ENGLISH AND AUSTRALIAN RIDERS COMPARED.

Otago Witness, Issue 2892, 18 August 1909, Page 59

ENGLISH AND AUSTRALIAN RIDERS COMPARED.

A* great effort «s being- put forth in England by the crack long-distance road-xidere to see mho -will.be the first 1 rider to accomplish .100 mile* umpaead on tiie road on, an out-and-home couie? iv five hours or under. The nearest yet attained is shr 3min, by F. H. Grubb, who, only for puncturing a few miles from the finish, would have broken five hours. In Australia the "hundred" is ridden by dozens of cyclists in the big road race from Warrnambool to Melbourne well under five hours. In 1907 Laroombe, the New v South Wales champion, rod© from Warrnambool to Winohelsea (96 .miles) *ji 4hr 20min, this being only part of his great ride -to Melbourne ; 165 miles in 7hr 40min lOsec. Continuing on at" the 6am* pace, which, he did, the New South Wales crack must have ridden the 100 miles under 4-hi 32min, which, is "four minutes umd£T H. reen's stragihtaway world's record figures of 4-hr 36min. Last year M. ChappeH (Victoria), 'who carried off the Dunlop blue riband, did even better, foi h* carved out the '^hundred" under 4hr 30min, there baing over 50 riders who were well, under five hours. It would ba interesting to «c in what time some of tbs best Australasian road-riders, 6ay J. Arns* (N.Z.), T Larcombe, or M. Ghappall (Vio.), could covei a hundred miles unpaced over* an out-and-home- course. Going by ttaein respective performances in the "Waxrnam-* bool" it certainly looks as if they couldi accomplish a feat that has so far beafcea* the cream of English road-riders.

TALL SPEEDS ON SALTBURN SANDS.

At the annual carnival on the SaJtbixrn. Sands, held 'ast .month by the Yorkshire) A.C., some very high speeds were attained.; Mr A. Lee Guinness, driving, hie 200 h.p. Darracq. covered a kilometre at the lets of- 120.26 miles per hour, which ■beat his* previous British record of 111 miles, put; up on bhe Sands the -previous year. Tho world's record is 121.5 miles per hour, pu# up by Marriott in a steam oar in America two years ago. In the flying kilometre trials for Grand Prix cars, Tate, on a. 60 h.p. Mercedes, averaged 94.78 miles per hour. In the trial for "4in" cars Colmore, on a Dorraoq, averaged 67. 3 miles per hour from a flying start, and 50.15 from a standing start.