Champion Bicycle Race. A NEW ZEALANDER VICTORIOUS.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 242, 18 February 1888, Page 4 (Supplement)

Champion Bicycle Race. A NEW ZEALANDER VICTORIOUS.

The 25-mile bicycle race, for a stake of £50 arranged between J. Libeau, ofNewZea ,and, and S. Clark, champion cyclist of gcotland, was contested on the Carrington Ground, Sydney, on Saturday, the 4th instant. There was a very small attendance of the public, the onlookers being chiefly friends of the contestants. A cinder track had bten prepared round fcheoufcsido of the running enclosure, the ends being slightly banked so as to give tho wheels a grip in rounding the sharp curve?. The track in some parts was very rough, which had tho effect of causing both the men to fall. The race started at a quarter to 4 o'clock. Clark led off at the commencement bub after a couple of laps had boon recorded Libeau overtook him, and th&n both men scorned to scttlo down to their work, and maintain an equal position for some time. During the first lap of the fifteenth mile Clark, who was riding easily alongside his opponont, ran his machine into a small hole in the track, which caused the wheel to buckle, and Clark was thrown to the ground and received a shaking. After the lapse of a few seconds he mounted a reserved roadster, but on covering a fow laps ho changed it for a racer. Whilst in tho act of dismounting from tho roadster he by somo means lost his balance and fell on tho track, receiving a slight abrasion to the leg just below the knee. Owing to the mishaps fclmt befel Clark, Libeau was able to add nearly two laps to his credit. These he maintained until ho was in the last mile, when in rounding tho curve at the westorn end of the grounds his bicycle struck a stone, and he came to grief. With the aid of a couple of friends he quickly remounted, and was afterwards hard pushed by Clark, who managed to reduce his opponent's lead by about one lap. The spectators now began to J become excited as Clark was working very hard, and was gaining ground, whilst Libeau appeared to suffer somewhat from the offects of his fall. The race was, however, too nearly finished for the former to improve his position very much, and Libeau passed the winning poet about half a mile ahead of Clark, tbo time being 1 hour 49 minutes.