Fleet Street
the chosen course being to Bath and back, and in due season clubs were formed, and a series of such contests arranged. The great North Road and the level stretches of highway branching from it became the scenes of highly interesting contests which at first were of a very sporting and purely amateur character. The arrangements were carried out by large batches of honorary officials, and the events attracted the attention of many riders apart from those actually engaged in them as competitors. The former were distributed over the country, checking the racing men at appointed spots, guiding them over the chosen routes, attending to their general welfare, making the pace if necessary, and in every way promoting their interests with impartial enthusiasm. Many splendid performances were accomplished on these occasions. F. Snook, G. P. Mills, J. H. Adams, T. R. Marriott, F. T. Bidlake, M. A.
Holbein, T. A. Edge, and, facile princeps at the game, F. W. Shorland, with many others, put their names upon the pages of [CYCLING the road record book. The attention attracted by these contests, and the very full reports published by the sporting as well as the cycling press, caused the popularity of this phase of the pastime to grow exceedingly. The winner of a big road race not only secured great credit to himself, but gave a widespread advertisement to the machine he rode, and as a natural consequence the trade appeared upon the scene, the friendly character of the assemblies gradually disappeared, things became more business-like, pacing was supplied, tandems and often larger multicycles swooped down in shoals upon the highways, and some riders unquestionably allowed themselves to be subsidised by the makers of the machines they rode. To crown all, the pneumatic tyre came along, increasing the speed at which the competitors and their pacers dashed along the highways, so that road racing on cycles, which at one time created only mild excitement in the towns and villages through which the riders passed, developed into a serious danger and became an intolerable nuisance. The inevitable result was clearly foreseen and pointed out by many observers, to the great indignation of the more shortsighted enthusiasts who supported this branch of the sport; the police took very drastic action, notably in connection with a long-distance tricycle race near Purley, and finally put a stop to open organised racing on the public highways.
The ruling body of the sport, the National Cyclists' Union, representing the interests of all classes of cyclists, very properly disassociated itself from road racing, and was fiercely criticised for so doing by some of the enthusiasts referred to above, but was shown to be right when its road racing critics set to work to put their house in order to meet the new conditions created by the action of the police.
Road racing as now pursued is a very different thing from that sport in its earlier stages. Races, usually invitation races, the invitations being sent to other road racing clubs, are promoted by these private bodies, as far as possible under conditions ensuring privacy: there is no advertising; the races are run over carefully selected courses in the country in the early hours of the morning; the competitors are separately started at intervals; stringent rules debar them from riding together; no competitor may "wait" on another; each man is, in fact, riding by himself against time, and by these means m the objections to such contests are largely minimised; but the fact that such drastic measures were necessary proves up to the hilt the fact that the objections taken CYCLING] to open advertised road races were very well founded.
Some road races of 25 miles have been promoted, but the general feeling is in favour of longer distances, and many of the clubs never promote a race of less distance than 50 miles, 50 and 100 miles being usually favoured.
The outcome of these wise provisions has been a decided recrudescence of interest in this branch of the sport, without thus far at any rate attracting the hostile attentions of the powers that be, which, it may perhaps be added, appear to find it more advantageous to devote all their energies to the the fastest vehicle on the highway prior to the advent of the motor-car or cycle, and still the fastest means of locomotion propelled by the unaided muscles of man. Path Racing. -Long before the period when the abuse of road racing led to action by the authorities, cycle racing upon prepared paths in enclosed grounds had become very popular. The athletic developments of the late sixties had given rise to a vast interest in athletic sports, and innumerable meetings were being held throughout the country, the running races taking place upon specially prepared cinder tracks, or upon grass courses stakeď MESSRS. LEON MEREDITH AND W. J. BAILEY. motorist, who can be mulcted in fat fines, compared with which the 40s. of the humble cyclist is quite a negligible amount. It is unfortunate, from the road racing man's point of view, that a certain section of the press is showing a tendency to give considerably more prominence to his doings than heretofore, a course which must inevitably bring him into collision with the authorities sooner or later, especially if anything occurs to abate their anti-motorist zeal.
In any case the immense service rendered to cycling by road racing must always be recognised-the great rides from Land's End to John o' Groats, the 24 hours races, the place to place records, London to York, to Edinburgh, to Bath and back, to Brighton and back, all emphasised and advertised the claims of the cycle to be recognised as a new factor in the problem of locomotion, out upon suitable stretches of turf; and in due season races upon bicycles were promoted as interesting additions to the sports programme. This introduced the bicycle to the notice of a large number of people who perhaps would not otherwise have had an opportunity of seeing it at its best, for the men who raced upon these courses were of necessity masters of the machines they rode, and bicycle racing soon became very popular.
