THE WHEELMEN. - San Francisco Call, 27 July 1895
THE WHEELMEN.
Entries and Handicaps for the Acme Wheelmen's Road Race.
CLUB EVENTS TO-MORROW.
Acme Club Wheelmen — Road race Fruitvale - Haywards.
Bay City Wheelmen — Run to Petaluma.
Camera Club Cyclists — Run to Centerville.
Crescent Wheelmen — Run to Haywards.
Crescent Road Club — Run to Camp Taylor.
Garden City Cyclers — Run to Alviso.
Golden Gate Cycling Club — Blind run.
Liberty Cycling Club — Run to Oakland foothills.
Outing Road Club — Run to park.
Olympic Club Wheelmen — Run to Haywards with Merton Duxbury.
Pacific Cycling Club — Run to Laundry Farm.
Royal Cycling Club — Run to park.
San Francisco Road Club — Blind run.
San Jose Road Club — Run to Alviso.
There will be a big road race over the ten-mile course from Fruitvale to Haywards to-morrow afternoon at 2 o'clock between the members of tha [sic] Acme Club Wheelmen. This club is noted for its fast road-riders, and to-morrow's event will be exciting and closely contested, as the men are all well trained and will ride their best. The following are the entries and handicaps: W. A. Burke, C. M. Castleman and G. A. Nissen, scratch; O. L. Pickard, J. H. Otey, H. Hutchinson, 2 1/2 min.; H. W. Phillips, B. E. Elford, A. H. Agnew, William Greavs, George Brouillet, 3 1/2 min.; J. E. Scott, E. A. Rogers, A. C. Hewlett, 4 mm.; George Humphrey, B. J. Sears, L. W. Sherman, 5 min.; J. A. Chyner, S. Archer, C. Lauffin, J. L. Wetmore, 5 1/2 min.; T. C. McKinstry, M. E. Laubratich, 6 min.
With twenty-three such good men in a road race it should be well worth witnessing. Burke is said not to be very well and may not show up as well as his record warrants. The others are all right and the pace will be hot from start to finish.
The Crescent Athletic Club Wheelmen of Berkeley will hold a one mile track race for club members at the Oakland Trotting Park on Sunday, August 4. The club should be warned not to give any prizes for this event, as it would be a violation of a rule which the League of American Wheelmen is strict in enforcing and would result in all the riders being suspended for thirty or sixty days. To-morrow the club will have a run to Haywards to see the Acme road race.
Next in importance to the Acme race comes the big joint club run of the Bay City Wheelmen and Imperial Cycling Club to-morrow to Petaluma under Captains Dodge and Johnson. The men will take the 8 o'clock Tiburon ferry and train to San Rafael, riding from there to their destination, some twenty-two miles away, over a rolling country and good roads. The Bay Citys will turn out fifty men easily and the Imperials as many more. What the effect will be on quiet Petaluma when these hundred noisy cyclists reach there is not hard to imagine. Some of the men will ride home after lunch and others will take the train.
[This is memorialized in a page from the Bay City Wheelmen's scrapbook, "28 Jul 1895 BCW/Imperial joint run to Petaluma". I wonder if Joe or Tommy Breeze have this in higher resolution? M.F.]
R. M. Welch of the Racing Board will undoubtedly suspend F. C. Heineman and E. C. Barley from the L. A. W. for one year for racing against each other last Sunday when he had expressly advised them not to do so. Several of the papers have taken this up as though it was a matter of great concern. Had the riders in question been crackerjacks it might have been a loss to the sport; but they are only ordinary class A handicap riders at best, with minor reputations for speed. It is well that the racing board can use them as "terrible examples" to the racer who dares disobey its mandates. Chairman Welch has proved himself by long odds the most efficient representative of the Racing Board we have ever had out here, and his decisions are much admired for their impartiality and fairness.
