Origins of the Easter Arrow?

[Exit Stage Left]

I was doing some research and came across this.

It is generally accepted that “Audax” (as in Audacious) Cycling originated in Italy in 1897. Participants had to swim, run, walk or cycle a set distance in 14 hours or approximately from sunup to sundown. For cyclists the distance was set at 200 km (125 miles). 14 hours remained the time limit for a 200 km randonnée until recent times when it was reduced to 13:30 to approximately align with the minimum event speed of 15 kph (i.e.; including ALL stops) of the current regulations.

Communication of the day was limited and the Italians were not to know that in 1891 on June 20th the first “York Run” was held in England. Organised by the North Road Cycling Club, the event required the participants to ride from the General Port Office in London, starting at midnight, to the GPO in York within 21 hours 30 minutes, a distance of 200 miles (320 km) north on the Great North Road. It is believed to be the first recorded occasion where an organised non-competitive ride of this nature took place. Post Offices were important for such endeavours as they possessed the only reliable clocks on display.

I quote from “Fifty Years of Road Riding” The book is the History of the North Road Cycling Club from its origin in 1885 to 1935:

The first York Run was held in 1891, and it gave rise to a remarkable amount of interest not only in the cycling world, but amongst the general public as well. Bennet Burleigh, a famous war correspondent for the Daily Telegraph, took a great and active interest in the event, and a long description of the event from his pen appeared in that paper. Burleigh rode a “full roadster” with the 25 starters as far a Grantham (about half way) where mechanical problems forced him onto a train so he could get to York and record the 10 survivors arrival in York.

The event continued every year until 1916 when the conditions created by World War 1 made it impractical to continue the ride. It was re-introduced in the late thirties as the beginning of the Easter Tour. That was ended in 1973 when the 3 riders were wiped out by a sleeping truck driver.

http://www.randonneurs.bc.ca/newsletter/submissions_2002/n4-16_harold7.html

[mattc]

Intriguing!

[Ray 6701]

Thanks for sharing that ESL 

[Exit Stage Left]

LWAB mentions it in his history of Audax.

June 1891 saw the North Road Cycling Club’s first ‘York Run’, with 25 riders starting and 10 finishing the 200 miles (320 km) from London to York within 21 hrs 30 min. The non-competitive ride continued until 1973, albeit with a two-decade gap after 1916.

http://www.randonneurs.bc.ca/history/history_david-minter.html

The Randonneurs BC site is the best source for this sort of stuff.

http://www.randonneurs.bc.ca/history/main.html

[frankly frankie]

That is interesting and I didn't know about the York Run as an earlier thing than the 'birth of Audax' in Italy.  Remarkably similar time limits (per distance) too.  (More challenging of course back then, on boneshakers and unmade roads.)

But none of that really addresses the 'Easter' bit in the topic.  AUK's York Arrows are an emulation of ACP's Flèche Vélocio, named for an old geezer with a soup-strainer moustache who set the ground rules for randonneuring along with 'seven commandments' which ran along the lines of "eat before you're hungry, drink before you're thirsty", "always be polite to others" and other obvious stuff like that. 
This event was created in 1947 and particpants converge on a nominated location in Provence which is different every year, but typically it's a 'down the Rhone valley with the wind on your back then left near the bottom' sort of thing.
That ties in with FFCT's Pâques en Provence, a big Easter cyclists' gathering, and I don't know when that started but I would imagine maybe 1920s.

The reason AUK started their own version was to enable UK cyclists to qualify for ACPs Brevet 5000 (which I think they now call Randonneur 5000) which required a Flèche Vélocio as one of the qualifying rides.  In the early days of AUK a lot of AUKs rode Flèche Vélocio, but obviously it did present difficulties and AUK's Secretary negotiated a special dispensation from ACP to emulate it as a 'York Arrow' in the UK and be able to count that instead of a Flèche Vélocio.  We wanted to tie it in with the York Rally (June - as was) - similar to the Pâques en Provence tie-in - but ACP wouldn't have that, and insisted the event be run at Easter when the weather was less likely to be benign, to make it more like the French event (Easter in N.England, Easter in S.France, yeah, right  ).  So we ended up with the 2 versions, Easter and Summer Arrows, with only the Easter version being recognised by ACP.

[Exit Stage Left]

There might have been riders who spanned the two, Ron Kitching perhaps. I think of him because of the Paris/Harrogate 800.

In 1978 RK from UK and TA France sponsored the ill fated 800 kms Audax from Paris to Harrogate (RKs UK Base). To celebrate 100 years of the CTC/BCF. 167 Brits started but were decimated by a freak storm and only 35 reached Harrogate to get their medallions from Sir Hubert Oppermann the great Aussie long distance rider. I wrote about it in ‘The Boneshaker’ No. 175 Winter Edition 2007. A Veteran Cycle club publication.

From the comments under this.
https://bertinclassiccycles.wordpress.com/2010/03/14/milremo-andre-bertin-and-ron-kitching/

[TimidPete]

I was doing some research and came across this.

It is generally accepted that “Audax” (as in Audacious) Cycling originated in Italy in 1897. Participants had to swim, run, walk or cycle a set distance in 14 hours or approximately from sunup to sundown. For cyclists the distance was set at 200 km (125 miles). 14 hours remained the time limit for a 200 km randonnée until recent times when it was reduced to 13:30 to approximately align with the minimum event speed of 15 kph (i.e.; including ALL stops) of the current regulations.

Totally off topic, but does anyone know what the swim, run and walk distances were (or where I could find out)?

[LittleWheelsandBig]

http://www.audax-uaf.com/
The Audax modes are walking/ running, cycling, swimming, cross-country skiing and kayaking.

[Ivan]

So I suppose the Arrow is really a form of the 'original' Audax style, ie team with a captain riding together at controlled speed? Interesting, never thought of it like this before.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Yes. That is why the team fails if too many drop out, even if the remnants ride to the finish within time. The same applies to 'proper Audax' brevets.