Rodolphe, building a cycling community around Bordeaux

Rodolphe is building a cycling community in the Bordeaux area. He uses Smatchy to offer rides close to home, drawing on the Les Bornées community already present in the region. Here is how you go about it when you are starting from almost nothing.

What is Rodolphe building around Bordeaux?

Rodolphe is building a community of cyclists around Bordeaux. He uses the app to offer rides nearby, drawing on the Les Bornées community already established in the region.

The idea is not spectacular, and that is exactly why it works: rides, close to home, open to whoever wants to come.

Why does a bike ride hinge on proximity first?

Because in road cycling, the journey to the start is dead time. Forty minutes in the car with a bike in the boot for a two-hour ride is a ratio few people accept every week.

A ride that leaves fifteen minutes from your home, you go to. A ride an hour away, you go to once, then you find a good reason not to go again. Proximity is not a comfort, it is the variable that decides whether the ride becomes a habit or stays a one-off.

What does a group give you that riding alone does not?

Three concrete things, without needing to invoke motivation.

Shelter, first. Riding behind someone takes noticeably less effort than leading into the wind. At the same speed, a group tires less than a lone rider, which lets different levels ride together without anyone being bored or blown apart.

Safety, second. A group is visible from a distance. A single cyclist on a country road, far less so.

The appointment, third. A ride planned with others has a time, a place and people waiting for you. A solo ride gets pushed to next Sunday without anyone noticing, and that is exactly how a bike ends up gathering dust.

How does an existing community serve as a starting point?

This is the part most people miss. Building a community from zero is very hard, because a first ride with no participants discourages the organiser before the project even exists.

Leaning on a community that already exists changes everything. Les Bornées brings together cycling and triathlon enthusiasts across France. A ride published in that context does not start from nothing: it starts from a core of people who already ride, and that core brings the next ones in.

The first circle brings the second. That is true of every sporting community, and it is the only method that has ever really worked.

How many people does a ride need to exist?

Three. With two, it is a ride between friends, and one cancellation leaves nothing. From three onwards, the group survives a drop-out, shelter starts to matter, and the conversation changes because it no longer depends on one person.

Aim for three, accept eight, and beyond twelve, split into two groups by pace. An oversized bunch on a country road is pleasant for nobody, least of all the cars coming the other way.

How do you offer your first ride near you?

Pick a start point that is easy to find and where people can park. Announce a distance, an elevation gain and an average pace, all three, otherwise people cannot tell whether they are up to it and simply do not come. Set a day and a time, and do not move them for two months.

Publish the ride in the app so that people you do not yet know can find it. Then do it again the following week, even if there were only three of you.