The Grand Prix des Nations was an individual time trial (against the clock) for both professional and amateur racing cyclists.

[1] Held annually in Cannes, France, it was instituted in 1932 and often regarded as the unofficial time trial championship of the world and as a Classic cycle race.

That, unusually, had been run as a time trial, and the two were impressed and also, they said, aware that a time-trial cost less to organise than a conventional road race.

The American-French writer René de Latour said in the UK magazine Sporting Cyclist that he did; Baker d'Isy says that he did.

The events were in the Vallée de Chevreuse in the Paris area, then near Cannes on the French Riviera; for five years from 1993, it was held at the Madine Lake in the Meuse; from 1998, it has taken place in Seine-Maritime département, two circuits of 35 km around Dieppe.