Cyclist s Dash for Wellington

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 66, 9 June 1927, Page 1

Cyclist s Dash for Wellington

SUTHERLAND SETS-OFF A TEST OF ENDURANCE BOUND for Wellington on one of the hardest cycling endurance tests yet attempetd in New Zealand, Alex. Sutherland rode away from the Auckland Motor and Cycle Depot in Karangahape

Road at 9.15 this morning. The rider expects to arrive at the Capital City some time on Saturday afternoon, and the only stops made en route will be for meals.

A number of smiling faces cheered Sutherland as he cycled away, dodging the traffic, and heading for a city some 450 miles away. To keep him company another well-known roadracing cyclist, Billy Hill, is riding with him as far as Te Kuiti, where it is pected that other clubs will arrange for riders to help Sutherland through. They are expected to make Te Kuiti this evening. Alex. Sutherland, who is a cyclist of some 20 years’ experience, is one of Auckland’s road racers, and he is undertaking this feat purely from the point of view of an endurance test. "I am out to make a record which will stand for many years,” he says. As far as can be gathered the Auck-land-Wellington continuous cycling test was undertaken some years ago in the travelling time of five days. A schedule was laid out by Sutherland this morning, in which it was stated that he intended to do the first hundred miles in 10 hours, the second hundred in 12 hours, the third hundred miles in 15 hours and the fourth hundred miles in 20 hours.