| Event: | Men's points race |
| Games: | 1900 Summer |
| Venue: | Vélodrome de Vincennes |
| Date: | September 15 |
| Competitors: | 13 |
| Nations: | 3 |
| Longnames: | yes |
| Win Value: | 21 |
| Win Label: | Winning score |
| Gold: | Enrico Brusoni |
| Goldnoc: | ITA |
| Silver: | Karl Duill |
| Silvernoc: | GER |
| Bronze: | Louis Trousselier |
| Bronzenoc: | FRA |
| Next: | 1984 |
The men's points race, or “Course de Primes,” was a track cycling event at the 1900 Summer Olympics. The competition was held on 15 September 1900 at the Vélodrome de Vincennes. There were 13 competitors from 3 nations. The event was won by Enrico Brusoni of Italy, who won 5 of the laps including the last one. Karl Duill of Germany placed second, with Louis Trousselier of France third.[1] [2] [3]
This was the first appearance of the event. It would not be held again until 1984; after that, it was held every Summer Games until 2008 when it was removed from the programme. The women's version was held from 1996 through 2008.[4]
The competition was broadly similar to the modern points race, but with significant differences. The event was 5 kilometres in length, with points awarded at each lap (prime) to the first three cyclists to finish the lap: 3 to the first to finish the lap, 2 to the second, and 1 to the third. The cyclist with the most points was the victor. On the last lap, the points were tripled: 9 to the winner of the race, 6 to second place, and 3 to third place.
A single race was held, with all cyclists starting together.
The event was held on 15 September. Ferdinand Vasserot won the first lap, but failed to gain more than 1 more point the rest of the way. Enrico Brusoni won the second and third laps to move into the lead with 6 points, with Louis Trousselier behind him on both of those laps for 4 points and second place. J. Bérard was the fourth-lap winner, moving between Brusoni and Trousselier with 5 points. Brusoni won the fifth lap to increase his lead, 9 points to Bérard's 5 and Trousselier's 4.
The sixth and seventh laps went to Karl Duill, bringing him to 7 points and second place only 2 points behind Brusoni; Trousselier picked up 2 points on the sixth to stay in third place as Bérard dropped to fourth. The top three spots would not change again after that. Brusoni re-extended his lead on the eighth lap, winning it to place him at 12 points to Duill's 7. In the ninth lap, Trousselier won with Duill behind him; this brought them both to 9 points, only 3 points behind Brusoni.
Brusoni finished strong, however, with a win on the triple-value final lap for 9 points to take the top overall score at 21 points. Neither Duill nor Trousselier was able to score on that final lap. Duill held a tie-breaker over Trousselier, taking second place. Chaput's second-place finish on the last lap brought him 1 point behind the medalists.[4]
| Rank | Cyclist | Nation | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 9 | 21 | |||
| 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 9 | |||
| 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 9 | |||
| 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 8 | ||
| 5 | J. Bérard | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | |
| 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | ||
| 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | ||
| 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | |||
| 9 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |||
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |||
| 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |