CYCLING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13355, 8 December 1906, Page 10

CYCLING.

The Auckland Cycling Club will hold a ten-mile road race, open to all-comers, at an early date. A gold medal will be awarded to the winner, and gold centre medals will bo given to the placed men. Entries can be made with the secretary of the club (Mr. F. H. Hutchinson).

A movement is on foot to form a cycling and touring club in Auckland by the secretary of the Auckland centre of the League of Wheelmen, and all cyclists should join. One of the greatest pleasures of cycling is the touring facilities it affords, and the trips are made much more pleasant when a number are together.

The Auckland centre of the New Zealand League of Wheelmen is having some life put into it, and cycling should show a revival hero before many months are past. The Auckland Cycling Club and Amateur Athletic and Cycle Club have affiliated, and it behoves the Onehunga Cycle Club to do likewise and so assist in pushing cycling onward in Auckland. A good centre is essential when there is more than one club. Besides, if the centre has the support of all clubs, it would be justified in launching out a little and providing cyclists with sport.

The Amateur Athletic and Cycle Club have put on a bicycle race for novices in connection with their forthcoming meeting. All young cyclists should enter. Good prizes have been promised. I understand that steps are ljeing taken to re-form the cycling club at Rotorua. There are a large number of cyclists in and around the thermal city, and there should not be much difficulty in getting a good club going. : .. The Cambridge Cycling Club has not been heard of this season so far. and it is 'to be hoped the- cyclists there have not allowed the club to fall through. I am informed there are a large number of cyclists in Cambridge, and also Hamilton. There is no reason why the former club should not be strong and that another club should not be started in Hamilton.

The Christchurch Cycling and Motor Club have arranged a first-class programme of bicycle and motor raoes, to be held at their Exhibition carnival on Anniversary Day, Monday, December 17, Saturday 22nd, and the following Tuesday (Christmas Day) and Wednesday (Boxing Day), the total value of the prizes offered being £500. Entries have been promised from all parts of the colony and Australia. It is probable that during the meeting a competition between cars and motor cycles will be held, provided the track can be fitted for such a contest.

The Coolgardie promoters of the Westral Carnival have just issued their 1906 programme. The sum of £500 is the amount set down for prize-money, and the meeting is to be held on the afternoon and evening of Boxing Dav. The Westral Wheel Race is worth £200, with £70 and £30 as second and third prizes respectively: £50 is allotted to a five-mile scratch race, and £76 to a onemile handicap. C. Bardonneatt, the French rider, who won the 100-kilometre International Amateur Championship at Geneva in August, and Leon Meredith, Paddington C.C., who won the same championship at Antwerp last year and at, the Crystal Palace the year before, met in a match at the Velodrome Buffalo, Paris, in September. The match '• consisted of two races at 10 and 50 kilo.metres respectively, and the result was an easy win for Meredith. The conditions were the same as at Geneva (where Meredith's chance of winning was spoilt, by a succession of punctures), except that the guard rollers were fixed close to the rear tires of the light pacing motors, instead of several inches away. The well-known professionals Syd. Jenkins, of Wales, and Harry Reynolds, of Dublin, met in three races at Jones Road, Dublin, recently. In the one-mile Jenkins won by a length in 2m. 395., but in the twomile event Reynolds turned the tables, he winning by five lengths in sm. 455. The rubber was decided over a distance of five miles, motor,paced, and here, again, the Irishman triumphed very easily in 13m. 28s. During the past few weeks there has been a growing discontent among the racing contingent regarding the programme submitted for the Austral meeting (says "Fortis," in the Australasian). It does not seem to meet their views in any way. If there are no modifications effected the entry list may be a comparatively small one. The officials of the league are also somewhat perturbed; not, of course, on the M.B.C.'s account, but as to the probable effect of the meeting, as at present arranged, on the sport. The wellbeing of the sport depends very much on the success of the Austral meeting, as on any other important fixture, and for this reason they view the disapprobation of the . M.B.C. programme with no little anxiety. The French governing body has adopted a new idea of conferring a diploma on any cyclist who has, for touring purposes, covered 200 kilometres (126 miles) inside 12 hours. One of the latest riders to win honours in this direction is Lucien Desna, the old paced rider who visited Australia •many years ago. Lesna, it will bo remembered, was permanently disabled through a bad fall in" the Paris-Madrid motor race two years ago, and a remarkable fact in connection with his ride is that he rode the whole distance on one leg, which is a really fine performance. - :