PELOTOME

Cycling in France.

Long-distance Race from Paris to Rouen (1869).

Published in 1872, “Théorie vélocipédique et pratique, ou Manière d’apprendre le vélocipède sans professeur” (“Velocipedic theory and practice, or way of learning the velocipede without a teacher”) was a helpful non-illustrated 26 lesson guide on how to ride by Monsieur Rémy Lamon, a Lieutenant in the 12th battalion of Mobiles de la Seine, and member of the Compagnie Parisienne des Vélocipèdes.

Two months after being hit by shrapnel in his leg at the Battle of Le Bourget, during the siege of Paris in the 1870 Franco-Prussian War – adding to an injury he had suffered when taking a bullet in the left hand, at the Battle of Magenta during the Second Italian War of Independence in 1859 – Lamon had finished 14th out of 323 riders in the first ever Paris-Rouen race of 1869, taking home the bronze medal for a wooden machine.

Together with the results of other shorter races in which the author had competed in round the parks of Paris, the book reprints Le Vélocipède Illustré‘s account of the pioneering long distance race, on the 7th November 1869, together with their follow-up report that Lamon was the only competitor to actually make the return journey the following day.

Organised by the fortnightly cycling magazine with the Michaux bicycle manufacturing company, the race was the first ever to cover a distance between two cities, with the rules stating that the riders were not to be pulled by a dog and could not use sails.

The inaugural race was won by James Moore, a 20 year old Englishman raised in Paris since the age of four, who rode the 123 kilometers in 10 hours and 40 minutes, (an average of 12 kmh) including time spent walking his bicycle up the steeper hills, some 6 hours 40 minutes quicker than Lamon, and 12 hours 10 minutes ahead of Elisabeth Turner (known as “Miss America”), the faster of the two women entrants. He was rewarded with 1,000 gold francs and a brand new Michaux bicycle for his efforts.

25 years later, on July 22nd 1894, Paris to Rouen would also mark the route for the world’s first motor car race with the winning Peugeot taking almost 7 hours to complete the 125 km. Unfortunately, for such a historic cycling route, there is little provision made nowadays for bicycles along the “route de quatre sous”, on the left bank of the Sienne (today’s N13, A13 and D113), so, to avoid sharing roads with today’s far faster vehicles, our route opts for the quieter, more cycle-friendly adjacent paths where possible.