The Crescent Road Club will hold a run to Camp Taylor to-morrow. The start will be made from the clubrooms. 811 Octavia street, at 7:30 a. m., taking the 8 o'clock Sausalito boat and train to San Anselmo. This is one of the prettiest trips near San Francisco, and the ride is very easy.
Under the guidance of Captain F. W. Paulson the Pacific Cycling Club will ride to Laundry Farm to-morrow, starting on the 9 o'clock broad-gauge boat.
Merton Duxbury will start on his long return trip across the continent to-morrow morning, leaving from Seventh and Market streets at 9 a. m. A large number of wheelmen will be there to see him off, and he will be escorted a short distance by the Olympic Club Wheelmen. There is no truth in the rumor that Duxbury is to return here next spring to ride in the Olympic's relay team. Duxbury will take the 9:30 boat to-morrow morning, and wheel via Livermore to Stockton, where he is to meet T. R. Lillie, the holder of the present transcontinental record, which Duxbury is going to try to break. Then he will ride to Sacramento, and from there follow the Central Pacific Railroad tracks to Ogden. From this point his route is not positively mapped out. The record he will try to beat is fifty-nine days from San Francisco to New York, and Duxbury thinks he can bring it down to fifty-four days.
There will be an important meeting of the Olympic Club Wheelmen Tuesday evening, July 30. The question of holding a road race over the San Carlos course Sunday, August 18, will be discussed.
The Camera Club Cyclists will have a nice ride to-morrow. Captain Argenti will lead them to Centerville, noted for its kindness and hospitality to wheelmen. There will be a number of ladies on the trip. Members will take the 8:45 narrow-gauge boat and Alameda train.
The Racing Board has issued its bulletin No. 16, dated July 25, 1895, as follows:
Sanction issued — July 29, Santa Barbara Wheelmen. Santa Barbara.
The Racing Board is not permitted to sanction racing on Sundays. A club may contest one or more races open only to members of the club, and if no prize is offered in any event and no admission charged the public the board will not take cognizance of the affair. Of late these events have been arranged with more formality than was ever contemplated. Public attention has been attracted by announcements through the newspapers of the entries and their handicap allowances and by publication of the results. All this is misleading to the board. To avoid misunderstanding and suspension of contestants clubs will be required in future to give notice to the board in advance of all such events. Class A men are warned that to compete with class B men in such races is the equivalent of the competition in public which forfeits their class A status.Representative National Racing Board.
Blind runs are quite the proper thing with cycling clubs now. The idea is that the captain alone knows what the destination will be, and as he leads the men to it by the most circuitous route possible you can imagine the uncertainty of the riders as to where they are going. About noon the end is reached, wherever it may be, and the fun is all the more enhanced by an appetizing luncheon ordered beforehand, to which the riders always do full justice. The Golden Gate Cycling Club will have one of these runs to-morrow, and Captain Maass promises a jolly time to all who attend. The San Francisco Road Club will also go off on the same kind of a jaunt, under Captain Korn, leaving the clubrooms, 726 Golden Gate avenue, at 9 A. M.
The California Cycling Club will hold one of its never-to-be-forgotten smokers tonight at the clubrooms, Twenty-second and Folsom streets, for members only. Captain Burke of the Californias is a wise man, and he knew better than to call a club run after a smoker, so the members — that is, those who feel like riding — will probably go to the park. Next Sunday, August 4, the club will go to Napa, where they will be the guest of two of its members now resident there.
The Oakland Y. M. C. A. Cycling Club will have several pleasant runs by twilight during August, all on Friday nights. Last night the club went to Piedmont, returning via Lake Merritt. August 2 will be a moonlight run to Berkeley via Telegraph avenue — ladies are invited on this run; August 9, to Diamond Canyon and home by Hays Canyon and New Broadway; August 16, to Alameda and home by High street and East Oakland — ladies again invited; August 22, to Laundry Farm and return.
