him in the slightly effete, Oscar Wilde-like, pose of gentlemen-displaying-their-calves. A more informal picture shows another Pépin. He is in plus-fours and a four-buttoned jacket. The top button is fastened and through it hangs a St Christopher medal. The picture in Le Cycle describes him as a member of the Veloce Club de Marmande. Pépin was already vice-consul of the Union Vélocipédique de France when in 1897 he published a booklet about how he and a rider called Richard, possibly his son, rode a tandem from Paris to Agen in 57 hours and 45 minutes They were joined by their trainer, Louis Lambert, on a bicycle. Their account starts: Set off from Paris on Friday 21 June 1895 at 5.25am from the Porte Maillot, where Monsieur Haufert, timekeeper of the Union, gave us the starting signal, we crossed the Bois de Boulogne towards Versailles. The weather was cold, that damp coldness of some mornings in June which makes you search for a light jacket and freezes your hands; but we were full of ardour, replete with good advice and lots of energy and it was happily that Richard and I on the tandem and our trainer Lambert on a bicycle started our long journey for the record from Paris to Agen. It ends: The trees passed with an unseen speed, feverish enthusiasm filled our arteries, we lifted our machine with the effort of our pushing, the cyclists who accompanied us, although they were fresh, could not follow us, and it was with happiness that we waved to them from the top of the Petites Soeurs hill in that town of Agen so distant, so desired. A splendid woman gave us flowers there and it was in a whirlwind of dust that we arrived at the Gravier velodrome, in the middle of a crowd of people gathered for the bicycle races and to applaud our arrival. All Agen was there. Pépin, while not a château-owning aristocrat, did have the leisure of not working. Nor did he lack money, which he made clear to the organiser of the Tour de France. Henri Desgrange replied: Dear Mr Pépin, it is with great pleasure that, according to the desire you expressed in your last letter, instead of sending you cash for the allowances owed to you, L'Auto will provide you with a medal to the same value. Pépin also toured Europe by bicycle and