Participants of the Sun Trip 2020, last summer, which, in a Covid-19 context, resulted in a great solar bike tour of France. – Zeppelin / Sun Trip Agency
- A free route without assistance. For the Sun Trip, Savoyard Florian Bailly took the recipe from the Vendée Globe, the toughest sailing race, to transpose it to solar bikes, the only ones admitted at the start.
- In other words, electric bikes whose batteries can only be charged during the race by energy from the sun. To the participants, therefore, to let their creativity speak for getting on their bikes 2.5 m² of photovoltaic panels maximum.
- At the Sun Trip, you’ll see amazing bikes that hold up. After a Lyon-Guangzhou in 2018, a new edition starts this Wednesday with a grand tour of Europe to be completed in 100 days. The first ones will take much less time.
Bicycles, a sports competition, a large loop and a start in June… These are almost the only points that the Tour de France, which will start on June 26 from Brest, and the Sun Trip , which will leave Brussels this Wednesday. For everything else, Florian Bailly, founder of the race, refers much more to the
Vendée Globe, the main event of the sailing race.
Rather, aim. The thirty or so competitors will set off on a journey around Europe. The rule is simple: they must reach Lyon in less than 100 days, with the obligation to go through five stopovers. Riga (Latvia),
Constanta (Romania), the
Passo Stelvio pass (Italy),
mount Veleta (Spain), Porto (Portugal). The whole gives an expedition of 10,000 km. An order of magnitude, because on the Sun Trip, as in the Vendée Globe, “the participants are completely free to chart their course,” says Florian Bailly.
Electric bikes … that run on solar energy
The test is also done without assistance. A detail that matters, because you don’t just risk a flat tire on the Sun Trip. We haven’t said it yet, but only solar bikes can take part. In short: electric bikes whose batteries are recharged with the energy of the sun. And only this one during the Sun Trip, another rule of the race.
“The surface of the visible photovoltaic cells, when the machine is in motion, must be between 0.75 m² minimum and 2.50 m² maximum”, stipulates the regulations. It is up to everyone to let their creativity speak. Florian Bailly describes two great families. “There are those who opt for ‘classic’ bikes, to which they attach solar panels on the front and back, or on a trailer; and those who bet on the recumbent bike, with three wheels, topped with a solar roof, ”he explains. By specifying that the second solution is the trend that is rising in the latest editions.
Unless Arnaud Négrier upsets all of this? For his first participation in the Sun Trip, he who had never heard of the race eighteen months earlier, the 42-year-old Lyonnais, engineer in mechatronics, will line up on the starting line with
the unclassifiable “Sunny Rocket”, which he tinkered with in his living room. No trailer, no solar roof… On the other hand, his recumbent bike is integrated into a kevlar body which gives it a Formula 1 feel with pedals. “The advantage is to be as aerodynamic as possible,” he says. Even the front wheels are solid, like those used in the time trial at the Tour de France, to avoid catching the wind. The other advantage of the bodywork is to be able to integrate solar panels into it. “I have them in front, behind, but also two on the sides”, continues Arnaud Négrier.
A Lyon-Guangzhou in 44 days
It’s not easy to imagine these strange machines reaching the end of the Sun Trip and its 10,000 km of roads … sometimes a little bumpy. But the solar bike has already proven itself on this kind of journey. Florian Bailly had completed, alone and without assistance, a Savoie-Shanghai-Tokyo in four months in 2010 with an electric bike pulling a trailer covered with solar panels.
This first trip was the starting point of The Sun Trip, whose event which begins this Wednesday is already the fourth international edition. Before that, there was Lyon-Astana (Kazakhstan) in 2013, Milan-Turkey-Milan in 2015 and, above all, Lyon-
Guangzhou (China) in 2018. That is 12,000 km along the new Silk Roads, which “the winner completed in 44 days, at a rate of 290 km per day and without driving at night, which the Sun Trip regulations prohibit, recalls with pride Florian Bailly. We are really in the wheel of Solar Impulse exploits. “
Covid obliges
The Savoyard would be off to a good start on a Lyon-Guangzhou this year again. But the Covid-19 forced to review the route. Hence this tour of Europe, which does not promise to be easy. “There will be mountains – Mount Veleta, an obligatory crossing point, is at an altitude of 3,398 m – it will also be necessary to manage the heat, roads which are not always in good condition in Eastern Europe, to avoid navigation errors, ”says Florian Bailly. He expects the former to finish after 30 to 35 days.
Arnaud Négrier hopes to be one of them, he who has trained a lot for this event. “I think I can travel at least 300 km per day at a cruising speed of 40 km / h,” he plans. Enough to win? Not sure, because the competition will be tough. Bernard Cauquil, professor in IUT mechanical engineering in Pau and winner of Milan-Turkey-Milan in 2015, will also be there with his recumbent bike topped by a solar shade. “I’m aiming for the first three places,” he slips with a smile.
“Show that we can travel the world with zero emissions”
But the Sun Trip is not just about a sports competition. “It is first and foremost a human adventure in which young and old alike take part [le doyen aura 73 ans cette année], people with disabilities, each at their own pace, ”insists Florian Bailly. Neither Bernard Cauquil nor Arnaud Négrier forget this dimension, and also insist on the tremendous promotion of renewable energies that is the Sun Trip. “This is my main motivation, even assures the Pau. Prove that we can travel the world without any greenhouse gas emissions and using only the energy that falls to us from the sky. “
“For everyday use, typically home-work connections, the solar bike will not add much more to the” classic “electric bike, adds Arnaud Négrier. But for trips, when you can’t guarantee that you always have electrical outlets on your route, this is the perfect bike. ” And with slow tourism, in vogue today, the solar bike has a great part to play.
The Sun Trip, a showcase for the solar bike, but also a laboratory of ideas
The Sun Trip does not only aim to show that you can travel long distance and unassisted by solar bike. The race also allows some participants to test innovations on a life-size basis and thus improve solar bikes. “There have already been a lot of changes since the first edition, says Florian Bailly. In particular on the smoothness of the solar panels, and therefore their lightness, which is not nothing when one travels long distances. We are also starting to see participants equipped with GPS solar panel orientation systems, which optimize their exposure to the sun in all circumstances, and therefore optimize their yields. “
For the Sun Tour Europe which starts on Wednesday, Bernard Cauquil wants to push innovation even further by testing the chainless solar bike that he had the idea for during the Lyon-Guangzhou race. “Clearly, I will not pedal to move forward but to run a pedal generator that will allow me to produce electricity, he explains. This will complement the one already provided by my solar panels. »The interest of this hybrid bike? “Limit potential breakages, an electric generator being less fragile than a chain,” Bernard Cauquil said. Above all, with the solar bike, there is no longer any difference between plain and mountain roads. “It’s a bit like walking on an ergocycle [le vélo de la salle de sport] », Continues the Palois, who will always be able to increase the difficulty of pedaling when he is in the mountains.