Safety and equipment

By par­tic­i­pat­ing in club out­ings, par­tic­i­pants con­firm that they have read the rules and safe­ty instruc­tions below. For your own safe­ty, it is also imper­a­tive to respect the con­di­tions relat­ed to insur­ances. We will refuse the depar­ture or the homolo­ga­tion of the Brevet in the event of non-respect of the direc­tives of the club.

We also remind you that it is your respon­si­bil­i­ty to ensure that you are in ade­quate health and phys­i­cal con­di­tion before embark­ing on long dis­tance cycling. If in doubt, we encour­age you to con­sult a med­ical pro­fes­sion­al who will be able to pre­scribe the appro­pri­ate exam­i­na­tions, for exam­ple a car­diac stress test.

Autonomy

Each par­tic­i­pant must pro­vide him­self with every­thing required for the ful­fill­ment of his out­ing. No orga­nized ser­vice of train­ers, or fol­low­er car, is autho­rized on the course out­side the check­points.

Equipment

Each par­tic­i­pant is con­sid­ered to be on a per­son­al tour and must fol­low the rules of the road. Cyclists must pro­vide their own equip­ment and sup­plies.

Par­tic­i­pants should be aware that for brevets over 300 km, some of the route is trav­elled at night and that many con­ve­nience stores and restau­rants are closed between 9:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. in small towns. They should also plan to ride in adverse weath­er con­di­tions and have the nec­es­sary equip­ment.

Cyclists should have tools and equip­ment to repair their bikes in case of a flat tire or oth­er mechan­i­cal prob­lems.

Safety and lighting

At all times, par­tic­i­pants must have a bicy­cle that com­plies with the Que­bec High­way Safe­ty Code.

For night rid­ing, bicy­cles must be equipped with front and rear lights that are secure­ly attached and in con­stant work­ing order (spare bulbs/batteries/USB recharge­able bat­tery pack; dual light­ing is rec­om­mend­ed). The use of ful­ly flash­ing rear lights is pro­hib­it­ed.

Each par­tic­i­pant is required to turn on his or her light­ing as soon as it gets dark, as well as at any time when vis­i­bil­i­ty is not suf­fi­cient (rain, fog, etc.); even in groups where every­one must be lit.

At night, light-col­ored cloth­ing are recommended and the wear­ing of a reflec­tive vest or har­ness is manda­to­ry.

The orga­niz­ers reserve the right to refuse to start a par­tic­i­pant whose bike is not in good con­di­tion or whose light­ing does not com­ply with the above-men­tioned reg­u­la­tions.

Riding in peloton

Long-dis­tance cycling is done more often than not alone, espe­cial­ly when the dis­tance of out­ings increas­es and when every­one rides at their own pace. Despite every­thing, it often hap­pens that pelo­tons form dur­ing our out­ings.

Basic behav­iors:

• Be pre­dictable and con­sis­tent in your con­duct. Avoid left-right han­dle­bar strikes. Warn when you slow down. Warn that you are going to swerve and move to the side to slow down.
• Take respon­si­bil­i­ty for the safe­ty of the peo­ple around us. Be atten­tive, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the case of the per­son in front of the pelo­ton, who must guide and sig­nal.
• Be respect­ful of oth­er users of the road or bike path.
• Relay the sig­nals to the rear of the pelo­ton, by ges­tures or oth­er­wise ver­bal­ly.
• If pos­si­ble: eat and rum­mage in your pockets/bags when you are behind the pelo­ton.
• Avoid rid­ing the wheel of the per­son in front, and leave a safe space of about half a wheel in length.