James Moore (cyclist)

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James Moore (right) and the second, Jean-Eugène-André Castera at Paris-Rouen at 1869-11-07
James Moore (right) and the second, Jean-Eugène-André Castera at Paris-Rouen at 1869-11-07

James Moore (born 14 January 1849, died 17 July 1935) was a bicycle racer. He is popularly regarded as the winner of the first official cycle race in the world. He was certainly the first star of cycle racing, dominating competition for many years.

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[edit] Background

Moore was born in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England. The family lived in an area called Long Brackland. Moore's father, also James, was a blacksmith and farrier. His mother was Elizabeth Ann Moore.

The family moved to Paris - a major move in that era - when James was four years old. The young James made friends with the Michaux family who would later go on to develop perhaps the first cycles with pedals. The Michaux company went into bicycle manufacture and became fashionable and successful (Napoleon III ordered one). The Michaux company was financed and then bought by René and Aimé Olivier of the Compagnie Parisienne which promoted the first Parisian cycle races ...

[edit] Racing

On 31 May 1868, when Moore was 19, the world's first documented cycling races took place in the Saint-Cloud park in Paris. The races were to the park's fountain and back - 1,200 metres on a gravel path. The first of the two races was won by a rider called Polocini, but it is the second race that has gone down in history as the beginning of cycle racing[1]. The favourite for the second event was François Drouet who was the early leader. At half way James Moore took the lead and won in 3 minutes and 50 seconds. Moore and Polocini were presented with gold medals worth one hundred francs awarded by the Compagnie Parisienne, the largest bicycle manufacturer of the era.

The Touring Club of France erected a plaque in the Saint-Cloud park reading: 'On May 31, 1868, James Moore became the winner of the first race for vélocipèdes in France'[2]. The plaque has since disappeared.

Cycle races had already taken place outside Paris, but the St. Cloud races caught public imagination and inspired events in France and other European countries.

Moore's winning bicycle is in Ely City Museum in Cambridgeshire. It has a diamond-shaped iron downtube and a top tube and tyres of flattened metal. The rest is wood, including the wheels. The back wheel has a diameter of 31 inches, the rear 38 inches. The gearing is 1:1 (the pedals connected to the front hub), so the gear is very low.

The Olivier Brothers were delighted with the race and the next year, 7 November, promoted the marathon Paris-Rouen race - about 130km. The first prize was 1,000 francs and a bicycle. The rules of the race said that the riders were not 'to be trailed by a dog or use sails'.[3] 325 riders started the race.

Moore's bicycle had wheels with ball bearings in the hubs: an innovation. He won in 10 hours and 25 minutes in front of an enthusiastic crowd. The average of only 13kmh can be attributed to poor roads, lack of tyres, weight of the machine and the low gears. After the race Moore had to pay his own train fare back to Paris. He also had his winning bicycle stolen from outside a cafe near to the finish - it has never been seen again.

Moore later set an hour record of 14 miles, 880 yards at the Molyneaux Grounds in Wolverhampton.

Moore became an early world champion when he won the MacGregor Cup in 1872, 1873, 1874, 1875 and finally in Toulouse in 1877. He retired from racing in 1877.

[edit] Later life

Moore went to work at Maisons Lafitte, the French horse racing centre. He served in the ambulance corps during the siege of Paris in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. He was made a Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur by the French.

At some time he moved to 56 Wildwood Road in Hampstead, North London, where he died after a prostate operation at the age of eighty-six. His grandson, John Moore, says the whereabouts of his grave is unknown but may be in the area of the Welsh Harp reservoir near Cricklewood in north London.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Maso, B. (tr. Horn, M.) (2005), The Sweat of the Gods, Mousehold Press, p. 1, ISBN 1-874739-37-4
  2. ^ Maso, B. (tr. Horn, M.) (2005), The Sweat of the Gods, Mousehold Press, p. 2, ISBN 1-874739-37-4
  3. ^ Woodland, L. (2005), This Island Race, Mousehold Press, p. 5
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