CYCLING.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8156, 2 November 1904, Page 4

CYCLING.

. . » ifyJtLD'S CHAMPIONSHIPS. [T*OM OITB CoKRTtSrONDBWT.] LONDON, September 9. : Though Don Walker, the crick Sydney cyclist, did -not exactly cover himself with glory at the World's Championship Meeting which, opened at the Crystal Palate 'last Saturday, he was " among the money " in one of the minor events of the day's sport, namely, a one-lap race for professionals. He won the second heat. of this affair after a laughable incident. From the start, three riders— Howard, of England, Hedspath, the American negro, and Walker— -went off at such a slow pace that the uninitiated might well have imagined • that victory was meant to rest with the last man home. Howard, however, wa« not so good at slow riding- as his opponents, and in trying to suit his pace to: theirs, whdoh. was, barely fast enough to make.aie^Uhy enatt- sweat, Se" wobbled "to' such »n> extent, that he could only ke&p f rom falling by making a retrograde circular movemant. Before he could get hi 9 machine facing the right" way again, Walker and Hedepath dashed away, and, racing for all they were worth, gained half a lap before Howard . oould set his pedals going in earnest. Keeping close company, the . Australian and! the negro flashed past the judge, whose verdict was a wheel in favour of the Australian. In spite of the pace they went for the last two-thirds of the journey, the winner occupied 56seo in negotiating the 5862 3yds, so- the rate they progressed at for the firab part of the journey may be imagined) In the final heat Walker was pitted against the two Welshmen, Sydiney Jenkins and Tom James, and Hedspath, and another crawl was witnessed m semi-darkneas. This time it lasted till the men were quite near home. Then Jenkins sprinted suddenly and won by •a, wheel from James, who in turn beat Walker a couple of lengths for second' honours; the Australian taking a sovereign for his day's work. - Of the initial heate of the amateurs' two kilometres (about one mile and a quarter) championship little need be said. All the heats were "crawls" for the greater part of the way, the fastest being 3min 141-5 sec and; the slowest Smin 30 l-ssec. The successful men included A. L. Reed, of London (the holder) j Hurley, of America; Bouffler, of London ; Benyon, of Liverpool ; Jones, of Wigan ; Fly nn, of Sootland; A. E. Wills, of London; , Englemann, of Germany ;■ and Eondelle and Charvier, of France. The sfmi-finaJs and final were also to have taken place, but the crawling tactics' adopted in the preliminary heats rendered, this impossible, and they had to stand) over. • By- far the most interesting . evwif of tht :d*y waa the world's 100 JcUoatetoes (about 624 miles) championship, which brought out half-a-dozen well-known paoefollowers, in the persons of Walthour, ' of America, C Siinar, of France," Vandersmyth, of Belgium, Aridemars, of Switzerland, and Axe,l Ha-neen, of Denmark. The latter was soon put. of the hunt, owing to old injuries asserting themselves, and the race speedily resolved; itself into a duel between Walthour and'Simar, wiMi Gerbi in .pursuit. At tern kilometree Walthour led, but at 20 Simar was a, lap in front. Th« American, however, soon regained! the lead» but at: 40 kilometres tW were dead level. Then Walthour began to assert, his .supremacy, and going to the, front at 42 kilometres ke,pt th^re to the end, and won by ne,arly\2 miles in lbr 33mm • 57 3-ssec, after coveryig 40 miles 976 yardJi in the hour. During the later fltstg* °i ie ta[^h wi <> had ; been third' all the way, and seemed; to ' have a fair chance of beating Siniar -for second p^ff w^» . *■; fell through the ' back tyre of his machine comine'off.. Happily' he was '.hot badly hurt, thoTiebunc^cious for. some time. j On^^arsday Walker waa beaten in the

eighth heat of the Professional Two Kilometres Championship by Otto Meyer, of Germany, after what must be a record in the matter of "crawling." In order to expedite matters the initial heats of this race wer© reduced to two laps — two-thirds of a mile or thereabouts — but thanks to the dilatory tactics of the riders in tlie various heats the time saved, was not worth noting. All the heats, bar that won by Ivor Lawson, occupied well over two minutes, but the Meyer- Walker-Bixid heat "took the biscuit" by a handsome margin. So slow did the men ride that they took 4min 21-ssec to coyer the first lap, and the earcafitio remarks of the crowd failed to improve the pace until a stone's throw from the winning-post, when Meyer "jumped" almost simultaneously with his rivals, and keeping them at bay, won by a couple oi lengths in the magnificent time of 6min 46seo! . . * ■ In the third of the Repechafce heats Walker was beaten into third place by Emile. Doerflinger of Switzerland, and Tom James of Wales, after another disgusting .crawl in which there was no racing until the final two hundred yards, and in the Five-miles Professional Handicap, the Australian made.no show from the 200 yds mark, Henry Meyer winning cleverly from scratch in 13min 20 4-ssec. So far the meeting has fallen. Very flat, and one cannot wonder thereat. To call the events "races" is a misuse of- th* word. In one of the heats the pace afc • the commencement was so slow that Howardi whose antics on Saturday have' already received attention, had to catch hold of the rail surrounding the tTack to steady himself on two occasions. He was fined a . sovereign for doing so, and lost, the heat as well. ■■'•'.■ I September IT. ■ ' " ■ Loafing tactics were again painfully in evidence in the semi-finals and the finals on Saturday, indeed, the crawling was, carried j to .such* ridiculous lengths that, instead of I raising the ire of. the crowd it appealed to the humorous instincts of the spectators. In one heat Ellegaard, Meyer and Rutt actually came to a dead stop, and the heat occupied Bmin 12sec, whilst in the final Meyer at one time sat quite still with his hands off the bars, and then for a change actually pedalled backwards for a few yards, leaving Ellegaard. and Ivor. Lawson to ' wait " wobbling for him . a few lengths ahead. There was, however, a dramatic finish to this exhibition of trick-riding. Lawson, whilst lying second, steadied himself , and, taking advantage oi a. particularly bad "wobble" by Ellegaard;. and a piece of trick work by Meyer, "jumped" for all he was worth, and piling on the ! pace had secured a fifty yards lead ere his surprised rivals could get going. Sticking to his work, the' American, though tiring towards the finish, won easily by a dozen yards from the holder, Ellegaard and Meyer abandoning pursuit a hundred yards j from horned In spite of La.w«on!s long ! sprint, the time of the beat was over 6min. The professionals, ' bad as they : were, could give no points in the art of loafing to the amateura, for in the final of the two ; kilometres (about a ; mile 1 and a cjuarfcer) championship, in which the v English riders, ' A. L, Reed and J. L. Benyon, were opposed by the American, Marcus Hurley, the men crawled along at such a -snail's pace that in spite of a 350y.d& sprint at the finish; the clock recorded the time of the heat as liinin 7 2-ssec, the' first mil© having occupied lOJmin. Hurley won after a 'brilliant; piece of riding toy a couple of inches from Reed, the holder, Benyon being a bare half -wheel away third. \ ■ For real racing one had to wait. for the Amateur 100 Kilometres {about !62| miles) Championship, in which Leon. Meredith, though losing his- pacing for a time, arid falling twice, not only won by five male* ! but smashed all previous British r records 1 from five up to sixty' miles, and • reduced ■ the world's amateur record for the full distance from lhr 42min 49sec ■to lhr, i 3.smin 30 4-ssec. Pett, of England, was I second, and Ollej (England.) third, Nuvoj lari; of Italy, being fourth and Goethart of Holland. 1 filth: the other four competitors, (Joerke (America), Faxoe. (Denmark). Preacher (Germany)* arid Winks (England) retiring. . . -