CYCLING.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 785, 7 April 1910, Page 8

CYCLING.

CYCLISTS AS SOLDIERS. ~™e"ing to. the discussion in l.he . Daily Express on tho use of the cyclist ill war, a writer in the "Athletic iS'ews" says I should think tho moral effect of the sudden and noiseless appearance oil the scene of a troop of cyclists, who, before tlioy v;ers observed were picking off their opponents with their riHes, would be rjuito appreciable. Tile effect would bo not, only moral, but physical. . --.s for impedimenta, General Turner is doing tho wheelmen a great injustice. •} ?jV s a c^ cl ® compared with <i horse, its iodder and tho implements for groouiills and Shoeing it? Does General lurner luiow tha.t a camping cyclist can carry all his effccts-tents, cooliing utensils, sleeping kit, and food-cn his machine, Enormous impedimenta/- . inIt is tho other branches'" of the army that, require these, thanks to their clumsy and heavy tents ami a mass of themselves! 55 ° h tllCr Carry "When scouting you cannot . hido a horse in a ditch or lay it down in the long grass out of sight as you can a bicjcle, and the latter docs not neigh or whinny at the psychological-moment. Un your machine you could cover, without. turning a hair, distances which, if done on horseback, might-involve Miliar several animals in succession . 'someone. in the courso of r the discussion suggested that a man would be too tired to fi"ht alter cycling 100 miles. But any rider .who is not merely a potterer will smilb at this, for lie knows very_ well thai a different set of muscles aTe brought into play iu marching from I those used in cycling; One untrained man, m his fortieth year, employed in a shop, wrote to say that he had done '200 miles well within the 24 hours,- and could nave marched good distances at' both end's of the journey. liiofrt interesrtinff opinions was that ot the captain of a cyclist detachment, who points out that in an enclosed country like ours 'cyclist cavalry' would be most useful, as troops are more or less bound to\keep to the roads owing to the system of. hedges and walii' dividing the fields. At the same time, • he advocates a certain number of ' mounted infantry to form a screen in the J country between the roads."