Cyclo-Cross World Championships March 4, 1950

Frenchman Jean Robic carries his bike up steep slopes in Paris on his way to becoming the first ever official champion of the world at ‘cross-cyclo-pedestrianism’ (as it was tongue-twistingly called at the time).

Robic was something of a cross cyclo veteran but the standard of the competition, where Britain didn’t have a team, was derided by Cycling: “He demonstrated himself to be a ‘bike rider’; few of the other entrants from six nations could be named in that category at all. Britain certainly has some potential cross-cyclo-pedestrian champions of the world by Saturday’s standards.”