Riders from the winning team start celebrations after a long, hard race.(Image credit: AFP)
Riders from the winning team start celebrations after a long, hard race.(Image credit: AFP)
Stephane Sarrazin takes over from his team-mate during a pit stop.(Image credit: AFP)
Frenchman Cyril Masson crosses the finish line as the first 24 Heures du Mans endurance cycling race winner.(Image credit: AFP)
Riders run to grab their bikes and start the race on Saturday morning, in true Le Mans fashion.(Image credit: AFP)
French TV sports anchorman Gerard Holz, former professional rider Roger Legeay and Stephane Sarrazin.(Image credit: AFP)
A group sticks together as they tackle the darkness between flood lights.(Image credit: AFP)
Even when the sun went down the pace remained high.(Image credit: AFP)
Riders pass under the famous Dunlop bridge on the Le Mans course.(Image credit: AFP)
Peugeot 908 HDI FAP team manager Serge Saulnier (L) speaks to French Stephane Sarrzain during the first 24 Heures du Mans endurance cycling race.(Image credit: AFP)
Four cyclists completed a massive 970 kilometres of racing to win the inaugural 24 Hours of Le Mans cycling race at the weekend. Cyril Masson, Jimmy Aubert, Bruno Teillet and Sebastien Heron won the event, etching their name alongside some of motor sport’s greatest names on the track which is home to sports car racing’s oldest endurance event.
Some 276 teams, comprising of up to six riders, took part in the race. True to Le Mans heritage, riders had to line up and run to their bikes to commence the race.
Amongst the competitors were the likes of Roger Legeay, who directed the now defunct Credit Agricole following his own professional cycling career, and sports car driver Stephane Sarrzain. Having already finished runner-up at Le Mans once this season Sarrazain, who also competed in the World Rally Championship with Subaru, again led his team to a second place finish. Legaey’s team included former Festina rider Jean-Jacques Henry, among others.
From L to R, French TV sports anchorman Gerard Holz, former professional rider Roger Legeay and Stephane Sarrazin, driver of the Peugeot 908 HDI FAP.
While David Brabham, Marc Gené and Alexander Wurz averaged 213 kilometres per hour on their way to victory in this year’s sports car race, the cyclo-sportif winners set a modest, yet still impressive, 39.3 km/h average during the 24 hour event race.
Former professional cyclists Eddy Seigneur and Jean-Francois Bernard also contested the event, held on Le Mans’ 4.185 kilometre Bugatti circuit. The Bugatti circuit, which was floodlit during the evening, is a shortened version of the whopping 13.65 km Circuit de la Sarthe used for the sports car race.
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