The equilibrium contact of a rigid cylinder applied against the flat and smooth surface of a soft elastomer sample (natural rubber) is examined and a method is proposed for evaluating both the Young's modulus E of the rubber-like material tested and the Dupré energy of adhesion w using a presentation of results similar to that recently described by Chaudhury et al. from the previous work of Barquins. New results on the kinetics of adherence at imposed normal load are presented. They consist of a study of variations of the strain energy release rate G and of the associate dissipation function Φ = ( G - w)/w as a function of the crack propagation speed V at the interface between the rigid cylinder and the elastic solid. As expected, a master curve Φ(V) is found, confirming the variation of Φ as the 0.55 power function of V, as recently established in rolling and rebound experiments by Barquins and Charmer with the same rubber-like material.