The Committed Roc
As well as being your passion, mountain biking means being aware of the beauty of the environment in which you are cycling and always respecting it.
Mountain biking also stands for health, sustainable transport of the future and so much more! If you want to enjoy the Roc and cycle tracks in the great outdoors, come and join us!
Committed together, for the future of cycling!
By reducing, sorting and recycling our waste
The Roc d’Azur is working with several companies specialised in waste management (reduction, sorting and recycling of waste) to establish its Social and Environmental Responsibility programme throughout the event.
You too can be involved by:by respecting the stunning landscapes where you are cycling,by recycling all your waste at the feeding stations.We’ll take care of the rest!
In addition to recycling, water is provided in 1.5l bottles or from the towns you go through. So use it to fill up your water bottles!
We systematically remove the packaging from sweet and savoury snacks available at the feeding stations and recycle it ourselves with the aim of reducing the amount of waste generated by the Roc.
Once again, the Mountain Bike Foundation’s Brigades vertes, recognisable within the peloton by their green jerseys, will be cycling alongside you during the Roc d’Azur, to raise awareness.
They look after the tracks we are riding on!
So we can already thank them!
Let’s preserve our favourite sites together.
Discover more information about their activities and commitments here.
Two objectives: having the best time, zero waste
A gift bag is offered to all participants in the Roc trophy. You can use it to store your personal gels and other waste which is all too often found on the tracks!
Keep your waste with you while you are cycling, until you reach the next bin!
The Roc d’Azur’s organisation, with the support of the MBF’s Brigades vertes & the signallers, reserve the right to disqualify any participant who disposes of their waste outside the collection areas or the feeding stations.
By promoting the regions crossed
In order to leave as small an environmental footprint as possible, the Roc d’Azur is careful to fully respect the Natura 2000 protected sites when its routes are being marked out.
Together let’s be attentive and committed so we can continue to ride there!
We’re counting on you!
The only thing you’ll leave behind on the Roc d’Azur routes will be your bike’s tyre tracks.
By innovating and encouraging future generations
Encouraging future generations to take up cycling: this is the Roc d’Azur’s spearhead. For years, we have focused on the youngest riders! From the Kid Roc Draisienne to the Générations Roc and the Kids Roc, supporting the riders of the future is one of the things for which the Roc d’Azur is known.
Come along to the Roc village to discover a range of fun activities.
Cycling allows young people to:
- Improve their balance;
- Create a link with the sport, so that later on they’ll use it as a means of transport essential for their health & our planet;
- Share a moment with their friends and their parents!
By riding for a worthy cause which encourages cycling
Riding for a worthy cause.
This allows you to surpass and motivate yourself when things are difficult. And in addition to making us stronger, it makes our challenge even more meaningful.
This is also an opportunity to collect donations for research into illnesses that may affect us all.
- By inviting the Rotary Club and the Lion’s Club every year, the Roc d’Azur enables 150 young people with disabilities to discover mountain biking in the Générations Roc Sport pour Tous and to have some fun together.
- The Roc also offers 10 race entries for injured veterans from the 21st Marine Infantry Regiment with a stand available for their fundraising.
Which worthy cause are you going to choose?
MOUNTAIN BIKERS FOUNDATION
There is a lot going on in the world of mountain biking at the Roc d'Azur! In 2018, MBF celebrated its 10th anniversary with an indoor show that included a balance bike race that made a lasting impression. At the time, the first members of the organisation explained how it had all begun in the 2008 Roc d'Azur, when a handful of French cycling coaches (MCF), industrialists and pro riders had decided to launch a fundraiser to create the Mountain Bikers Foundation to defend the interests of mountain bikers.
Just one year later, in 2009, it presented its "Green Brigades" as well as a jersey with the support of VTT Mag!
The Roc d'Azur then decided to give MBF a prominent role in the event to help it achieve its awareness-raising and on-site goals. Around the same time, the Roc d'Azur started sponsoring the Foundation.
Its activities have since developed and evolved: clean-ups, speeches with the speakers, conferences with the main stakeholders of mountain biking, raffles, aperitifs, track surveys, training camps, a balance bike race and, of course, managing waste collection areas on the course.
