I was flicking through my gran's copy of the 1898 Sunlight Year Book,
and came across a set of what at first glance appeared to be road maps,
but were titled "Cycling Maps". A nice reminder of those halcyon days
between Kirkpatrick MacMillan and Henry Ford.
The book also has a round up of the news from the previous year for
various sports. I'm reproducing the cycling stuff here. Stuff in square
brackets is me.
-----
In the limited space at our disposal it is impossible to do more than
refer to some of the more important events since the publication of the
last Year Book. Among the more notable records made -- of course by
professionals, since the art of record-breaking is far too developed
now-a-days to afford much scope to amateurs -- may be mentioned those
for the mile, covered by J. W. [Jack] Stocks in 1 min. 35 4/5 sec.; 2
miles (J. Platt-Betts) in 3 min. 27 4/5 sec; 5 miles (Stocks), in 7 min
3 4/5 sec.; 10 miles (Stocks), 17 min 47 1/5 sec.; and 1 hour, (Stocks),
32 miles 1,086 yards. As regards long-distance riding, the most
noteworthy performance of 1897/8 was that of M. Cordang [Matthieu, 2nd
in the Paris-Roubaix that year], a Dutch professional, who in September,
1897, at the Crystal Palace, covered the wonderful distance of 616 miles
340 yds. in 24 hours, and going on, completed the 1,000 kilometres in 24
hrs. 12 min. 21 4/5 sec.
The First Portion of the N.C.U. championships took place on June 18
1897, at St. Thomas' Ground, Exeter. J.A. Metcalfe (Cardiff H.) finished
alone in the Amateur Quarter Mile in 33 1/5 sec.; the interest of the
race being spoiled by the accidents that occurred. C. F. Barden (Putney)
won the Five Miles Professional Race in 14 min. 3 1/5 sec., while the 25
Miles Amateur Championship was secured by W. P. Fawcett (Leeds) in 1 hr
3min. 42 2/5 sec.
The Second Portion was carried out at Birmingham, on July 17th, under
much more favourable climatic conditions, the result being the
attendance of some 18,000 spectators. Unfortunately, the racing was not
equally satisfactory, being for the most part confined to the last few
hundred yards of each event. Thus T. Summersgill (Leeds) won the Amateur
Mile Championship in 5 min. 52 2/5 sec.; E. H. Ainsworth (Anglo-Irish
C.C.) accounted for the Amateur Five Miles in 17 min. 42. sec --
F. W. Chinn secured the Quater and Mile Professional Championships in 33
1/5 sec. and 4 min 24 sec. respectively.
The Inter-'Varsity Match took place at Wood Green on June 29, when
Cambridge, represented by F. A. K. Stuart and L. A. Kenny, won with the
greatest of ease. Kenny won the Four Miles, while Stuart accounted for
the other two events (1 and 10 miles)
The Century Cup (amateurs) was won by F. R. Goodwin in 3 hrs. 55 min. 22
2/5 sec., while the Catford Gold Vase (professionals) was taken by
A. E. Walters.
On Jule 12, G. Hunt beat Holbein's 24-hours road record by 7 1/5 miles,
and five days later A. H. Harris won the Hundred Mile Race for the
Carwardine Cup (amateurs) in 3 hrs. 44 min. 15 2/5 sec.
Owing to difficulties with the N.C.U., the London County C.C, was
obliged to abandon the 1897 race for the CUCA Cup (24 hours,
amateurs). Both this and the Century Cup race have since been
transferred to the Crystal Palace.
On September 25th, at Wood Green, A. J. Cherry (Catford C.C.) won the
last of the Championships for the year (the amateur 50 miles) in 1hr. 53
min. 45 2/5 sec.
The World Championships at Celtic Park, Glasgow, on July 30 and 31, and
August 2, 1897, resulted as follows: -- 1 mile (ama.), E. Schraeder
(Denmark), 3 min. 24 3/5 sec.; 1 mile (pro.), W. [[censored]] Arend
(Germany), 3 min. 11 2/5 sec.; 100 kilos. (ama.), E. Gould, (England), 2
hrs 19 min. 6 2/5 sec.; 100 kilos. (pro.) J. W. Stocks (England), 2 hrs
10 min. 52 1/5 secs. The mile match between Arend and Schraeder was won
with ease by the former in 2 min. 51 sec. A Ten Kilometre International
Team Championship was won by England, whose representatives finished
first in three out of the four heats. The Shield for the Champion Nation
was likewise secured by England with 25 points, Denmark being next with
8, France scoring 6, Germany 5, and Ireland 1.
During the season, T. [Tom] Linton took park in many races and attempts on
recod, both in this country and on the Continent, but though he is a
good rider, his perfomances, so far, are not equal to those of his
brother, the late A. V. [Arthur] Linton.
[ http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1373/is_7_50/ai_63502475 ]
The 1898 season was noteworth by reason of the first meeting of
importance -- that of the Surrey B.C. -- being held at the Crystal
Palace track, on account of the non-completion of alterations at
Kennington Oval. The success of the meeting, which took place on April
30, was much interfered with by bad weather. The Sydney Challenge Trophy
(Half-mile amateur scratch race) was won by T. Davies (Manchester) by
half a wheel from W. A. Edmonds in 1 min. 51 2/5 sec., after a fine
exhibition of "loafing" tactics.
E. J. Callaghan (Polytechnic C.C.) beat L. McW. Bourke by a similar
distance in the race for the Surrey Cup (10 miles, Amateurs) in 24
min. 23 1/5 sec. In March 1898, R. L. Jefferson, well-known in
connection with other long distance cycle rides, started off on a ride
to Khiva [Uzbekistan - ed.] and back.
In May last, a 100-mile bicycle race took place between A. E. Walters
and M. Cordang, the Belgian [sic.], who broke the world's twenty-four
hour records in 1897 at the Crystal Palace. Walters had previously
beaten all the world's records from thirty-four to sixty miles. The
interest in the race was soon over, for unfortunately Cordang ran into
his pace-makers when about twenty miles had been covered, and was thrown
violently to the ground.
-------
Hope that was of interest to someone. Typos are all mine 🙂
--
Keith Willoughby http://flat222.org/keith/
"Once Allende comes to power we shall do all within our power
to condemn Chile and all Chileans to utmost deprivation and poverty."
-- Edward Korry