Barbed wire or studded planks across the paths, stakes driven into the ground: mountain bikers denounce the proliferation of traps
targeting them, amid heightened tensions with some users
of nature, overwhelmed by the explosion in the number of Mountain biking since confinement.
Traps against mountain bikers
Bloody nose, damaged helmet and bike, night helicopter hoisting to the hospital: the images posted in mid-September on Gaétan Broda’s Instagram account are chilling.
Victim of a trap
in the Vosges mountains, the 18-year-old Haut-Rhinois, keen on enduro mountain biking, confides almost stayed there
. At issue: a studded plank hidden on the path he was going down at more than 50 km / h
.
Thrown against a tree, he will lose consciousness. Balance sheet: Head, facial and abdominal trauma including liver fracture and small brain hemorrhage
, indicates on Facebook the platoon of mountain gendarmerie (PGM) of Haut-Rhin. An investigation has been opened.
Publicized, the accident shocked the community of mountain bikers, far beyond Alsace. With a bitter taste of déjà vu.
There are many, many cases
most there, it reaches new heights
, sighs Charles Péot, director of the Green Leisure Defense Collective (Codever).
Since 2004, the association identifies across France traps in the paths
( chains, cables, barbed wire
Where nail boards
) in which mountain bikers, motorcyclists, quad riders, horse riders and even walkers have fallen.
In 17 years, she identified 61 victims: 51 injured and 10 dead. The national gendarmerie evokes a phenomenon that is difficult to measure
.
Who sets these traps? Impossible to say, the perpetrators are rarely apprehended, explains to theAFP Mr. Péot. However, he mentions the case of a hunter
de l’Hérault sentenced in 2015 to nine months in prison, one of which was closed.
Certain practices, such as mountain biking, must disturb to the point that it becomes an unhealthy obsession
, he says.
Malevolence
While some accidents are due to negligence (a forest owner who does not make the thread prohibiting access to his domain sufficiently visible), others are motivated by obvious malice, such as the stake discovered in 2019 in the Haut -Rhin, planted in the middle of a track, below a rock.
These cases are just the tip of the iceberg, there are all those who go under the radar
, even if with social networks, it goes back more easily
, note M. Péot.
Referent in the Vosges mountains of the Mountain Bikers Foundation (MBF), a national association that promotes the practice of a sustainable and responsible mountain bike
, Ludovic Lechner a the feeling that there are a few more traps since the end of the (first) confinement
.
Sales of ATVs, especially those with electric assistance, then exploded, draining new practitioners
and generating more flows
, he analyzes. Enough to further fuel pre-existing tensions
with other users.
Associations of hikers and nature conservation, who do not necessarily see this proliferation of two-wheelers favorably, have condemned the traps.
Vague
However, speed sports have nothing to do on hiking trails
, insists Dominique Humbert, president of SOS Massif des Vosges.
Calling not to confuse mountain bikers who walk quietly in the forest and enduro who descend with an open grave
, he is worried about the generalization of the latter practice which, according to him, generates a huge risk of collision with hikers
and degrades the environment.
The mountain bike has the right to circulate but it also has the duty to pay attention to the environment and to other users
, professes Ludovic Lechner, who insists: no text prohibits its practice, which means that, in fact, it is authorized
.
However, a vagueness remains on the fact that mountain biking would only be tolerated
on the trails, which can grow people likely to no longer tolerate (his) practice
To pass the course of laying traps
, fears Mr. Lechner, who calls on the public authorities to remove this ambiguity
.
Initiatives have been taken to try to ease tensions between mountain bikers and walkers. In the Haut-Rhin, the Club Vosgien launched this summer an experience of shared trails
. A mountain biking charter is also being drawn up, under the aegis of the Ballons des Vosges Regional Natural Park.
– .
