Litolff Rides Well To Beat Dean

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31864, 17 December 1968, Page 23

Litolff Rides Well To Beat Dean

M. W. Litolff (Canterbury) scored one of the best wins of his track career when he beat New Zealand’s leading all-rounder, J. A. Dean (West Coast, North Island) in the final five-mile scratch race at the opening of the new Velodrome in Wellington on Saturday.

Six laps from the finish Litolff and the only other rider from Canterbury, R. J. Hogan, raced away from a class field. The pair managed to open up a gap of 100 yards and Litolff hung on to snatch a magnificent victory by 10 yards. With about one and a half laps to go H. D. Kent (Wellington) set off after the pair and Dean came off his wheel in the final stretch for second place. The quality of the track was reflected in Litolffs time. He recorded lOmin 17.5 sec, about 14sec outside the New Zealand record, but the pace was not sustained throughout.

Litolff, who represented New Zealand on the track early this year, was second to Dean in the opening fivemile race and second to him again in the one-lap Derby. Hogan’s best effort was to finish third behind D. R. Brown (West Coast, North Island) and P. Baker (Wei-

lington) in the five-lap scratch race. Hogan and Litolff combined with B. H. Goldsworthy (Wellington) and N. Rowlands (West Coast, North Island) to finish third in the Italian pursuit.