Wanganui Road Cyclist Hopes To Break Auckland Wellington Record

Wanganui Chronicle, 2 September 1950, Page 8

Wanganui Road Cyclist Hopes To Break Auckland Wellington Record

An arduous 465 miles of bitumen and gravel, hills and fla*ts, will be covered in New Zealand’s most strenuous point-to-point ride by the promising Wanganui cyclist, 23-year-old Dudley Mitchell when he attempts to break the Auckland to Wellington record of 35 hours 11 minutes set by O. T. Barnard in 1940. But. merely by finishing the course Mitchell will have accomplished something that has been done only once since the existing record was set. Leaving Auckland at noon on Tuesday—if conditions are suitable—he will probably make his first stop at Te Kuiti, which he hopes to reach early in the evening. After eating there he will climb the hills to New Plymouth. Mitchell’s second spell is expec’ted to be in Wanganui, where he will put in an hour, eating, resting and washing. The Wanganui-Wel-lington hop, which will include the Paekakariki hill, as this is the rou’te taken by Barnard, will probably be done in one spell. He expects to reach the Wellington Post Office sometime shortly after dark on Wednesday. Transport Department pa'trols will escort him through busy streets and past traffic lights in Auckland, Hamilton and Wellington. The New Zealand Amateur Cycling Association rules specify that the race must be supervised by officials, so his coach, Mr George Giles, a former New Zealand representative in Olympiad cycling, will follow him by car for the first half of the journey, and for the second part he will be accompanied by Mr W. Pidwell, president of the West Coast (North Island) centre of the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association. Mitchell has covered 4000 miles in training rides during the past five months, and hopes to reduce the record by a considerable margin. He leaves for Auckland on Sunday morning.