Early in the morning, a motley caravan of several dozen cars, motorcycles, and tricycles of various sizes — both ordinary and racing — lined up on the streets of Nice. Everything was ready for the start of an exciting race, with the Italian town of Abazia as its final destination.
However, the French government, apparently due to its long-standing animosity towards motor racing since 1898, banned speeding on French territory. However, the organizers found a way out of the situation — the participants would drive to the Italian border “as tourists,” without rushing, enjoying the beautiful views of southern France.
But when the drivers, pleased with their cunning, were ready to start, a telegram arrived in Nice: “In view of the enormous danger to which the inhabitants of the settlements through which the route of the self-propelled vehicles passes are exposed, the Ministry of the Interior prohibits the race from taking place on Italian territory.”
The year 1902 did not start well for fans of the most modern, most risky, most masculine, and, as many believed at the time, most beautiful sport. The French government (and this is also the “most French” sport!) canceled one car race after another.
Even before Nice-Abazzia, the traditional meeting of the best French drivers in Pau was banned. And soon it became clear that there would be no famous Paris-Bordeaux, which had been held five times since 1895.
Car racing is too risky — that was the verdict of the authorities, who preferred to cancel the competitions altogether rather than monitor their safety.
However, fans of fast driving did not give up. And by and large, it was naive to expect to stop the automotive industry, which had already gained momentum by that time. Therefore, wealthy industrialists, on the one hand, and rich aristocrats, who were being deprived of such an exciting toy, on the other, did everything they could to rid European governments of their unfortunate aversion to cars.
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Hill climbs, beach races, and record-breaking kilometer and mile races became widespread in France, Italy, Belgium, and Austria. At the same time, the organizers of all these competitions — mainly sports and automotive newspapers and magazines — did their best not to call them races. For example, the Avignon Auto Club, which established a “hill climb” on Mont Ventoux (a 22-kilometer climb with an elevation gain of 1,900 meters), called the event an “excursion.” The best among the “excursionists” was Chochar in a giant Panard-Levassore racing car with a 70 hp engine.
The magazine Oto-Velo even came up with a real championship — obviously the first car racing championship in history — for beach races. consisting of two stages.
At that time, 92 racers gathered to compete in Chateau-Thierry and Gayon.
And yet the romance of “big races” was so appealing that all this “trifle” in the eyes of the French could not replace the real, thousands of kilometers long races between cities and even countries. And in 1902, at least one such race took place.
Preparations for the Paris-Vienna race began immediately after the end of the 1901 Berlin race. The route was supposed to pass through four countries: France, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. However, in March 1902, the Bavarian government banned participants from traveling through its territory. Soon after, the Swiss also refused to cooperate. Moreover, the French authorities were in no hurry to give their permission, and to top it all off, a political crisis broke out in the country. There was simply no government, which meant that there could be no race!
The history of motorcycle racing
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