CYCLING.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXI, Issue XXVI, 24 December 1898, Page 822

CYCLING.

The science of correct ankle action is not always an easy one for the novice to learn. They don’t seem to understand this new application of the ankle, and sometimes in the attempt to obey the directions of their tutor will slip the pedal until brought up sharply by the heel. The simplest explanation of the movement we ever heard given by an instructor was: ‘Fancy you are turning a handle with your foot,’ and when one comes to analyse the words they will be found to contain a wealth of meaning. Everyone knows how the wrists adapt themselves to the turning of a handle, and when the cycling novice has this basis, on which to work he soon learns to use his ankles with the greatest effect.

•Long distance racing is not racing in the strict sense of the word. It is endurance riding, purely, and beyond the possession of a sound body and a capacity to ride all day and night at a pace it is difficult to say what are the qualifications and the necessities. Every man must be a law unto himself and his own instructor also. T never take any sustenance or refreshments in a trial spin, or in a race of anything less than one hour. In anything above I place myself in my trainer’s hands, take beef tea, eggflip, pineapple, grapes, etc., as the humour seizes me, but never allowing a sense of weakness to come on before beginning to lay in the fuel.’ At last R. L. Jefferson has made a sign to the civilised world that he is alive. His journey has been accomplished, even to the reaching of Khiva (Central Asia) alive, and uninjured by the savage tribes he has had to pass among, but nearly settled by the absence of eatable food, the turning putrid of his own stores, and drinking filthy water to keep him going at all. The toil of this journey in lands where roads can scarcely be said to exist at all, and where in parts a mounted escort had to ride with him to ensure his safety, must have been enormous, and although Jefferson has accomplished his task, it can still hardly be said that he has opened up a practicable cycling route, either for pleasure seekers or average adventurers. Still, he has taken the wheel to one of the few remaining districts where it had never been seen before. Jefferson left London in April last, and arrived at his destination at the end of September, taking 4J months to accomplish his 4,000 miles’ ride.

Cyclists carrying goods on their machines are too common a sight every where to deserve mention, but the following instance, which occurred recently on the boulevard des Italiens, Paris, is altogether out of the way. A rider was seen guiding his machine with one hand amongst the traffic, while with the other he kept a careful hold of n bronze clock with its glass globe. Another was seen carrying a full-size bath on his shoulders, and, further, a glazier with his stock-in-trade on his back. A fancier with a parrot in a cage and a dog in another on either side of his handlebar was also observed .but the record was certainly beaten when a coal dealer with a sack of coals on his back careered along the boulevard.