On the date of its creation, Vincent Van Gogh and his friend Paul Gauguin painted concert in the famous yellow house, Place Lamartine. The wings of the Moulin de Saint-Pierre still turned to the powerful breath of the Mistral, dispatch in the whole Paris the letters of Alphonse Daudet and Paul Arène.
It was in 1888 that the Arles Bike Club was founded in the middle of the golden age of the bicycle “this horse of the future”, as it was defined at that time. Victor Rey was the first president. After him, thirty officials succeeded each other. Since 2016, it was Dominique Pierre who chairs the association declared in the Arles sub-prefecture in 1951.
“If we are not the oldest club in France or even in Provence, we are not far from it anyway“, likes to say this Arlesian passionate about cycling.”In 1888, the derailleur and double tray did not exist. Since its creation, the club has never stopped living and it has survived all the historical events that France has known“.
The club’s legend is called Marius Allard, born in Arles in 1871, a champion of the Belle Epoque, with multiple exploits including the world record of 100km, departure stopped in 3 hours and 3 minutes. It was in 1893. Since then no other runner in the country of Arles had had such a brilliant career. “”No Arlesian has become a professional. On the other hand, many first categories have been trained and brilliantly wore the club jersey“Underlines Dominique Pierre who hopes to see one of his young runners to one day hatch at the highest national level.
With all its volunteers, the Arles Bike Club organizes the Souvenir André Besnard and the Grand Prix de la Saint Marcellin in Boulbon, its two historic races. Always dynamic, the Arles club still has good years ahead of it.
