In April 1904, Henri Desgrange, the editor of the French daily sports paper L’Auto, organized a 200 km Brevet from Paris to Gaillon and back, in groups led by so-called road captains in charge of maintaining an average of 18 km/h.

He was inspired by Italian cyclists who attempted in June 1897 the challenge of cycling from Rome to Naples, a distance of 230 km, during daylight hours.

The Italians had called their event Audax, which means, in Latin, audacious (daring), and Desgrange adopted the name.

First, when organizing the Polymultipliée de Chanteloup (a climb race, see below), the ACP forms a partnership with the paper L'Echo des Sports, a rival to Desgrange's 'L'Auto.

The second reason is that the ACP road captains are accused of not having observed the 18 km/h required average during a Brevet Audax run on 10 April 1910.

Since that time, the Audax Club Parisien homologated and recorded every free-paced brevet ridden around the world according to their regulation.

A few members present since the beginning and others, who returned on this occasion, will then join forces to bring the ACP back to the status of a leading club in bicycle tourism.

The recovery of the ACP is the work of a great leader, Robert "Bob" Lepertel supported by his wife Suzanne.

Today young cyclists joined the ACP and the new president, Luc Coppin, intends to negotiate the transition to the digital age while maintaining longtime values: sport, friendship, tourism, and long-distance riding.

Today, the multiple brevets run around the world are not only qualifiers for longer events, but also the usual way to enjoy long-distance riding.

[2] In 1931, on the occasion of the fifth edition of the professional race Paris-Brest et Retour, Camille Durand, President of the ACP, created a free-paced randonneuring event of 1,200 km.

Teams start on Good Friday or on early Saturday, and head to the traditional Easter Meeting in Provence.

The event was tested by a team of 4 ACP members, who started on Friday 4 April 1947 at 6 p.m. from Notre-Dame de Paris to reach the Easter Meeting in Provence.

First organized by a group of ACP-members, the event was managed by René Martinez from 1959 to 1963, by Claude Aubague from 1964 to 1995, and by Michèle Hugon since 1996.

Each team has a maximum of 5 participants, including 4 young people aged 14 to 18 (14 to 20 since 2004) and one adult having already completed a Flèche Vélocio, or holding an instructor diploma delivered by the FFCT.

The Flèches Nationales are organized according to the regulations of the Flèche Vélocio, but with a meeting place located elsewhere than in Provence, either in France or in other countries.

The Traces Vélocio were created in 1996 by the French Federation of Cyclotourism (FFCT), to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the Easter Meeting in Provence.

The Flèches de France were created in 1954 by Robert Lepertel and his former cycling club, the Vélo-Club Courbevoie-Asnières (VCCA).

The Super Randonnées were created in 2009 by the Audax Club Parisien, on a proposal from Sophie Matter, who has been in charge of this organization since the beginning.

Participants have the option of riding the Super Randonnée either as a Randonneur (60 hour time limit) or as a Tourist (average of 75 km minimum per day).

In December 2021, the cycling association Provence Randonneurs, chaired by Sophie Matter, takes over from the Audax Club Parisien at the head of the Super Randonnées.

The Randonneur 5000 award was created in 1961 for riders who completed a distance of at least 5,000 km on the various long-distance events organized and / or promoted by the ACP.

The Randonneur 10000 award was created in 2011 for riders who completed a distance of at least 10,000 km on the various long-distance events organized and / or promoted by the ACP.

In 1913 and 1914, then from 1921, the ACP supported the organization of the Polymultipliée de Chanteloup, a single-day bicycle race on a 10 km long circuit located in Chanteloup-les-Vignes, also called Trophée des Grimpeurs (climber's trophy).

The circuit included a very hard climb, and the word polymultipliée refers to the fact that the initial purpose of the race was to highlight the usefulness of derailleur and low gear.

First, the Critérium d'Hiver Parisien (Parisian Winter Criterium) consisted of riding alone a route in Paris or the very close suburbs, reaching briefly indicated control places, and answering a questionnaire which riders received at the start and handed in at the finish.

It was neither a race nor a brevet, but a fun event, at the same time touristic (since often off the beaten track), sportive (pure speed did not count, but a minimum of physical condition was required), and technical (participants being left to themselves from the start, they had to know how to find their way and repair their bikes).

The ACP tried to save it by organizing under the aegis of another French cycling federation, the UFOLEP and, from 1983, on the road circuit of Autodrome de Montlhéry.

The national challenge George-Navet was created in 1980 by the ACP under the auspices of the French Federation of Bicycle Touring, and organized until 1992.

The editions took place successively in Le Plessis-aux-Bois, on the road circuit of Autodrome de Montlhéry (from 1982), and in the forest of Rambouillet, near Poigny-la-Forêt (from 1995).