CYCLING.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VI, Issue 303, 14 May 1896, Page 2

CYCLING.

Otir amateur wheelmen are busily enK training for the annual road race ijr 25th (Queen’s Birthday), entries hich close on Saturday evening fit letropolitan Hotel. It is anticipated there will be a large field, and the course will b 6 16ft in the Bands of the riders themselves. The cyclist who squeezes his valve caps Oh with all his might, so that he has to use pliers or nippers to get them loose again, usually spoils his valves. A Yankee exchange says Zimmerman has been engaged as a cycle writer on The World.

Mr Goschenj First Lord of the Ad miralty, is the latest convert to the cycle. An English firm is said to have built a triplet geared to 800 inches, fitted with a Simpson chain Cyclist Martin neither smokes nor liquors, but his language is as variegated aS an old-time bullock driver’s. He is said to have made over £6OO since his advent to Australia. — .Punch.

The Carterton Cycle Club had their first road race last week, from Greytown to Carterton, and resulted : —P. Lorensen W. Campbell and F. Sullivan (dead heat) 2, C. DeLacy 3. C. Puller, A. Bayliss, and.W. A. Kitchen also started. Time, 15min, exact distance not known. An interesting argument about the new woman and rational costume cropped up (says the Melbourne Argus) in the City Police Court out of a charge of insulting behaviour preferred against Bertha Clair. At a late hour in the evening of the Eight Hours Day, accused appeared in Lonsdale-street habited in male attire, and she had also blackened her face. The arresting constable was asked by the solicitor for the defence why he did not apprehend any female cyclist who might be pedalling through the Streets in “ knickers.” His client had not outraged propriety any more than a cycliste in rational costume. As there had beeii ho actual breach of the peace, the magistrate discharged the accused, with an admonition not to play any more revolutionary tricks with her apparbl, but to stick to the skirt —one and indivisible.

- That the public are now fully initiated (says “ Lex”) into the many little points in connection with cycle racinggoes without saying. Dttrihg the progress of the 25-mile championship at Melbourne on the 2nd in st. (when McLean beat Martin), every action of the racing men was criticised, and the spectators at times expressed, in a very varied and oped manner, their fury at the action of some of the riders. I don’t know what “ Lei’s” opinion may be about long-distance cycle racing, but after conferring with a lot of people who are fond of cycle racing, they agree with me that a 25-mile cycle race is jfistiboutasinteresting as a Chinese funeral. Organisers of cycle sports, take my tip, if you want to retain the public interest dd hot allow any longer distance races on your programmes than five miles, and only one of these during one afternoon. Ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, and fifty mile races shouid be decided amongst the members of the cycling clubs that promote them I saw a championship ten mile race being decided once, and as soon as the pistol went off, all those who could do so laid down on the grass, and lolled about waiting impatiently until its completion, well knowing that there would be no racing until perhaps the last two laps—and such occured. Had the competitors started for a “ two lap” race, the result would have been exactly the same, but the public would not have been imposed on by asking them to pay to the ground to see a 15 mile, race, when it was only two laps. M’Lean, the winner of the 25 mile Championship of Victoria, received quite an ovation for his performance in defeating Martin. “ Lex” says M’Lean, besides winning the championship, carried off the honours for pacing, he having led for fully three-quarters of the dis-

tance. The tactics employed by certain of the riders, in shirking the pacing, was received with great disapproval by the greater section of the crowd, who gave vent to their feelings in the matter by frequently hooting the men whom they considered were taking advantage of the champion’s straightforward riding In my opinion, the bicycle rider who cannot compete in a race without being paced, thereby leaving nothing for his brains to do —if he has any —is cordially invited to place his name on the list of “ chumps.” Results and times for the half-mile cycle handicap at the Easter Fair Races at Melbourne : — Half-mile Handicap. Prizes, £6, £2, and £1 —First heat —D. J. Walker, 10yds, and W. Martin, scr, dead heat, 1; W. Elliott, 45yds, 2. Time, Imin 6 1 ssec. Second heat—C. Porta, 15yds, 1; 0. O. Sherwood, 60yds, 2. Time, Imm 6sec Third heat—A. J. Middleton, 70yds, 1; A. H. Clinton, 30yds, 2. Time, Imin 6 4-ssec. Fourth heat—L. Del Sarte, 60yds, 1; G. Beasley, 60yds, 2. Time, Imin 6 3-ssec. Final heat —A. H. Clinton 1, C. O. Sherwood 2, L. Del Sarte 3. Time, Imin Isec. The match at Richmond Park, Melbourne, between A. W. Harris and the trotting horse Osterly, ended in smoke. Harris was defeated in the first mile in 2min 29 3-ssec, but then declined to go on with the match owing to the “treacherous” nature of the track. Martin then covered a quarter mile in 29 3-ssec, paced, of course, by a triplet; so that Harris must have been frightened of the pace, not the track.