CYCLING.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 199, 20 August 1904, Page 12

CYCLING.

In the Warrnambool road race there is a difference of 40 years between the youngest and the oldest entrants, the former laying claim .to but 16 years—a rather tender age for such a struggle as this—and the latter cheerfully owning up to 56 summers, and, moreover, remarking that this is the first race he has entered for! Neither age, size, nor weight is any bar to cycling. Mr. J. B. Gleesoa, secretary to the Federal Council of Wheelmen, has despatched a cable to M. Bruzzoni, secretary of the Union Cycliste Internationale, the governing body of the world's cycle racing, as follows: "In May last sent you MacFarland's disqualification. Why is he racing in America? Prevent him doing so." The appeal by Floyd MacFarland to the League of New South Wales, for the remission of the balance of his three years' disqualification, has been refused. , Visions of the misty past are conjured up by the latest addition to the Christchureh Museum curios. This is an ancient and awe-inspiring velocipede— the forerunner of the pneumatic-tyred, ball-bearing luxury known as the safety bicycle. The primitive contrivance has two miniature dog-cart wheels, coloured a gaudy yellow, and tyred with iron, whilst the ungainly ponderous pedala of brass stand out in brazen prominence. Innocent of springs or anything else calculated to ameliorate the suffering of the martyr in the saddle, the velocipede pays mute but eloquent tribute to the hardihood of the embryo cyclist of a day that is dead. It has been given to the Museum by Mr. J. Ashley, who imported it from England in 1870. R. Walthour, the American racer, has been proclaimed the world's greatest pace-follower. He competed in 11 firstclass matches, and won 10 of them, the one he lost being due to his pacing motor failing. A daring feat, and one which gave an uncomfortable feeling to those who witnessed it, was performed at Timaru the other day, when a cyclist deliberately rode his wheel a distance of 2000 feet along a 9-inch plank, riding from end to end of the new eastern mole staging now in course of construction. Between the cyclist and the sea was • clear space of about 25 feet, awl had he lost his equilibrium or swerved to any extent exceeding nine inches, ho must have fallen headlong into the sea. In the event of a fall he would al—ost certainly have be»n killed by striking the rocks which have been deposited in the sea there to form the mole. A French scientist has ascertained by, experiments the amount of force or energy developed by cycle riders during a race.. He found that cyclists had main« tainted for two minutes a speed to continue which would require the expend!, ture of energy representing two-third* of one horse-power. For six second* they were able to exert the astonishing force of 1J horse-power. At a moderate speed a foot runner undergoes three times the labour of a cyclist, while tho latter goes three times as fast.