Motor-paced racing

Motor-paced racing and motor-paced cycling refer to cycling behind a pacer in a car or more usually on a motorcycle. The cyclist follows as close as he can to profit from the slipstream of his pacer. The first paced races were behind other cyclists, sometimes as many as five riders on the same tandem. Bordeaux-Paris and record attempts have been ridden behind cars. More usually races or training are behind motorcycles.

Cyclists started to use tandem bicycles as pacers in the late 19th century. There could be as many as five riders on the pacing machine. Companies such as Dunlop sponsored pacing teams, and "tens of thousands" turned out to watch. A south London rider, J. W. Stocks, set British record of 32 miles 1,086 yards (52.492 km) in an hour behind a Dunlop quintuplet on 27 September 1897. The pacing tandems were ridden by professionals, of whom as many as 100 were under contract. Each competitor had six to eight pacing teams for races between 50 and 100 miles (80 and 160 km).

Speeds rose when engines were added to pacing tandems. Arthur Chase and the Frenchman, Émile Bouhours set English records behind powered tandems in 1898 and 1899. Chase used a 4 ¹⁄₂ bhp (4.6 PS) motorcycle to pace him to 37 miles 196 yards (59.725 km) in a private test at The Crystal Palace, south London, in July 1900 but riders in the USA and in Paris had already done better. Some races mixed pacing with solo bicycles, tandem and motorcycle, with the riders given different start points in compensation.

Bordeaux-Paris, a race of nearly 600 km (370 mi) from south-west France to the capital, was paced part of the way by cars in 1897, 1898 and 1899. So was Paris–Roubaix. The historian Pierre Chany said: "Cars made only a brief appearance in Paris–Roubaix. On the roads of the north, these noisy cars, high with wooden wheels with their tires nailed in place, raised huge clouds of dust. The drivers, wearing leathers, their eyes protected by huge goggles, were stepping into the unknown! The riders hidden in all this chaos could see absolutely nothing and risked their life at 50 km/h (31 mph) on the edge of a razor. The noise was infernal and the column advanced in the stink of exhaust pipes."

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Wikipedia