A Little Cycling History

by Chris Fontecchio on Apr 23, 2009 3:02 PM EDT in News

For you veteran tifosi and Cafe-niks, this might be a thoroughly repetitive exercise, but I thought of a few aspects to Liège-Bastogne-Liège that places it in perspective.

Did you know? that Liège-Bastogne-Liège (ca. 1892) misses out by one year for the title of the world's oldest cycling event? That honor belongs to the Paris-Brest-Paris race which began in 1891, though owing to its 1200km length it stopped fitting into the modern cycling world in 1951 and is now run as a non-competitive amateur event. L-B-L is therefore the oldest professional race, just a year senior to Paris-Brussels and four years older than the Queen, Paris-Roubaix.

Did you know? that the race historically finished in Liège, on a flat run-in to the line? I can't find exactly when this change was made, but it was before 1980, as evidenced by this article on Bernard Hinault's legendary escape in a blizzard. Oh, and that for a while it was run with La Flèche Wallonnne, back-to-back, as part of an Ardennes Weekend series? Nice.

And that's about all I can drum up at the moment. Cycling history can be maddeningly hard to come by on the interwebs... Feel free to add more notes of interest.

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Cycling history

You’re right. The best place to look for a nice shot of cycling history is books.

by Lopex on Apr 23, 2009 3:29 PM EDT reply actions

I might be wrong but I thought Sean Kelly won LBL

when there was a flat run-in to the finish. Can anyone confirm or deny this dude?

by brunopitton on Apr 23, 2009 3:47 PM EDT reply actions

Paris-Rouen

Will Fotheringham’s book A Century of Cycling states:

The traditional finish on the banks of the river Meuse was abandoned in 1992 for the hill-top suburb of Ans

He also writes that while LBL is the oldest Monument (29 May 1892), Paris-Rouen was the first race, run in 1869, while Milan-Turin was first run in 1876.

Formerly known as ruralwales.

by Simon_E on Apr 23, 2009 4:04 PM EDT reply actions

Thanks, I thought I read an Interview where Kelly mentioned it was a flat finish when he raced.

by brunopitton on Apr 23, 2009 4:16 PM EDT up reply actions

Paris-Rouen is oldest

according to William Fotheringham’s book A Century of Cycling. He states:

The traditional finish on the banks of the river Meuse was abandones in 1992 for the hill-top suburb of Ans

He also writes that, while LBLis the oldest Monument, Paris-Rouen was the first race (1869) and that Milan-Turin was first run in 1876.

Kelly won in 1984 and 1989, according to Wikipedia’s LBL entry .

Formerly known as ruralwales.

by Simon_E on Apr 23, 2009 4:14 PM EDT reply actions

Prelude

Liège-Bastogne-Liège was originally a prelude to Liège-Paris-Liège, and less prestigious. This explains its shorter length than the other races of that era, which were silly long. It’s also why it survived – 300 km pro races are so not chic, these days.

by Jen See on Apr 23, 2009 4:59 PM EDT reply actions