CYCLING NEWS AND COMMENTS - Wilber J. Edwards, the San Jose Crackerjack, and Something of His Racing Record - The San Francisco Examiner, 09 Feb 1895
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.
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