It was at such a meeting, held in Dublin, at the Lansdowne Road grounds, in October, 1875, that Mr. W. P. Blood, one of the earliest of the Irish racing men, covered the mile in three minutes and eighteen seconds, the first fairly well authenticated performance over that distance on record; whilst in 1876 F. L. Dodds, a promising member of the Cambridge University Bicycle Club, rode 15 miles 1,480 yards on the Cambridge track in one hour. Prior to these feats some short-distance performances, more or less well authenticated, had been put in upon the road; but from 1876 onward all the records for short distances were made upon the track, with the exception of one or two downhill straightaway mile times accomplished on the road for purposes of advertisement in 1895. These paths were all level, or approximately so, and surfaced with cinders or some similar material. "Dirt tracks" they would be called in American phraseology to-day. They were unbanked, and in some cases the corners were very sharp; but, nevertheless, some splendid feats were accomplished upon them on the high machine, specifically known as the ordinary bicycle. 1 3 Amongst the men who, down to 1879, made records on the ordinary may be specially noted the Hon. Ion Keith Falconer, whose marvellous two miles' time withstood many assaults on the parts of later flyers; and the result of such performances was an increased interest in the sport, and its rapid growth in public estimation. Finally came the phenomenal performer, destined to awaken a far wider and more active interest, in the person of the late Herbert L.
Cortis. Cortis was not only an excellent bicycle rider; he also possessed the gift of judgment, and rode with his head as well as his legs. No less than four times did he lower the one mile record, covering that distance in 2 minutes 52 seconds and 2 minutes 47 seconds in 1879, and in 2 minutes 43 seconds and 2 minutes 41% seconds in 1882, the last figures remaining unbeaten until 1885, and being then surpassed by Mr. M. V. J. A. Webber by one-fifth of a second only. Cortis was the first man to cover twenty miles in the hour, a feat which he would have accomplished in September, 1880, but for a fall in the nineteenth mile, as at eighteen miles he was well inside even time; but on the old Crystal Palace track, on July 27th, 1882, he covered 20 miles 300 yards in the 60 minutes, a few days later riding twenty-five yards further in the same time on the Recreation Ground track at Surbiton. His many feats, without doubt, assisted materially in increasing the interest taken in cycling; and they may even now be regarded with wonder, when the machines, the tracks, and the methods of training which obtained when they were accomplished are considered and compared with the machines, the tracks, and the training of the racing cyclists of to-day. In my opinion Cortis's 20 miles 325 yards in 60 minutes, on a 60-inch solid-tyred [CYCLING ordinary bicycle, on the Surbiton track, 4 laps to the mile, with four sharp corners in each lap, and a loose cinder "running path" surface, is, all things considered, quite as good a performance as anything yet accomplished on a modern track, with a cement surface, heavy banking, behind a wind shield affixed to a high-powered motorcycle, on a pneumatic-tyred safety bicycle. The ordinary bicycle was relatively heavy, presented a larger surface to the wind than the safety bicycle, its tyres were small, and cut into the track surface, whilst the corners were awkward, and, to express it in modern phrase, the machine was only geared to 60 inches. The safety racing bicycle, on the other hand, would weigh considerably less than the ordinary, and present much less surface to the wind; its pneumatic tyres would not drag on the hard surface of the path, and the banking of the curves would obviate all the effort and care required to get round the corners of the older paths; finally, the machine would be geared to 120 inches or higher, and the wind shield would not only eliminate retarding windage, but actually create a suctional draught, and draw the rider along. Were it possible to estimate accurately the effects of all these elements, the performance of the late Herbert Liddell Cortis in 1882 would, I think, be found to be as great a performance as has ever been accomplished on the bicycle.
Many good men followed in Cortis's steps, notable among them being M. V. J. A.
Webber, C. E. Liles, P. Furnivall, F. P.
Wood, R. H. English, G. Gatehouse, J. H.
Adams, and last but not least F. J. Osmond, whose feats upon the ordinary bicycle over all distances made him worthy to be compared with Cortis at his best, especially in his wonderful powers of handicap riding.
His 2 minutes 28 seconds for a mile at Paddington in 1890 marked the zenith of ordinary cycle records at that distance, whilst B. W. Attlee's 21 miles 180 yards in 1891 was the high-water mark for one hour, and the long series of tall champions on tall machines was finally closed in 1892, when the last ordinary championships were run.
Prior to the advent of the safety bicycle and the pneumatic tyre, the tricycle had become a popular racing machine on both road and path. This type to some extent led up to the safety, inasmuch as gearing by means of toothed wheels and chains was really first introduced and perfected on the three-wheeler, which presented many advantages to those who, by reason of nerves or sex, could not climb to the giddy heights of the ordinary bicycle.
CYCLING] Path racing on the tricycle became quite a feature in the sport, and many good men were developed, most of them being, however, riders of the ordinary; amongst them may be particularly named C. E. Liles, G.