WAIMATE ROAD RACE

Grey River Argus, 13 October 1941, Page 1

WAIMATE ROAD RACE

RECORD TIME. CHRISTCHURCH, October 11. Sprinting pluckily over the last quarter-mile of the 135-mile journey, C. R. Evans, 19-year-01l Hornby rider, flashed past his co-marker, J. H. Newlove, in the finish at the Show Grounds this afternoon, to win the New Zealand riband, which goes to the man gaining fastest time in the annual cycle race from Waimate to Christchurch. Newlove gained second fastest time. First man hom e .in the gruelling read race, which this year attracted 39 riders, was another Christchurch man, C. Skiffington, who started off the 45-minute mark. He entered the Show Grounds well clear of L. Young, of Southbridge, who started off the same mark, and won by about 400 yards. A Waimate rider, T. V. Niven, off 40 minutes, was third. Evans’s time was a record for the shortened course,, which now runs through the Rangitata deviation, cutting off ten miles. Last year’s, riband winner covered the distance in 6hrs lOmin Bsec. Newlove and Sutherland also bettered that time. Conditions for the rac e were ideal, although at some stages of the trip there was a slight head wind. The road surface was excellent, with the exception of a short stretch of shingle near Sockburn, which found out several men who were weakening with the strain. It the first time Clauae Evans had ridden in the race —in fact, he had never before ridden m an-v event longer than fifty miles. Evans will be twenty next week. 1 he Blue Riband he won to-day is as fine a birthday present as anv young rider could have wished for. It was a day of “firsts.” Skillington, an Aucklander, who has been in Christchurch for onlv four or five months, had never ridden in the race before. He had one previous long race, over 109 miles at Auckland last year, in which he finished in sixteenth nlace. He is 29 years old, and has been racing for the last twp years.