How it started

On June 12, 1897, 12 Italian cyclists ventured a tour from Rome to Naples, about 230 km, with the goal to cover the distance according to a time-table between sunup and sundown. Of the 12 cyclists 9 succeded and were classified as "audacious", which in Latin is "audax". This run raised a lot of attention in Italy and became the starting point for a movement which arranged endurance time-table runs all over Italy. 

The Italian audax movement "Audax Italiano" planned to make a brevet from Torino to Paris. They wrote to the newspaper publisher Henri Desgrange (who 1903 founded the Tour the France) inquiring about the possibilities of a reception on arrival, Henri Desgrange (1865-1940) reacted immediately by starting his own club Audax Français on 7 January 1904 to show the Italian guests that Frenchmen also can endure long bicycle runs. The original average speed until 1945 was 18 kph.

Some fifteen years later a group of riders no longer wanted to ride according to a time-table. This led to a division between the audax cyclists and the randonneurs. Audax Club Parisien (ACP) became the club of the free speed and individual cycling. On the National Day, July 14, 1921 the audax cyclists founded their L'Union des Audax Cyclistes Parisien (UACP), which on January 1, 1956 changed its name to L'Union des Audax Français

In reality there were two competing sports papers and their editors who caused the break-up. Henri Desgrange with his l'Auto on one side and Victor Breyer at l'Écho des Sports on the other.

Besides cycling, UAF authorizes brevets for walking, swimming, kayaking and cross-country skiing. All these have regulated speed.

UAF as well as ACP arrange Paris-Brest-Paris, the 1200 km long brevet.  The two clubs did it at the same event from 1931 through 1971. Since then ACP does it for the randonneurs every fourth year, while UAF does it for the audax every fifth year, which means that every 20th year the two brevets coincide. Last and first time they coincided was in 1991 and the next time will be in 2011. The next UAF P-B-P will be in 2011 and ACP will do their next in 2007.

Paris-Brest-Paris is not the only ultra-long brevet by UAF. A number of these are arranged every year. For example in 2004, which marks the 100 year jubilee of UAF, an Olympic Brevet from Paris to Athens (1945 km) was organized. 

First Audax-captain

First brevet

Audax Deutschland

Audax in Sweden