Little in stature but with giant strength and determination: 32 year old Herman De Munck, fastest with three hours to spare in the 7th Paris-Brest-Paris Randonneur trial. Although his time of 45h 39m on a machine fitted with three chain-wheels and five sprockets was nearly four hours faster than Hubert Opperman's 1931 effort on a single-geared machine, it was 1 hr 18 min slower than the Randonneur record set up by the joint winners of the 1966 event on a course six miles shorter. Absolute best is to the name of Maurice Diot (France) who won the 1951 professional race in just under 39 hours.