The first races: Saint-Cloud, Paris-Rouen and the long-distance era.

Saint-Cloud, 31 May 1868

The UCI, cycling's world governing body, calls a race at the Parc de Saint-Cloud in Paris on 31 May 1868 the first officially recorded bicycle race, and names its winner as James Moore, a British rider. The Science Museum Group holds the velocipede Moore owned and rode, a Michaux machine made in Paris between 1865 and 1868 (object 2013-167). Its catalogue is more careful than the UCI: it says the machine won what is reputedly the first formal bicycle race. The Encyclopedia of Modern Europe describes the Saint-Cloud meeting as the first well-publicised velocipede races.

Was it really the first?

Several historians say no, or not quite:

• Grace's Guide says there is no verifiable contemporary evidence that Moore's race was the first formal race. It records that the historian Keizo Kobayashi makes it the third race that day, Maso makes it the second, and Clayton cites at least five earlier French velocipede races.
• Filip Walenta, writing in Playing Pasts on 6 July 2019, says the first race of the day was won by a rider named Polocini and the second by Moore.
• A Dutch book extract, seen only as a search summary, names Edward-Charles Bon as the winner of the first race, over 1,000 metres. This is unconfirmed.

Search summaries of Wikipedia describe Moore's own race as 1,200 metres along a gravel path to the park fountain and back, for velocipedes with wheels of 1 metre or more. We could not confirm those details.

James Moore

Grace's Guide gives Moore's birth as 14 January 1849 in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. His family moved to Paris in 1853, when he was four. He won more races in France in 1868 and 1869, at places Grace's Guide names as Le Neubourg, Cognac and Le Vesinet, went back to England during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and retired in 1877. He died in Hampstead, London, on 17 July 1935.

Women raced too. The Encyclopedia of Modern Europe says women's races were part of early French race programmes by 1869; the story of those races is on women's racing history.

Paris-Rouen, 7 November 1869

The UCI calls Paris-Rouen the first city-to-city race. It says the organisers wanted to show that bicycles could cover long distances, and that Moore won again. Grace's Guide says the race started at the Arc de Triomphe. Search summaries of Wikipedia say it was organised by Richard Lesclide, editor of the magazine Le Velocipede Illustre, which we could not confirm.

The distance and winning time differ from source to source:

The size of the field is uncertain as well: search summaries of Wikipedia give 325 starters in one account and 323 participants in another, neither confirmed. Wikipedia, seen only as a search summary, says at least one woman took part, entered as "Miss America", and finished 29th, about 12 hours after Moore; that is also unconfirmed.

The long-distance era

Paris-Brest-Paris, 1891

Bill Bryant's short history of Paris-Brest-Paris for Randonneurs USA says the race was conceived by Pierre Giffard of the newspaper Le Petit Journal as a test of how reliable bicycles were and how much riders could endure. The riders set off on 6 September 1891, and Charles Terront won in slightly under 72 hours. Makers used the race to promote the new pneumatic tyres, which rolled better than solid rubber.

The number of entrants differs. Bryant says more than 400 entered and 206 started. A search summary of a Randonneurs Ontario history gives 300 sign-ups; we could not open that page to check. Search summaries of other randonneur histories say the idea followed public interest in the Bordeaux-Paris race of 1891, which is also unconfirmed.

Bryant lists the professional editions as 1891, 1901, 1911, 1921, 1931, 1948 and 1951. The 1941 race was not held because of the Second World War, 1951 was the last professional race, and races planned for 1956 and 1961 were cancelled. From 1931 the Audax Club Parisien also ran a non-competitive randonneur event alongside the race. The club now runs Paris-Brest-Paris every four years, and Randonneurs USA lists the next edition for August 2027.

Racing spreads

The Encyclopedia of Modern Europe says a race from Vienna to Berlin in 1893 introduced many central Europeans to the sport. In the same years track racing gained an international body and its first world sprint title, which is told on the UCI and the governing bodies.

Paris-Roubaix, 1896

The UCI says Paris-Roubaix was first held in 1896 and won by Josef Fischer, who remains the only German winner; only four other riders finished within an hour of him. The UCI says the nickname "Hell of the North" came after the First World War left the route damaged, and that the association Les Amis de Paris-Roubaix was formed in 1983 to protect the cobbled sectors.

Search summaries of Wikipedia, which we could not confirm, add that the first race was held on 19 April 1896, that it and every edition until 1909 was paced by motor vehicles, and that it was created by two Roubaix textile manufacturers, Theodore Vienne and Maurice Perez, whose velodrome had opened on 9 June 1895.

Maurice Garin, who would win the first Tour de France, won Paris-Roubaix in 1897 and 1898, Paris-Brest-Paris in 1901 and Bordeaux-Paris in 1902, according to the French encyclopedia Universalis. His story continues on how the Grand Tours began, and every date here is in the timeline.