CYCLING
The Twenty-five Mile Road Race Will Be Run Next Sunday.
The attention of the wheelmen from all parts of the State has been centered on the bicycle tournament held at the Mechanics' Pavilion during the past week. On account of some of the severe falls suffered by the riders the first and second nights it was feared the show would not be a success, as the men were afraid to ride on the track, but the management wisely had the turns of the track enlarged and in other ways provided for the comfort and safety of the contestants, and as a result all the best riders took part. The show has created quite a boom in the cycle trade here as well, and, taken altogether, the season of 1895 has had an auspicious opening.
The annual twenty-five mile road race of the California Associated Cycling Clubs will be run over the San Leandro triangle next Sunday.
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| OSEN - WELLS |
In about five or six weeks the wheelmen hereabouts will again have their attention directed to some highly exciting performances in their favorite sport. On or about March 29 the Garden City Cyclers of San Jose propose to give a great racing tournament on their new three-lap cement track, which is said to be the equal, if not the superior, of any cycling racecourse in the world. All the best riders of the State will participate and the meet gives promise of being the best ever held in this State, which is saying a good deal for it.
The annual 100-mile relay race around the bay is on the cards for April 7, and as it usually requires fully a month's preparation for the riders to properly get into condition for this event they will soon commence active training. This is the star event in cycle road racing for the year and in the past has always attracted a great deal of attention. As many as 5000 persons witnessed the finish in Oakland last year. The relay also draws heavily upon the resources of the club for riders, trailers, clerks, etc.
Every club has to enter ten riders, each of whom has a trailer from whom he can get assistance or an exchange of wheels in case of accident; and, besides, the different clubs have to be represented by at least one man at every one of the nine relay stations, and at the start and finish to see that the interests of the club and its riders are properly cared for. Thus you will see it necessitates, at the closest calculation, thirty men from each club. There will not be less than ten clubs represented this year, which makes 300 men, and as a small army of judges, timers, clerks, scorers, umpires and other men with multifarious duties, such as referee and starter, are required, some idea can be gained of the importance attached to this race and the difficulty in perfecting all arrangements.
The clubs always find it a hard matter to get men to serve as trailers and clerks at the outside stations. They all want to be at the start and finish - in other words, they want to "see the fun” - and a man must be thoroughly imbued with a large amount of club spirit and loyalty before he can be induced to journey down to some wayside junction the night before the race and spend the whole of the next day there, waiting for the time when the rider for his club, who perhaps may be so far behind as to be hopelessly out of the race, comes tearing down the road and transfers the package to the rider of the next relay. And if perhaps he should complain to his captain the next day, the latter, who has probably been similarly reproached at least ten times, will respond. "Well, somebody had to do it," which is very poor consolation.
Talk about the relay is just about commencing, and predictions are being offered by nearly every club captain that his club will win the race. Unquestionably the Garden City Cyclers, Acme Club Wheelmen and Bay City Wheelmen will enter the strongest teams, and I would feel quite safe in predicting that, barring accidents, they will finish in the order named. Still it is almost too soon yet to tell with any degree of certainty, as the teams have not been selected, but those three clubs will certainly finish very closely together. In a relay race it is absolutely necessary for a club to enter ten men all of known speed, as a fast man here and there with the others of mediocre ability will not aid to any extent. If a team of ten men, composed of Edwards, Ziegler, Wells, Terrill and Griffith (who are acknowledged to be about the five fastest road racers on the coast), together with five other men of ordinary speed, was pitted against the Acme Club team, for instance, all of whom are very fast riders, yet not so speedy as the ones just named, it would be a safe wager that the latter team would be easy winners. The Garden City, Acme and Bay City clubs are the only clubs that can turn out ten men all about evenly matched, as they have a large number of good racing men to choose from, and as class does not figure in road racing, men from class A or class B competing against each other without distinction, the best men of these two classes in the different clubs will be brought together, and an exciting and closely contested race will result.
When Edwards' recent wonderful performance of riding a mile straightaway in 1:34 1/4 was announced to Julien P. Bliss, the well-known Eastern racer, who was out here last spring, he said he did not think Edwards was the equal of Ziegler, and ventured the opinion that if Edwards could ride a mile in that time, there are a dozen men in Chicago who can do as well or better. He don't mean, of course, only Chicagoans could do the trick. From Edwards' showing in the East during the past two seasons, there should be one or two scores of men who could even better this time. Edwards is deserving of a great deal of credit for having been the first to get under the 1:35 mark, and by keeping in condition, with favorable wind and weather, he ought to be the first to go below the 1:30 mark. To be sure, five seconds is a good deal, but if he made 1:34 1/4 against the wind, with a green "quad." crew for pacing, and was not pumped out, he should, under very favorable conditions, do 1:30 or even better.
If the weather continues fair it is the intention of the Rambler team to again go to Livermore this week, where an attempt will be made to again lower the straight-away record. As Edwards' pacing will be much improved this time, the quadruplet riders having got more accustomed to their work, he should be able to knock a few chips off his previous time, thus putting the coveted record further from the reach of its many aspirants. As soon as the new track of the Garden City Cyclers at San Jose is completed the team will go there, when Edwards and Osen will endeavor to secure some of the track records of the world for the Pacific Coast.
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