World Naked Bike Ride - Part 60

Brussels 2019

Last time we saw Jerome Jolibois at the World Naked Bike Ride in London in 2018.  Jerome organizes the WNBR in Brussels, Belgium, which we will look at today.  We saw how Jerome gets his mustache painted green to promote the "green" goal of WNBR: to get people to ride their bikes instead of driving cars, cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions.  Another WNBR goal is to promote safety for bike riders.

But in 2019, above, Jerome's mustache was yellow, and his body was painted like a yellow T-shirt.  What was that about?

It turns out that in 2019, the famous Tour de France, a 2000-mile-long bicycle race all around France, started in Brussels, Belgium for the first time.  Since 1919, a yellow jersey (T-shirt) has been awarded to the winner of each stage of the Tour de France race, and to the final winner in Paris.  To celebrate the Tour de France starting in Brussels, a giant copy of the yellow jersey was hung on a building in Brussels (above), and some of the WNBR riders in Brussels got themselves painted yellow, even though the Tour de France didn't start until the month after the WNBR.

Here's Jerome being interviewed by a local TV station after his mustache was painted yellow.  As the organizer and leader of the Brussels WNBR, Jerome welcomes publicity.

Then Jerome got the yellow jersey spray-painted on his body.

Here's a rear view of Jerome after getting painted.

Some other riders also got the yellow body paint.

But most did not.  Above, Jerome leads the ride out of the Square Frère Orban Park where the cyclists gathered.

Cycling through the streets of Brussels.

Another rider with yellow body paint gives us the V sign.

Goldmember, whom we saw at the 2016 WNBR in London, showed up in Brussels in 2019 with his gold member.

The Brussels WNBR aways stops at the Cinquantenaire Arcade.  In the early 1800s, after Napoleon's reign, Belgium was incorporated into the Netherlands until it revolted in 1830 and became an independent nation.  This arch was built in 1880 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of that 1830 revolution.

Jerome is the yellow rider at left.

We end with Jerome Jolibois leading the ride.  The flag at the rear of his bike says "Climate Justice Now" (in English, perhaps to get the widest coverage).