Paris-Brest-Paris

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Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP) was originally a 1200km long bicycle race from Paris to Brest and back to Paris. It is the oldest bicycling event that is still regularly run.

Since 1931 it has become two independent long distance bicycle tours. One is randonnée (also called Brevet), where cyclists ride individually. This is held every four years. The other is an audax where cyclist ride in a group, held every five years.

The audax is organised by the Union des Audax françaises, while the Brevet is organised by the Audax Club Parisien. This confuses people sometimes.

1 The Randonée
2 History
3 References

[edit] The Randonée

As in all randonnée events, there is a strong emphasis on rider self-sufficiency during the event. Riders can stop to buy supplies anywhere along the course, but organized support by motorized vehicles is generally prohibited except at designated checkpoints. There is a ninety hour time limit for the event, and the clock runs continuously. Many riders sleep as little as possible during the event, sometimes catching a few minutes of sleep by the side of the road before continuing.

Cyclists participating in the event must first complete a series of brevets (randonneuring events) within the same calendar year as the PBP to qualify. A series consists of the following rides: 200km, 300km, 400km and 600km. Each ride can be replaced by a longer ride. Prior to 2007, the qualifying rides had to be completed in order from shortest to longest. For 2007, this requirement was removed.

Whereas once PBP was contested by a few great professional athletes as a demonstration of the bicycle's potential, today the focus is on the ordinary or casual rider. However, PBP continues to attract highly competitive riders. Despite the event organizer's insistence that it isn't a race, PBP offers trophies and a certain degree of prestige to the first finishers in each division.

[edit] History

[edit] The first bicycle race

Bordeaux-Paris, at 572km, was first held in 1891 and was the first bicycle road race. Later that year, Pierre Giffard of Le Petit Journal staged the first edition of Paris-Brest et retour, as he called it. Despite several changes in format, PBP continues to this day as the oldest ongoing long-distance cycling road event.

In an era when the diamond safety frame and pneumatic tires were taking over from high-wheelers with solid rubber tires, Paris-Brest was conceived as an "epreuve," a test and a proof of the bicycle's reliability for long-distance transportation. Giffard promoted the event through a series of editorials, signed with the nom de plume of "Jean-sans-Terre." He wrote of self-sufficient riders carrying their own food and clothing. Riders would ride the same bicycle for the duration. Only Frenchmen were allowed to enter, and 207 participated.

The first (1891) Paris-Brest saw dramatic racing action between Michelin's Charles Terront and Dunlop's Jiel-Laval. Terront ultimately prevailed, passing a Jiel-Laval as he slept during the third night to finish in 71 hours 22 minutes. Both riders had a number of flats that took as long as an hour to repair, but still enjoyed an obvious advantage over riders on solid tires. Ultimately, 99 of the 207 finished.

The race was a media coup for Le Petit Journal, bringing significant circulation increases. However, the logistics were daunting enough that organizers settled on a ten-year interval between editions.

During the years before the 1901 edition, several other road races began, including Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Vienne-Berlin (582km), Rennes-Brest, Spa-Bastogne-Liège, Geneve-Berne, Milano-Torino (530km), Paris-Besancon (430km), Lyon-Paris-Lyon, and Paris-Roubaix. But they were all minor league compared to Paris-Brest.

[edit] The professional race

The 1901 Paris-Brest was sponsored not only by Le Petit Journal, but also by L'Auto-Velo, edited by none other than Henri Desgrange. For the first time, professionals were segregated from the "touriste-routier" group (in which a 65-year-old would ride, finishing in just over 200 hours). The two sponsoring newspapers organized an efficient telegraph system to relay results to their Paris presses, and the public, entranced, followed the exploits of Maurice Garin, who won in just over 52 hours over 112 other professionals.

So many newspapers were sold, in fact, that Georges Lefebre at L'Auto-Velo was inspired to present the idea of an even bigger, grander race, the Tour de France, to his editor, Henri Desgrange. Under Desgrange's leadership, the first Tour happened two years later, in 1903, with stages so long that it more closely resembled PBP than the modern Tour.

