Speed-Cycling on Road and Track

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 327, 12 April 1928, Page 11

Speed-Cycling on Road and Track

By

“VELOS"

The Manukau Amateur Cycling Club will open its road racing season next Saturday at Manger© with a si-mile event for junior riders, and an 11-mile handicap open to all riders. The club’s membership has been steadily increasing during the track racing season, so that this year’s road season opens under particularly promising conditions. The entries for Saturday’s races are very large, and practically constitute a record for the club. Should all those who have entered go to the starting line, all previous records will be easily eclipsed. The Mangere course was never in finer shape. The many potholes so dreaded by riders last year have all disappeared, arid in their place is a beautiful tar-sealed road capable of carrying any speed. That many new records will be established on this fine roadway this season goes without saying. Saturday’s races will start sharp at 2.30 p.m. from last year’s starting mark. WADE’S CONSISTENT RIDING J. H. Wade is brilliant over any distance. At the Domain recently he demonstrated that he is not only good over the half-mile distance, but over five miles as well. During the holidays he has been a most consistent performer, winning the three-mile open handicap at the Hamilton Amateur Athletic Club’s meeting on Saturday, :md the same distance event at the Ngahinepouri Amateur Athletic Club’s meeting on Easter Monday. In the shorter events he found the handicaps too g-reat. the condition of the tracks being against high speeds. Wade has wound up a wonderful track season, winning over all distances. In the Victor Ludorum Cup race over three distances, he had particularly hard luck. Winning the first event, the halfmile, he looked good for at least another win in the one, or three miles (the latter for preference), but he found the handicaps too much for him and finished out of a place in both. GOOD MEETING AT HAMILTON The Hamilton amateurs on Saturday secured a good gate. For some reason or other amateur athletics have not caught on in ‘this Waikato town, but Saturday’s meeting should help cheer up the committee which spends its time and money in the interests of -amateurism. The racing was, on the whole, good, but the track came in for some caustic comment, as evidently it deserved, judging by the official times recorded, viz., lm 12 4-5 s for the halfmile, and 8m 13s for the three-mile.

Were this track done up a little, some fast riding would be witnessed, as the shape is a good one. Ngahinepouri sports were favoured with ideal weather conditions and a record crowd. The cycle races were the feature of the afternoon’s sport, the crowd taking the keenest interest in all the events. The three-mile event, in which the scratch man, J. H. Wade, gradually overhauled his field, was the best race of the day, and when he shot to the front in the last lap, and going on, won comfortably from C. Clarke and C. J. McCabe, in that order, the enthusiasm of the big crowd knew no bounds. CHAMPIONS ON THE ROAD M. P. Byrnes will be a competitor in all road races held at Mangere this season. He is hopeful of placing more records to his credit, and incidentally winning a few more road races. Both these are not beyond him, as he lfhs had a fairly easy track season, and takes on the road with plenty of pep. The meeting between Wade and Byrnes over all distances should be full of interest. C. G. Galbraith is the one-mile cycle champion of Kakahi. At the amateur club’s sports held there on Monday, being one of the few Auckland riders who knew the meeting was on, Galbraith scooped the pool, winning the quarter and two-mile open events, and also the one-mile championship of Kakahi, besides running third in the three-mile. His trophies include a very fine cup and an exceptionally good championship medal. GAME BOOMING IN COUNTRY With the Easter meeting concluded, the professional track racing season can be declared closed. That the season has been a successful one* competitors and officials are in accord. There is no doubt that in the country particularly the big crowds go on purpose to see the cycle races. At one time it was the wood-chopping contests that attracted, but these events are getting further and further back into the bush country, and cycle racing is coming back into popular favour again. At Matamata, Warkworth and Te Aroha, the record crowds soon made it clear that it was the cycling events they wanted to see. It is pleasing to note also that at all meetings during the season there was no breaking of the rules governing the sport of cycle racing by the riders. A local paper, in criticising W. Francis, the young Papakura rider, as steering an erratic course, should not take any notice of the way Francis seems te ride his machine, but get in front or behind him, and he would then see that his is a very easy wheel to follow. The same scribe also takes K. Rae to task as being another of those who rides erratically. As a matter O' fact, Rae is one of the steadiest and safest riders to follow, riding in the cash ranks. UNIFORMITY NEEDED When is the Northern Athletic Union to take action and insist on a provincial liandicapper for cycling and one lor running being appointed. The fiasco in the cycle races at Te Aroha on Easter Monday calls for immediate action on the union’s part, as it only wants a very few of these “unlimited handicap” meetings to soon kill a sport that at the present time is gaining in popularity every day with the public. The Te Aroha meeting has proved what “Velos” has said repeatedly in this journal, that on tracks that are positively dangerous—such as most country tracks are—from a scratch man’s point of view, the middle markers and in some cases the limit riders can go as fast on them as the scratch men. This being so, “Velos” would like to ask these handicappers who give up to 250yds in a mile, liow are the back men going to get up? It’s simply impossible. “Girry” Matliieson has made good as a runner. As a cyclist, he showed plenty of speed at times, and in a race run to suit him, was a very hard rider to beat. At Matamata last Saturday he won the 100yds maiden, the 100yds open ,and the “Glaxo Cup” for most points in running at the meeting. At Te Aroha on Easter Monday he won his heat and final of the Easter Handicap of 120yds off 15yds. He will not be a competitor in this year’s road events. Cyclists all wish the “Glaxo Babj 7 ” the best of luck. O’SHEA SET IMPOSSIBLE TASK Phil O’Shea, who is doing the “smalls,” is having a good time. At Matamata he w'on the two long distance events and ran third in the one-mile. At Te Aroha he was unplaced in all the events owing to the handicaps being impossible. Some idea of how he was treated can be gained from the fact that he was asked to give “Slater” llayes, Auckland’s crack long-distance track rider. 275yds in four miles. Anyone knowing anything about cycle racing can see the absurdity of such an adjustment. J. Harcourt, who received a broken collarbone and a severe shaking when lie fell at the Auckland Club's meeting recently, is on the improve. It will be some few weeks yet before he will be awheel, but it is to be hoped that he will be seen in action in the principal road races this season.