We will talk in greater detail about the management of these waste collection areas in our next piece, "MBF goes fishing in the Var", which comes out on 2 August.
The MBF team at the 2016 Roc d'Azur.
Every year, at the beginning of October, MBF casts its nets far and wide —not into the sea, but along the tracks of the Roc d'Azur.
Working together with the organisers, MBF volunteers will set up several waste collection points along the length of the course, consisting of the same type of nets used to harvest olives. Mountain bikers can empty their pockets and dispose of their waste here.
A total of 4 collection points will be set up, starting on Wednesday. They will be emptied every evening and dismantled after the end of the last race of the Roc d'Azur on Sunday. Volunteers will put up signs 500 metres before the start of each collection area so that riders can get ready.
MBF volunteers have seen the amount of litter on the tracks go down since these collection points began to be set up.
Littering = Out of the race!
Keep in mind the rules of the Roc d'Azur: "The Organiser reserves the right to impose time penalties or exclude from the Event any Participants who deliberately dispose of waste outside these specific areas."
The Roc d'Azur and MBF, a story going back over a decade!
2009: The MBF Green Brigades start roaming the tracks of the Roc d'Azur. A tent set up in the paddock to raise awareness among mountain bikers and 10 volunteers working jointly with ASO and Powerade take over the "ECOBIKER" concept introduced by VTTMag a year earlier. 100 kg of chambers, bottles, gels and more are collected.
2010: 15 volunteers working under the MBF banner raise awareness among participants and clean up the tracks: 300 kg of waste are sampled to fuel a debate on why, where and when littering occurs.
2011: Last year with a 100% collection drive.
2012: Launch of the Green Brigades concept: the waste collection team grows and develops into a whole range of projects by mountain bikers who become key stakeholders in their areas and help preserve their tracks. The Roc d'Azur offers a platform to convince more riders to become stakeholders.
2013: The organisers invite MBF to manage and run activities on the new tracks of the Roc d'Azur over the course of two days.
Launch of awareness-raising signs and waste sampling in the Roc d'Azur. The first collection area on the course gets a test run. An estimated 150 kg of waste are left on the tracks. The figure remains stable despite the Roc smashing through the 20,000-participant barrier!
2014: A second collection area is set up, the awareness-raising campaign is boosted, the Green Brigades turn out for an increasing number of races and more and more waste ends up where it is supposed to —good news all around!
2015 and 2016: The Foundation compares the condition of the tracks before and after more than 20,000 mountain bikers race past to better understand the impact of the event. A third collection area is set up.
2017: Riders start to change their behaviour, recognising the collection areas as such and dropping more waste into the nets than on the tracks.
MBF and Roc d'Azur seize the opportunity to empower mountain bikers: the Green Brigades no longer turn out at the start or clean up the course after each race. Instead, collection areas are set up along the course and at the finish.
2018: MBF celebrates its 10th anniversary, while the tracks regain their natural appearance, with less and less litter and more and more people using the collection areas.
2019: A fourth collection area was set up to give absent-minded riders yet another opportunity to drop off their waste in a sector identified as problematic by the Green Brigades.
MBF would like to thank the Roc d'Azur for its staunch support and its contribution to finding new solutions for a multitude of mountain bikers who are not always environmentally responsible!
Join us! You can also do your bit for sustainable and responsible mountain biking near home.
LE ROC has a heart RAFFLE / OPERATION BICYCODE
The Fréjus Lions Club and Rotary Club are again joining forces with the Enfants Cancer et Santé non-profit organisation and the French League Against Cancer to raise funds for the fight against cancer in children.
The Fréjus City Council, Lions and Rotarians hope to see you at these two events, knowing that all funds will be donated to a joint research programme by the Marseille, Rennes and Strasbourg University Hospitals as well as the Institut Curie.
Head to the marking stand and protect your bicycle from theft with a unique number assigned to your name on the BICYCODE database, which is run by the French Cyclists' Federation (FUB) and can be accessed by the police.
Fee: €8. Required documents: invoice and/or identification.
(Restrictions: no marking on carbon or titanium frames)
Find out more about Bicycode marking:
