The first edition of

Paris–Roubaix Paris–Roubaix is a one-day professional bicycle road race in northern France, starting north of Paris and finishing in Roubaix, at the border with Belgium. It is one of cycling's oldest races, and is one of the 'Monuments' or classics of the ...

, a classic one-day cycle race in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, was held on 19 April 1896. The event covered from

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

to the

velodrome A velodrome is an arena for track cycling. Modern velodromes feature steeply banked oval tracks, consisting of two 180-degree circular bends connected by two straights. The straights transition to the circular turn through a moderate Track tran ...

Roubaix Roubaix ( or ; nl, Robaais; vls, Roboais) is a city in northern France, located in the Lille metropolitan area on the Belgian border. It is a historically mono-industrial commune in the Nord department, which grew rapidly in the 19th century ...

. The winner was German Josef Fischer who received 1.000 francs for the win, a considerable sum of money at the time. The race, as were all editions until 1909, was motorpaced.

Origin

The race was created by two

textile manufacturers,

Théodore Vienne Théodore Vienne, also known as Théo Vienne, (28 July 1864 – 1 March 1921) was a textile manufacturer in Roubaix who with Maurice Perez founded the Paris–Roubaix cycle race in 1896 (One of the oldest cycle races in the world.). Vienne was bor ...

and Maurice Perez, who had built a velodrome in Roubaix and wished to promote the track. Before its first running, it was first presented to the sponsor, ''

Le Vélo ''Le Vélo'' was the leading French sports newspaper from its inception on 1 December 1892 until it ceased publication in 1904. Mixing sports reporting with news and political comment, it achieved a circulation of 80,000 copies a day. Its use of ...

'', as a training race for the then well-established, now defunct,

Bordeaux–Paris The Bordeaux–Paris professional cycle race was one of Europe's classic cycle races, and one of the longest in the professional calendar, covering approximately – more than twice most single-day races. It started in northern Bordeaux in sout ...

. As

was a small provincial town at the time, a professional bike race finishing there would be very good for business. Paul Rousseau, the director of Le Vélo, agreed to start the race outside the paper's offices in

. He designed a route and sent out Victor Breyer, in order to test the route. Breyer drove to

Amiens Amiens (English: or ; ; pcd, Anmien, or ) is a city and commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in the region of Hauts-de-France. In 2021, the population of ...

by car, before continuing by bike the following day. When he reached Roubaix, he was cold and covered in mud. He was miserable enough to suggest the race be called off, but a shower and a meal changed his mind.

Race overview

As many as half the riders who were supposed to ride stayed in bed, including

Henri Desgrange Henri Desgrange (31 January 1865 – 16 August 1940) was a French bicycle racer and sports journalist. He set twelve world track cycling records, including the hour record of on 11 May 1893. He was the first organiser of the Tour de France. Yo ...

, who later organised the first

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...

. Notably, the winner of that first Tour de France,

Maurice Garin Maurice-François Garin (; 3 March 1871 – 19 February 1957) was an Italian then French road bicycle racer best known for winning the inaugural Tour de France in 1903, and for being stripped of his title in the second Tour in 1904 along with ...

, did start the race, finished third and went on to win the following two editions in subsequent years."Podiums Paris roubaix Pro"
(French) lesamisdeparisroubaix.com Retrieved 2010-02-21 The race was full of incidents, Welshman

Arthur Linton Arthur Vincent Linton (28 November 1868 – 23 July 1896) was a British road bicycle racer. He is best known for sharing victory in the Bordeaux–Paris road race in 1896 and for breaking the Welsh one-hour paced cycling record. His death just t ...

, who finished fourth, crashed six times, once after hitting a dog. The winner, Josef Fischer, had a lead of 23 minutes until he was almost knocked off by a horse and was then halted by cows. When Fischer entered the velodrome in Roubaix he was covered in filth and blood. Only three other riders finished within an hour, all in similar conditions.

Results

Footnotes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1896 Paris-Roubaix Paris–Roubaix