Page 16 - PBCMarch2018

Pickwick Bicycle Club Magazine Volume 15 No.1 March 2018 !16

The First Cycling Road Race
Paris to Versailles, 8 December 1867
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The first ever bicycle race happened just 150 years ago when over 100 Velocipede
riders raced the 17km from the Champs Élysée to the Palace of Versailles, with the winner
arriving after 58 minutes, despite temperatures of -12⁰C. The average speed of 11mph was
hampered by the climb from the Seine valley of around 100m in altitude with some parts
above 5% gradient. 1867 was the very start of Velocipede riding in Paris and the following
article from Le Sport (4 August 1867) confirms the development of the first races:
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A New Trifle. The Sport says: A hippodrome of a new kind is the portion of the
Bois de Boulogne chosen by the lovers of locomotion by velocipedes, where,
every morning, these gentlemen give themselves up to what we may term the
most violent exercise. From nine to eleven in the forenoon, in the space about
the Cascade, is crowded by the amateurs and spectators of these races. Among
the most assiduous and skillful of the former are to be observed – Prince
Joachim Murat, the Prince de Sagan; M Blount; Count Onesimo Aguado;
Count Georges d’Orgeval; Count de Saint-Sauveur; and several others. Many
of these have become so skillful as to go 24 Kilometres (15 miles) an hour
without the least fatigue. Some grand races during the autumn are at present
being organized, the course to be gone over extending from the Rond-point of
the Champs Elysees to St Cloud. Several trials have been made and the
distance has been done in 13 minutes. In fact some considerable bets were
made on that occasion. These gentlemen are about to form a velocipede club;
and it will have fewer difficulties to contend against than the skating club,
inasmuch as it will be independent of variations of temperature.

Most of the gentlemen cited as riders in 1867 were members of the Jockey Club of
Paris, a Parisian aristocratic circle of prominent members of society. It is even possible
that some ladies participated, like the English Cora Pearl, the most famous and eccentric
courtesan in Paris at the time. So, to mark this 150 Anniversary, 20 riders on original
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Velocipedes braced the cold and rain to re-enact this memorable ride in the development
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of cycling history, on Sunday 10 December 2017. Representing the UK and the Pickwick
Bicycle Club was Mr Watty (Stuart Mason-Elliott) riding the same velocipede that carried
him 550 miles from Paris – Avignon in 2015 – so 10.6 miles should be easy!