Vintage French randonneuer's and porteurs.

Raleigh Technium?? It's a Gnome Rhone, possibly the aircraft engine manufacturer.
 

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Mickeyspinn said:
Interesting how in '31 they're carrying a half load!?
Click to expand...

The picture suggests, but doing some reading about this race it's - a bit complex - with that French touch where rules evolved.

In the beginning, there was no set course. Just a start and finish point with control points where the entrants had to collect a ticket to make sure they went there. I also gathered that there were drop off and reload points of newspaper bundles. The idea was simple - simulate in a "controlled" manner who his the best porteur / portuese of newspapers to feed the newspaper kiosks around the capital.

It was a test of city knowledge, city navigation, speed, strength, road craft and race tactics.

Later when more motorised vehicles were on the capital streets, safety concerns had to be addressed, so closed roads, fixed course - defined start and finish, and a fixed load of 15 kg. No control points. The race at that point, in a reasonable way, had to loose it's mad aspect. It died a natural death of sorts and that is why that snippet of footage and handful of photographs are so important to look back on.

My take away about this is, with retro eyes because I'm getting on a bit, is the apparent madness and the crowds just lapping it up and supporting it. Really is a superb celebration of man and a machine called a bike. Hard working couriers having a day off - but on the bike.

Say from say 1970-ish to 2010-ish, the kings of the roads in the capital were mad taxi drivers, RATP / SNCF bus drivers who frankly deserved a medal every day, and lastly the private car owner. Cyclist at the bottom of the pile.

At the same time there is part of me thinking at present, history is about to repeat itself. At that time, I'm convinced these riders were considered the ultimate king of the roads. I'm sure even if you were a motorcyclist or a motorist with these new fangled machines driven with an engine instead of legs you still would have been impressed and respected them. Oddly in 2021 Paris wants to put cyclist back in that same position for longer travel city mobility. The whole city is now a 30 Km/h zone. Cyclist can go up any one way street the "wrong way".
 
Woz said:
The picture suggests, but doing some reading about this race it's - a bit complex - with that French touch where rules evolved.

In the beginning, there was no set course. Just a start and finish point with control points where the entrants had to collect a ticket to make sure they went there. I also gathered that there were drop off and reload points of newspaper bundles. The idea was simple - simulate in a "controlled" manner who his the best porteur / portuese of newspapers to feed the newspaper kiosks around the capital.

It was a test of city knowledge, city navigation, speed, strength, road craft and race tactics.

Later when more motorised vehicles were on the capital streets, safety concerns had to be addressed, so closed roads, fixed course - defined start and finish, and a fixed load of 15 kg. No control points. The race at that point, in a reasonable way, had to loose it's mad aspect. It died a natural death of sorts and that is why that snippet of footage and handful of photographs are so important to look back on.

My take away about this is, with retro eyes because I'm getting on a bit, is the apparent madness and the crowds just lapping it up and supporting it. Really is a superb celebration of man and a machine called a bike. Hard working couriers having a day off - but on the bike.

Say from say 1970-ish to 2010-ish, the kings of the roads in the capital were mad taxi drivers, RATP / SNCF bus drivers who frankly deserved a medal every day, and lastly the private car owner. Cyclist at the bottom of the pile.

At the same time there is part of me thinking at present, history is about to repeat itself. At that time, I'm convinced these riders were considered the ultimate king of the roads. I'm sure even if you were a motorcyclist or a motorist with these new fangled machines driven with an engine instead of legs you still would have been impressed and respected them. Oddly in 2021 Paris wants to put cyclist back in that same position for longer travel city mobility. The whole city is now a 30 Km/h zone. Cyclist can go up any one way street the "wrong way".
Click to expand...
It is funny or more like perverse in the real sense of the word...we've been "sold" safety....insurance for everything under the sun... cars with sensors airbags etc yet all along to fund all this safety there's been no regards to safety of the planet other than lip service.....now were all just starting to wake up to that to find essentially there's no insurance premium against it and no devices either! I think we're becoming "aware" again! Humans thrive and excell with danger and adversity. Sooner those kind of events can just happen the better I say 👍
 
Woz said:
The picture suggests, but doing some reading about this race it's - a bit complex - with that French touch where rules evolved.

In the beginning, there was no set course. Just a start and finish point with control points where the entrants had to collect a ticket to make sure they went there. I also gathered that there were drop off and reload points of newspaper bundles. The idea was simple - simulate in a "controlled" manner who his the best porteur / portuese of newspapers to feed the newspaper kiosks around the capital.

It was a test of city knowledge, city navigation, speed, strength, road craft and race tactics.

Later when more motorised vehicles were on the capital streets, safety concerns had to be addressed, so closed roads, fixed course - defined start and finish, and a fixed load of 15 kg. No control points. The race at that point, in a reasonable way, had to loose it's mad aspect. It died a natural death of sorts and that is why that snippet of footage and handful of photographs are so important to look back on.

My take away about this is, with retro eyes because I'm getting on a bit, is the apparent madness and the crowds just lapping it up and supporting it. Really is a superb celebration of man and a machine called a bike. Hard working couriers having a day off - but on the bike.

Say from say 1970-ish to 2010-ish, the kings of the roads in the capital were mad taxi drivers, RATP / SNCF bus drivers who frankly deserved a medal every day, and lastly the private car owner. Cyclist at the bottom of the pile.

At the same time there is part of me thinking at present, history is about to repeat itself. At that time, I'm convinced these riders were considered the ultimate king of the roads. I'm sure even if you were a motorcyclist or a motorist with these new fangled machines driven with an engine instead of legs you still would have been impressed and respected them. Oddly in 2021 Paris wants to put cyclist back in that same position for longer travel city mobility. The whole city is now a 30 Km/h zone. Cyclist can go up any one way street the "wrong way".
Click to expand...
The thing about a "no set course" race is that it cannot easily be turned into a spectacle and so cannot easily attract advertisers/sponsors... In fact it is literally 'unwatchable/not worth watching'...and that's probably why the format was changed. Wouldn't it be great if TdF was run like that?
 
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