantic and incredibly rich! It should be developed, in addition to the cycle routes, greenways and major itineraries that everyone knows about. Last but not least, we need to step up the pace of cycling education at school, and complement it with experiences of cycling and touring right from elementary school. This would enable all pupils to immerse themselves in the art of living and the humanist values of cycling: solidarity, simplicity, effort, adventure, but also an art of living that is both epicurean (we also discover our gastronomic heritage!) and sober (short circuits, healthy and organic eating).
What will tomorrow's tourism and travel look like?
It will be more thoughtful, more reasoned and carbon-free. Taking selfies in all the world's must-see spots will no longer be the hottest thing. We'll be looking for more authenticity.
And what will tomorrow's bike look like?
It will remain very simple. We're heading for an era of sobriety... And a bike needs no one but its master. The proof is in the pudding: bikes from the turn of the century that haven't rotted away in cellars are still going strong! If we're a bit crazy and imagine a Mad Max scenario, we can even imagine that the bicycle will be the last surviving technology. Three bits of solder and you've got superpowers!
CULTURE MINUTE by Julien Rebuffet
Music for the bends: "Ces années-là", Yannick version
Music for descents: "Vaudoo child", Jimmy Hendrix
Music for climbing: "On lâche rien", Saltimbanques, to motivate you when you've got a big hill to climb
**A podcast for chilling out on your bike **: "Very good trip", by Mishka Assayas (France Inter), who always goes in search of incredible artists and musical trends.
A book to set off on an adventure: "Un an de cabane", by Olaf Candau, released long before the box-office success of "Into the Wilde". The story of a 1ʳᵉ hour mountain bike champion (in the 80s), who went off to live in an isolated cabin in Yucon (Canada) on his own for a year... It made me dream a lot!
