 In 1906, while awaiting entrance to Saumur, Lahm won the first Gordon Bennett Cup international balloon race against competitors from seven nations, all of which had a military officer as a crew member.The race, commencing at the Tuileries Garden in Paris, was actually a distance competition across the English Channel.His father had planned to pilot the balloon "United States" himself but desired to return to America for Katherine's wedding, and so recruited his son to fly in his place.