Recent Contributions to the PBP Archive
by Eric Fergusson

Fairly regularly I receive new material for the PBP archive I've been assembling on our web site. Typically I'll add these contributions and then feel badly because new eyes won't necessarily find them. Maybe I should be trying to make these contributions more visible by highlighting them here in the newsletter from time to time. So here are a few recent additions to BC Randonneurs' PBP Hub.

Dr John Campbell has sent in various archival contributions from his private collection over the years. His most recent offering is particularly dramatic - the 1931 PBP control booklet from rider and finisher André Petitjean. (Image above.) The full booklet can be found on the PBP control booklets archive page.

Earlier this year I mentioned in another newsletter article that French rider Jean-Francois Mermet had digitized and uploaded to Youtube the official 1991 PBP video (link to article). Following this, he sent coverage of the 1983 PBP that I hadn't seen before. I've now added this to the PBP articles section: Le Cycle: Le grand marathon.

I should mention again the recent efforts of our own Ron Stewart who figured out how to update the PBP recidivists file with the 2015 PBP results information. Go to PBP Recidivists. Thanks Ron!

An finally back to Dr John Campbell. He and I had wondered if a medal he had found could be a finishers or participants medal from PBP 1891 (left below). There was a claim in an on line source that this was the PBP medal. More recently I saw in a Bicycle Quarterly article the image of another 1891 medal (right below). Well... this is probably the real 1891 medal. I've left the other one in place as a curiosity. Maybe one day we'll figure out what it is. Go to: PBP medals archive.

Additional: Following the addition of the 1931 André PETITJEAN control booklet, long-time contributor to the PBP site Alain COLLONGUES had some additional information about the rider, including that he was the youngest rider at PBP 1931. The additional information is HERE.

May 11, 2018