The Race from Paris to Amsterdam in 1898 - Part 3

• 
• 
• 
• 

As we could read in the previous post, the racers had left Villiers early in the morning of July 7^th. It was already clear very soon that the race was a contest between Charron and Girardot, both on a Panhard, and Gaudry on his Amédée Bollée. Charron won the first stage, but from the second to the fifth stage Girardot would be in the lead. Charron would regain the lead during the dramatic last stage. Gaudry with his Bollée was a fierce opponent, winning the second and fifth stage. However due to burner problems he lost an hour during the fourth stage, making a victory for him almost impossible. He would end in third place eventually.

In general, the race itself went rather smoothly. Apart from some technical problems and a few accidents, which will be discussed in the next post, the race was a success from an organizational point of view. The roads were fine in general, although the sometimes steep hills of the Belgian Ardennes caused some steering problems. The weather was generally fine, except for the disastrous July 13^th, which happened to be the last stage for the racing section. On Friday, July 8^th the weather was even very beautiful, making La France Automobile comment that this type of weather was rare during car races. A special experience was the ferry across the river Waal in Nijmegen. La France Automobile described this event as 'pittoresque, grandiose et amusant'.

During the resting day in Amsterdam, it was beautiful weather again and many of the participants took the opportunity to tour the countryside. For this only the cars from the touring event could be used, as all racing cars were not allowed to be touched and were put on show in the Palace of Industry. Many residents of Amsterdam used this opportunity to take a look at the new type of transportation. Although the general comment was that the admission price of 50 cents was too high and that it would have been better if the cars would have had a thorough cleaning: this had not been allowed by the organization, however, so all cars were presented in their muddy racing outfit.

After the resting day the participants left Amsterdam on Monday, July 11^th and until Liège the route was identical to the way up. Next, the route led to Verdun, the tourists taking a detour via Luxemburg. All went well until that dramatic July 13^th, when the weather went suddenly cold and rainy. During this stage, Girardot lost his lead to Charron due to numerous flat tyres.

Moreover, because it was suspected that the Prefect would still be furious when they would return to Paris, the unofficial finish was relocated to Montgeron. During the finish, it was still raining cats and dogs, and most participants just drove home. Three of them, however, including the eventual winner Charron, drove on to the official finish in Versailles and from there in a procession back to Paris. The tourists had experienced that same day heavy thunderstorms in Luxemburg. The Baroness de Zuylen even had to take shelter and would arrive in Luxemburg only at 11 o'clock the next morning. Half an hour later she was already on her way again to pursue the others! By this time the tourist field had thinned out to a mere 13 participants. All except Délizy arrived two days later again in Villiers with beautiful weather, with Michelin coming in last at 4.30 pm.

The lead photo shows the ferry in Nijmegen with some tourist participants (Album Délizy, courtesy coll. Rijksmuseum. The second photo René de Knyff is driving his car backward into the Palace of Industry for the Sunday exhibition. On the third, a rather blurry photo the official finish at Versailles, subtitled: “Ils ne viendront pas” – They will not come. But as you could read above, despite the terrible weather the people didn't wait entirely in vain and a few cars showed up at last! On the last photo the brave Baroness de Zuylen at the start in Champigny, the only female participant and definitely a role model for other female pioneer drivers.

You can read more about the 2018 run and its participants on www.parijsamsterdam.nl.

Words by Ariejan Bos.

Ajoutez un commentaire...