The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-09-13 00:00:00

THE BICYCLE MATCH IN LONDON.

The six days' bicycle race at the Agricultural Hall
was brought to a close en Saturday, and attracted a
large number of spectators. Of the eight competitors,
G. Waller proved victorious, with a record of nearly
1,405 miles; C. Terront, the French champion, being
second, having covered 1,390 miles.

The Daily News of Monday notices the race in an article
from which we make the following extracts :

If Mother Shipton or Thomas the Rhymer, or any-
body else of the same kind, had told our ancestors
that a man would at some future time cover fourteen
hundred miles of ground in a week without any other
motive power than that of his own legs, the state-
ment would not have ranked among the least wonder-
ful of the prophet's prophecies. The thing, however,
has now been done. In the bicycle race which was
finished on Saturday the winner, George Waller, of
Newcastle, was credited with 1,404 miles and a
fraction as the result of six days' riding at eighteen
hours each day ln a hundred and eight hours
then, from Monday morning to Saturday night,
Waller and his next but unsuccessful competitor, a
Frenchman of the name of Terront, who was beaten
by but a few miles, succeded in travelling a distance
about equal to a crow's flight from London to Con-
stantinople. A couple of days more, and they would
have about accomplished the distance from Liverpool
to New York in as nearly as possible the same time as
the fastest steamers of the famous White Star Line
have done it.

The wonderfulness of this exploit, and at the same
time the attractiveness of the exercise which it has
illustrated, lie, of course, in the fact that mechanical
means are merely used in the bicycle to apply the
power of the legs to the best purpose, not to supplant
it. The bicyclist who does his two hundred miles a
day accomplishes them in the old phrase on " Shanks
his mare," quite as truly as the still more indepen-
dent pedestrian who does his thirty or forty. The
sense of power which some philosophers will have to
be at the root of all enjoyment is thus gratified
in the same way as in rowing or walking, and to a
much greater degree. If bicycling, however, could
only be practised, like roller skating on a prepared
surface, it would hardly deserve much attention. But
the bicyclist can go almost anywhere, provided there
be a tolerable road. His holiday excursions are thus
multiplied without expense and with only a labour
which he delights in. It is said, and with
justice, that London is very fortunately placed
for pedestrian excursions. But these, unless
the start be made by railway, are exhausted, not in-
deed very soon, but sooner than the desire for new
fields of wandering is at all likely to be exhausted.
The range of the bicyclist is enormously increased.
When he is at all proficient he can easily cover from
seventy to a hundred miles a day, and the range of
excursions of that length is practically almost in-
exhaustible. Unlike baste and other carriages, too,
the bicycle is easily portable, and at no great expense;
so that its owner can rely nearly as much as the
pedestrian himself upon railways