The next Paris-Brest was held in 1911, and saw the emergence of pack riding techniques rather than solo breaks. Five riders stayed together until nearly the last control, with Emile Georget finally pulling away from attack instigator Ernest Paul to finish in 50 hours and 13 minutes.

The 1921 PBP, following close on World War I, was small, with only 43 professionals and 65 touriste-routiers. It was closely fought between Eugène Christophe and Lucien Mottiat, with Mottiat finally prevailing in 55 hours 7 minutes.

In 1931, there was a massive change in the regulations. Proposed by André Griffe (President of the Union des Audax Cyclistes Parisiens) Henri Desgrange (President of the magazine l'Auto) replaced the touriste-routier group by an Audax, where cyclists had to ride in groups of ten riders with an average speed of 20km/h (22.5km/h since 1961).

Many people disliked that change. So Camille Durand (President of the Audax Club Parisien, ACP) organised another PBP at the same time on the same road. Cyclists could ride individually (french allure libre) and there was a time limit of 96 hours. 57 people participated, among them two women, a tandem with two men, four mixed tandems and a triplet.

Hubert Opperman after winning the 1931 Paris-Brest-Paris endurance race

The 1931 professional event saw victory by Australian cycling great Sir Hubert Opperman. Opperman broke nearly every record in cycling before retiring to become a prominent Australian politician. He took the race with a sprint on the finish velodrome after his long solo breakaway was neutralized just outside Paris. Opperman's finishing time was a record 49 hours 21 minutes, despite constant rain. His diet included 12 pounds of celery, which he thought to be an important energy source (this is ironic, because celery's energy content is minuscule, but it may have been an effective source of fluid and salt).

World War II postponed the 1941 PBP until 1948, when L'Equipe sponsored the event. Among the 52 pros to start, Albert Hendrickx proved strongest, winning in a sprint over fellow Belgian Francois Neuville.

Three years later, the 1951 event saw a new record time of 38 hours 55 minutes. This record is unlikely to fall. For one thing, this would be the last time PBP was raced by professionals. For another thing, "rustification" of the route, beginning around this time, brought rougher roads and many more hills to the course. Maurice Diot set this record. He won a sprint over breakaway companion Eduoard Muller after waiting for Muller to fix a puncture in Trappes, just 22 km from the finish.

[edit] Amateur event

Though listed on the professional calendar in 1956 and 1961, too few teams signed up to make the event happen. Nonetheless, the usual contingent of at least 100 randonneurs turned out for the usual ramble through Bretagne. And the randonneur division even featured the usual exciting racing, with René Herse-sponsored Roger Baumann winning over Espinasse and L'Heuillier in 52 hours 19 minutes.

PBP was held every five years between 1956 and 1975, with more and more participants riding and less and less media coverage. Former professional Hermann de Munck, an extremely short rider, got 5th in 66, first in 71, 75, 79 and 83. Actually, he was disqualified in 79, most believe unfairly. de Munck continues to place highly to this day, finishing the 1999 PBP in 109th place at the age of 60.

Simone Atie was the first woman to finish in 1971, at 79h38m. In 1975, Chantal de la Cruz and Nicole Chabriand lowered the winning women's time to just 57 hours. In 1979, Suzy de Carvalho finished in 57h02m.

American Scott Dickson began his glory years by placing third in 1979, though at just less than 49 hours he was four hours behind the winners. In 1983 he again came third, this time by only one hour. He won his first PBP in 1987 by breaking away in Brest, aided by a strong tailwind and a few strong riders from the "touring" group, which that year started many hours before the "racing" group. Dickson also won in 1991 and in 1995.

Susan Notorangelo set a women's record of 54 hours 40 minutes in 1983, but that record fell to American Melinda Lyon in 1999.

Since 1991, the actual starting and finishing point of the event is in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, about 22km southwest of Paris.

The most comprehensive information site about PBP and its history is found on the BC Randonneurs website: http://www.randonneurs.bc.ca/pbp/main.html This site includes a huge archive of photographs and articles from many European sporting publications, dating back to 1891.

[edit] References

Official site of Paris-Brest-Paris: http://www.paris-brest-paris.org/EN

McCray, Phil. 1989. "PBP — 1891 to 1991" Journal of the International Randonneurs
- This source provided much of the historical background for this article.