We bike together – Training and trail mapping in Europe

The “We Bike Together - Training and trail mapping in Europe” aimed at promoting sport for all, with particular reference to physical and sensorial disability and the use of different kind of bikes (included handbikes and tandem). With this project, we intended to make the sport practice easier in the field of off-road cycling, involving disabled people together with able-bodied people; sport is, after all, used as a tool to improve social inclusion of impaired people.Both social and health benefits must be considered:- social benefits: offroad cycling is a social sport, allowing people to meet and spend time together (with able-bodied friends and relatives as well), reducing the risk for social exclusion and difficulties related to social relationships;- health benefits: people with physical and/or sensorial disability do not have many chances to practice sport and take advantage from its benefits on health; the use of special/adapted equipments, together with trained accompanying volunteers, can strongly facilitate the practice of handbike’s activities.Nowadays it is not easy (nor safe) to find places and entities which can indicate suitable trails for disabled bikers and recommend them prepared guides able to go with them during handbike rides.This project wanted to:- gather competences and knowledges on suitable trails/routes in the European countries involved in the partnership, to be mapped and disseminated among specific organisations and local entities;- create guidelines on how to survey and map trails suitable for disabled people that practice offroad cycling;- train volunteers and create guidelines on how to guide disabled people while practicing handbike; impaired people need special attentions and compensatory measures, due to their physical difficulties.Relating to the projecy activities, specific objectives were:1. survey and map trails suitable for bikes, handbikes and tandems in the countries involved in the partnership, following a shared methodology;2. train volunteers called Bikers’ Angels in order to ensure real help and support to hand-bikers and visual impaired people on tandems;3. promote sport among physical and visually impaired people, during a final international event.The implementation of the project consisted of 4 international meetings held in all the countries involved in the project:- Kick-off meeting, where the Scientific Committee has been settled (composed by 1 project manager and 1 technician from each partner; tot. 8 people), context information were shared and expertise on the mapping methodology by Fondazione Silvia Rinaldi was spread to the other teams;- 2 Monitoring meetings, to monitor the project progress, especially relating to the trails’ mapping and the training contents for volunteers (Bikers’ Angels);- Final meeting, where collected data and project results were shared by all partners to the press and general public; it has been organized during the final event in Italy.