Cycling.

Southern Cross, Volume 8, Issue 30, 10 November 1900, Page 2

Cycling.

The world’s unpaced track hour record stands at 24 miles one thousand and ninety-uine yards. This distance was covered in September by the Dutch longdistance champion, M. Cordang, who has since then added the Paris Gold Cup (one thousand pounds) twenty four hours race tb his credit. *** We have heard of many startling performances by professional gymnasts and athletes in connection with cycles, but none more startling than the performance which a Chicago mao named Marsh is now giving in America, which is neither more nor less than a dive, of one hundred and fifty feet with, or rather from, a bicycle. Marsh’s performance is described thus: He uses a bicycle without chain, crank or pedals, simply the wheels, frame, and handlebars, and in place of the pedals are two rigid foot-plates. With this bicycle he mounts a staging one hundred and fifty feet high which is provided with a steeply inclined plane of about one hundred feet, when it terminates some fifty feet above the ground. Below is a basin situated some thirty feet from the foot of the ladder. This basin is about forty feet long and ten feet wide, and is filled with water to a good depth. Having mounted on to the top of the inclined platform, Marsh mounts the machine by the help of an assistant, places his feet on the foot-plates, and is then pushed off down the incline, upon which he quickly attains a speed little short of that of actual falling. At the moment he reaches the edge of the incline, and as the bicycle darts into space, he leaves go the handles, and, placing his arms above his head, dives head foremost out of the machine into the pond below. The man being so much heavier than the machine travels more rapidly through the air, and consequently reaches the water first, and whilst the bicycle naturally falls straight after it reaches the water, the diver deflects his course and comes up thirty feet away. Marsh is stated to be a native of Chicago, twenty-five years of age, and has been practicing the feat, which he has now given some four hundred times without accident, for three years. * * * Few cyclists have any conception of the vast number ot Dunlop tyres annually turned out by the Dunlop Tyre Co. of Australasia, Ltd. Last year some seventy-five thousand tyres were sold throughout Australian Colonies, proof conclusive that these tyres arepopular with Australian cyclists,in fact, it may be safely asserted that nine-tenths of our cyclists ride these tyres. * * * Ed, Jacquelin, the world’s champion sprinter, is twenty-five years of age, of medium height and build, and although he has experienced many good seasons on the race path, the present one has been his most successful. Commencing to race very early in the year, Jacquelin did not make much impression, but he stuck very well to his training and managed to place a win to his credit now and again; but it was not until he was beaten in the preliminary beats of the Grand Prix de Paris that he found his old prowess again, for in the Repochge race among riders who had failed to get placed in the heats he qualified for the final by his brilliant riding, and then, much to the surprise of all, won the big event. From that day he has gained his old confidence, confirming his form by winning the championship of France, and then meeting and defeating riders of all nationalities, crowning his previous successes by scoring first honours in the most important sprint race of the year, viz., the world’s championship. To gain the Grand Prix de Paris, the championship of France, and the world’s sprint championship in one season, is a record which will require a lot of beating.