The Grand Prix des Nations was an individual time trial (against the clock) for both professional and amateur racing cyclists. [1] Held annually in Cannes, France, it was instituted in 1932 and often regarded as the unofficial time trial championship of the world and as a Classic cycle race. The race was the idea of a Parisian newspaper editor called Gaston Bénac. The beret-wearing sports editor was looking for a race to make a name for Paris-Soir , the biggest French evening paper before the war.
He and his colleague Albert Baker d'Isy had been inspired by the world road race championship in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1931. That, unusually, had been run as a time trial, and the two were impressed and also, they said, aware that a time-trial cost less to organise than a conventional road race. Baker d'Isy decided the name Grand Prix des Nations. [2]
There is a dispute over who devised the first route. The American-French writer René de Latour said in the UK magazine Sporting Cyclist that he did; Baker d'Isy says that he did. The route started near the Versailles château and ran round a triangle through Rambouillet, Maulette, Saint-Rémy-les-Chevreuse, Versailles and Boulogne to finish on the Vélodrome Buffalo where the founder of the Tour de France, Henri Desgrange, had become the world's first hour record holder in 1893. There were three hills, one in the first 100 km, plenty of cobbles, and the last 40 km went through the woods of the Vallée de Chevreuse, a popular area for bike riders. The distance was 142 km. [3]
The introduction of an official time trial champion at the UCI Road World Championships in 1994 and an Olympic individual time trial championship (1996) reduced its importance. With the introduction of the UCI ProTour in 2005, the event was removed from the calendar. Since 2006, Chrono des Nations (formerly Chrono des Herbiers) has effectively taken the place of GP des Nations in the calendar. [4]
Race distances have varied. Until 1955, it was approximately 140 km; six years later, the distance was 100 km; from 1965 onwards the distance rarely exceeded 90 km, with many events run of around 75 km. The events were in the Vallée de Chevreuse in the Paris area, then near Cannes on the French Riviera; for five years from 1993, it was held at the Madine Lake in the Meuse; from 1998, it has taken place in Seine-Maritime département, two circuits of 35 km around Dieppe.
The roll of honour includes cycling's greatest time trialists, but the event's history was dominated by two Frenchmen: Jacques Anquetil won nine times, Bernard Hinault five. [5]
British amateur woman Beryl Burton competed in 1968, finishing only minutes behind her male rivals.
Christopher Miles Boardman, is an English former racing cyclist. A time trial and prologue specialist, Boardman won the inaugural men's World time trial championship in 1994, won the individual pursuit gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics, broke the world hour record three times, and won three prologue stages at the Tour de France.
Jeannie Longo is a French racing cyclist, 60-time French champion and 13-time world champion. Longo began racing in 1975 and was active in cycling through 2012. She was once widely considered the best female cyclist of all time, although that reputation is now clouded by suspicion of doping throughout her career. She is famous for her competitive nature and her longevity in the sport — when she was selected to compete for France in the 2008 Olympics, it was her seventh Olympic Games; some of Longo's competitors that year had not yet been born when she took part in her first Olympics in 1984. She had stated that 2008 would be her final participation in the Olympics. In the Women's road race, she finished 24th, 33 seconds behind winner Nicole Cooke, who was one year old when Longo first rode in the Olympics. At the same Olympics, she finished 4th in the road time trial, just two seconds shy of securing a bronze medal. She is currently number two on the all-time list of French female summer or winter Olympic medal winners, with a total of four medals including one in gold, which is one less than the total number won by the fencer Laura Flessel-Colovic.
Amber Leone Neben is an American racing cyclist, who most recently rode for UCI Women's Continental Team Cogeas–Mettler–Look. Neben won the UCI world time trial championship in 2008 and 2016 as well as the U.S. national road race championship in 2003 and 2017.
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Ferdinand Bracke is a Belgian former professional road and track cyclist who is most famous for holding the World Hour Record (48.093 km) and winning the overall title at the 1971 Vuelta a España in front of Wilfried David of Belgium and Luis Ocaña of Spain. He also became world pursuit champion on the track in 1964 and 1969.
László Bodrogi is a former Hungarian and French professional road bicycle racer, specializing in the individual time trial.
Gustav Erik Larsson is a Swedish former professional road racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 2001 and 2016 for nine different teams. Larsson specialised as a time trialist, winning the Swedish National Time Trial Championships seven times between 2006 and 2015, and won silver medals at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and the 2009 World Championships in Mendrisio.
Armand de Las Cuevas was a French racing cyclist.
Emma Jane Pooley is a British-Swiss athlete in multiple sports. A former professional cyclist who specialised in time trials and hilly races, she later transferred to endurance running, duathlon and triathlon, and was four-times world champion in long-distance duathlon. She competes in long-distance and uphill mountain running and has represented Switzerland at the world trailrunning championships.
Albert Baker d'Isy was a French cycling journalist and author and the founder of the Grand Prix des Nations international time-trial. He is considered, in the French expression, "one of the most beautiful pens" of sports writing. Pierre Chany a contemporary, called him "The best sporting journalist of his generation."
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Aleksejs Saramotins is a Latvian professional road cyclist, who last rode for UCI Continental team Interpro Cycling Academy. He has won the Latvian National Road Race Championships on seven occasions and has represented his country at the Summer Olympic Games and the UCI Road World Championships.
Olga Sergeyevna Zabelinskaya is a Russian-born Uzbekistani professional racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women's Continental Team Roland Cycling. While competing for Russia, she won three Olympic medals, before changing allegiances to Uzbekistan in 2018.
Tatiana Andreyevna Antoshina is a Russian road bicycle racer.
Eugenia Bujak is a racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam UAE Team ADQ. She competed in the 2013 UCI women's road race in Florence for Poland, and has represented Slovenia in competition since 2018.
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Eugénie Duval is a French racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam FDJ–Suez. She rode at the 2014 UCI Road World Championships.
Stéphane Rossetto is a French cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Continental team St. Michel–Mavic–Auber93. He is notable for his long range final stage win from 115 kilometres out in the 2018 Tour de Yorkshire which also gave him the Mountains classification. In July 2019, he was named in the startlist for the 2019 Tour de France. In October 2020, he was named in the startlist for the 2020 Giro d'Italia.
Mathias Norsgaard Jørgensen is a Danish cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Movistar Team. His sister, Emma Norsgaard Jørgensen, is also a professional cyclist, riding for the women's Movistar Team.
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