>Although over a year after Paris was liberated, less than 8 months
>after the end of WWII. I'm sure, even in the cold of Paris in
>December 1945, anything to remind people of the fun they had pre-war
>was a blessing. Happy New Year.
The cyclists of Paris had fun even during the occupation. Cycling was all they had, during those terribly difficult times. So cycling clubs got together for many urban races and events. Long-distance riding was difficult due to curfews and military checkpoints, but you could do a tandem cross race in the Bois de Bologne, or the famous "Tour de Longchamp," a tandem sprint race for one lap on the road around the hippodrome that still is the meeting place of cyclists today (the road, not the hippodrome).
Check out the race of the tandem taxis (posted here before) in 1943 (at about 3:35 minutes)
http://www.youtube.com/
The winning team of that race was on the cover of the Spring 09 Bicycle Quarterly, see
http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com/
In fact, with little else to buy, custom builders experienced a boom. Some things, like tires, were hard to find, but the number of bikes built by people like Herse and Singer during the war is astonishing. I have seen a photo of a line-up of Herse bikes in 1942 in the Bois de Bologne that would make anybody's mouth water. And remember, Herse started making bikes in 1940, during the war. Singer had so much work that he had his two nephews, Roland and Ernest Csuka, work for him, plus one employee, this despite the fact that Singer was in hiding with no papers. (He had been a prisoner of war and had escaped.)
I would be very surprised if the cyclocross wasn't held during the war as well. So people had bikes, but they might not have enough food. It was not a good time, but everybody banded together. Cyclists had an advantage that they could cover long distances in search of food in the countryside. They often rode hundreds of miles over a weekend to trade goods from the city for food with farmers.
Jan Heine
Editor
Bicycle Quarterly
2116 Western Ave.
Seattle WA 98121
http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com