CYCLING NEWS AND COMMENTS Wilber J. Edwards, the San Jose Crackerjack,
and Something of His ...
09 Feb 1895, Sat
The San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, California)
Newspapers.com
CYCLING NEWS AND COMMENTS
Wilber J. Edwards, the San Jose Crackerjack, and Something of His Racing Record.
WANTS TO DO A MILE IN 1:30 TO-DAY.
The Quadruplet - Southern Men Coming Here to Race - Reliance Road Races - The Acme Wheelmen - Club Runs.
Wilber J. Edwards, the star rider of the Garden City cyclers, is pretty well known all over the Coast, but as yet no full history of his racing work has ever been printed. His first race was in 1890 at the field day of the University of the Pacific at San Jose. He won that race and in 1891 he won the race again. In 1892 Edwards got second in the mile State championship, riding against such mon ag Foster, Bell, Waller and Needham, who were crackerjacks at that time. This was on the old Alameda track, and Grant Bell finished in first position.
On Admission Day, 1892, at the Garden City, Wilber Edwards got first in the mile open and won first place twice in the five-mile open, it having been run over on account of the time limit. At another meet at San Jose that year - November 28th - he won the five-mile scratch and also got the half-mile championship.
With 1893 Edwards became the foremost rider on this side of the Rockies, and after falling in the final of a two-mile championship he immediately started in another race and broke the then Coast mile record, doing a mile in 2:28 2-5. At the intercollegiate championships at Stanford University that summer the pride of the Garden City Cyclers captured the two-mile bicycle race.
Edwards' most meritorious work for 1893 was lowering the Coast record for the mile to 2:15. This was in competition at Sacramento, and still stands for competition. On December 12th of the same year he tried for the eighths of a mile standing start record against time, at the Alameda track, and easily made 16 3-5, which was a world's record for that time.
The past year was a poor one for Wilber Edwards. Several falls while training and a lack of a thorough course of training had considerable to do with it. He went East and rode in the National circuit, but had no luck, and after the Denver meet returned home. He saw his local rival, Otto Ziegler Jr., go up to the top and become the American champion, but
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WILBER J. EDWARD, THE SAN JOSE CRACKERJACK, WHO WILL TRY TO RIDE A MILE IN 1:30 TO-DAY.
[From a late photograph.] |
yet derived some pleasure from it in seeing all the Eastern men defeated by Ziegler at Denver after they had joked him for weeks about California riders not being able to ride fast enough to keep warm. Later in the year, when he won first from Ziegler in the twenty-five mile race at Los Angeles, his friends began to think he would be up to his old form again.
At Sacramento, while the Rambler team was going for records, Edwards tied the world's quarter-mile record, and a few days later at San Jose he rode a mile inside of two minutes, paced by tandems and horses.
Whether Wilber J. Edwards is as speedy as Otto Ziegler, the amateur champion, is a much mooted question. Ziegler rode a mile in 1:50, with poor pacing on a mile horsetrack at Sacramento, where the wind was against him part of the way. With better pacing he could have done seconds better. To-day Edwards will try to make a mile,
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E. WILBERG AND H. F. WYNNE, WHO MADE A CENTURY LAST SUNDAY IN REMARKABLY FAST TIME.
[From a photograph taken for the "Examiner."] |
flying start, on a straightaway course at Livermore, paced by four good men on a quadruplet. There is a little down grade and wind in favor of the rider, and this kind of a ride was done at Buffalo over a better course by John S. Johnson in 1:35 2-5 and later over a similar course paced by a "quad" by Eddie Leonart of the Buffalo Press Cycle Club in 1:35. Richard P. Aylward, who trained Ziegler last year and who is training Edwards and his pacemakers, is confident that Edwards can do it in 1:30 or better.
Edwards will have good training and the best of wheels to ride this year, and will probably go East in the fall for the great Springfield meet, and we shall see what he can do. He may show up as well as Ziegler did last year. Let us hope so.
The introduction of the quadruplet bicycle marks a new epoch in bicycle racing. Four fast bicycle racers mounted on one bicycle with a high gear makes it possible to send that machine along faster than any one of the men could do on a single machine or two of them on a tandem. Four pairs of legs applied to one set of driving gear gives nearly four times the power of one man, and when this combined machine is geared up - i. e., when the rear wheel, which receives the power, revolves several times to one revolution of the feet which propel it - it must go very fast.
There are but a half-dozen quadruplets in existence at present. Two are owned by clubs near New York, one at Syracuse, ona at Buffalo, another at Cleveland and the one now at Livermore, which is twenty pounds lighter than any of the rest. It was built to order for this record attempt of Edwards' and attracted much attention at the Eastern cycle shows where it was exhibited. The record breaker rides right behind the "quad" and thus has the wind cut for him and the pace made at a faster gait than be ever went before. It is easy to get a gait of 1:40 out of the quadruplet under at all favorable conditions and as yet it is hard to say how much foster than 1:35 the four-man machine will go. It will be manned to-day by
Toney Delmas,
Henry C. Smith,
Allan N. Jones and
Clarence L. Davis, all of whom are very fast men on single wheels. They are all members of the Garden City Cyclers of San Jose, Edwards' club.
The
Imperial C. C. run to-morrow is to Haywards, taking 9 o'clock boat.
The
San Jose Road Club had a run to
Alviso last Sunday under Lieutenant C. C. Peppin. Its ball on the evening of the 1st was a great success.
The
Reliance Wheelmen of Oakland announce their first regular run of the season for tomorrow, taking the nine o'clock train from the Broadway station of the broad-gauge, and on reaching this city the ride will be to the beach and back.
The
Acme Wheelmen will have extra fine quarters in the new clubhouse of the Acme Athletic Club, at
Franklin and Fourteenth streets, Oakland, and expect to get settled by July in their new home. In their five-mile club race to-morrow there will be two time prizes and six for position.
The Reliance boys are right after the Rambler cup, and hope to win
the annual relay race. They have thirty men training for the event, and have arranged three races to try out the contestants. The first two races are to take place on the regular five-mile course between San Leandro and Haywards, and the final race will be held on the track of the club at Alameda. The first race has been set for February 24th, the second for March 10th, and the third for March 23d. On this latter date the club will have a matinee race meet on the track at Alameda. The quarter-mile track of the Reliance A. C. at Alameda has been put in shape and will be ready to train on on Monday.
The Acme Wheelmen are a sort of century club, and every member doing a hundred-mile ride inside of nine hours gets a gold bar. Every member doing the century inside of twelve hours receives a silver bar for his string. This is two hours less time than the
Century Cycling Club of America allows.
To morrow's runs of the
California Cycling Club are a ten-mile soorch under Lieutenant Egeberg over the Harwards course and a road run to
Mount Tamalpais. The former starts on the 9:30 boat and the latter at 8 o'clock. This club's sealed handicap race will be a novelty. Excellent training quarters have been fitted up at
Central Park by the C. C. C.
GATES
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