Cycling and Motoring Notes.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 28 August 1912, Page 4

Cycling and Motoring Notes.

From the J>unloy fitubbo.i . Tyre Co., Wellington, tar week ending J August 17fch, 1912, M. Holbein (England), who some years back was one of the finest long distance riders in the world, and I who later on eamo prominently . .before the public on.'account of his plucky attempt to swim the English Channel, suggested tho following training hints to the English team wiio competed in tho 190 miles Olympic road race, Sweden. Holbein's itdvice will be of interest to many road riders in this .country, and was .as follows: "1 suggest that they should go over tho course at three-qanaiter pace, covering a hundred miles the h'rst day, rest the second day, and then complete the second , hundred oji the third day, so as to familiarise themselves with / the route, while as to feeding, both daring their training speeds and the actual races, they should avoid the ' somewhat elaborate Continental dishes and eat the same as they would at home. In the early stages of the actual contest, T should suggest raw beef sandwiches (scraped raw gravy beef), breast of chicken, bread and butter (fresh), spread thickly viifch sugar. Cane sugar is ' .a splendid muscle tonic—a tip given to me. many years ago by a London doctor. The menu can .be varied by rice, milk, barley water, chocolate, milk with the white of a new-laid egg well beaten and sipped. This has far more food value than beef toa. As a spur for the last half hour, not,sooner, an egg beaten up in about four tablespoons of overproof brandy will have wonderful effects in helping a rider to finish strongly. A well-known English motoring journalist gives it as his opinioiii that the motor cycle is only the forerunner of what will be the really popular form of motoring in tho 'nfmediato future—namely the bicycle made duo-car, that is to say, a little chassio made of cycle tubing with cycle wheels, umcl a moderately powerful engine, seating two persons, practically a motor cycle, and the side car made in one. There are a good many of these in use in k'ligliind at the present time, but when the price comes down somewhere between £(J0 rnnd £70 complete, perhaps even lower than this can be managed—we shall see this form of motoring almost superceding the motor cycle. Tho proposed Tiinnvorth-Xowcastle road race (180 miles), which was to be organised by tho Xew South AVales League, supported by the cycle traders, has fallen through. The idea of the proposed race was to cater for the cyclists in the Northern port of New South Wales, but the League found that there was hardly sufficient time to enable such a big event to be properly organised in time for this season. Next year everything will be in order to enable this event, the longest in Australia, to bo properly carried through. G. I'oulain—the world's ex-cham-pion sprinter-lias Won t'he £4C prize offered by a French firm to tlio first cyclist who flew 30 inches on n, pedal place. Poulain f\cw three times the stipulated distance on a cycloplane of his own construction, weighing about 2olbs. Thf condition of the test required a flight in opposite directions' which tho French crack successfully accomplished. Tlie result , of the Olympic road race round Lake Make, will afford considerable surprise to those who expected the English team to win and to supply the fastest man.. This great international race over a- circuit of 190 miles was won by the Swedish team, while tho fastest man was G. L. Lewis—the solo represenI tative of South Africa—whose time was lOlus, 42min,' 30sec. Great Britain -supplied the second fastest in the person of F. H. Grubh, who got through in lOhr olmin 24 l-ssec. The next best times were <lone by C O. Schiitte (U.S.A.) and Leoii Meredith ('England), "who finished in lOhr 52min, 38 l-sscc and llhr Oinin 2 3-ssec respectively. • Tin frightfully rough surface of the course severely handicapped , most of the contestants,, but exactly suited the South African, who in the elimiuiating test held by the Transvaal Cyclists Union, was the only finisher in one 'of the most gruelling races ever held. Lewis, who is a. member of the Band Roads Club, established a lead before reaching the first control, and nothing daunted by tho rough going, stuck splendidly to his work, with ' the result that lie finished ajmins inside the time recorded by Grubb, the English champion, and averaged nearly 18 miles an hour. No Australian competed in the event.