Alameda is an ideal town for lovers of the wheel, and has now three large clubs, the Alameda, Diana and Diamond Cyclers, all of which had well-attended runs last Sunday. The Alameda Club went to Alvarado, while the other two clubs stopped at Haywards. The glories of the old Alameda Club promise to be revived in its young namesake, which has secured handsomely furnished clubrooms on Park avenue. Jesse Ives, whom many an old-timer will remember, but who had given up riding for some time past, has caught the fever again and cast his lot with the Alamedas.
At a meeting of the San Francisco Y. M. C. A. Cycling Club, held last Tuesday evening, the following officers were elected: Joseph Sims, president; Robert S. Boyns, vice-president; W. B. Hughson, recording secretary; James Keller, financial secretary; J. Sims, captain; Percy Burr, first lieutenant; Bert Waterman, second lieutenant.
The Outing Road Club held a most enjoyable smoker at its clubrooms, 1539 Eddy street, last evening. The members invited their friends and a jolly time was had. Refreshments were served and a varied lot of amateur talent served to keep things lively until early hours. President Stamper of the Outing Club has just returned from a trip through Lake County. He says the roads are beginning to get dusty, but he had a most delightful trip. To-morrow the club will have a run to the park.
Last Monday night the Liberty Cycling Club held a theater party at the Tivoli. Nearly all the members attended and greatly enjoyed the evening. Thursday evening the club held a dance at Mission Turn-Verein Hall, which was well attended and very enjoyable. Norval A. Robinson acted as floor manager, and dancing was indulged in until midnight. The club members rightly believe in enjoying social as well as cycling pleasures during the week, and will have these hops regularly hereafter. To-morrow a run will be held to the Oakland foothills, leaving on the 9 a. m. creek-route boat. On August 4 the members will ride to Bolinas. The ladies' annex to the club is growing rapidly, and under the guidance of Mrs. Robinson promises to become quite a factor before long.
The Royal Cycling Club is now comfortably located in the new quarters at 1017 Golden Gate avenue. To-morrow the club will have a run around the city. The club proposes holding a series of monthly five mile road races shortly for a valuable trophy, which must be won three times to become individual property, similar to the idea now being carried out by the San Jose Road Club. Secretary Lichtenstein of the Royals has just returned from a trip to Lake County. He was accompanied from Santa Rosa by C. E. Brooks and C. Temple. The trip was very pleasant.
The members of the Golden City Wheelmen had a delightful trip last Sunday. They rode to Palo Alto and were entertained by Mr. and Mrs. Howse. They spent the day there and did not start on the return trip until 7 p. m. Therefore most of the journey was made in the dark, and coming around the bay road it was very thrilling to say the least. All arrived home safely about 10 o'clock.
E. L. Douglas, J. G. North and H. E. McCrea, the Los Angeles crackerjack, have joined the Bay City Wheelmen.
After August 1 it will be necessary to carry lighted lanterns while riding in the park between sunset and sunrise. The rule will be rigidly enforced, and there has been such a demand for lanterns since the notice was posted that there is a scarcity of them in the market. Nearly all the wheelmen approve of the new ordinance, and drivers of vehicles in the park are particularly pleased.
R. S. Crawford, a bicycle manufacturer of Hagerstown, Md., arrived here this week in a private car on a pleasure trip. He brought a number of friends, including the Mayor of Hagerstown, and under the guidance of Edwin Mohrig they have been seeing the city. The party will soon leave for Southern California.
The dates thus far arranged for the National circuit on this coast are: San Francisco, November 1, 2; San Jose, 7, 8, 9; Santa Rosa, 16; Los Angeles, 21, 22, 23; Santa Ana, 28; Riverside, 30. Other dates will doubtless be arranged before long and we will surely see some grand racing out here in November, as all the crack riders will be with the circuit and some may winter here.
The Diamond Cycling Club of Alameda now has thirty members and more are coming in at every meeting. A smoker will be held shortly and several club runs are scheduled. Nile green and pink have been adopted as club colors. The club has two fast tandem teams, the Marriott brothers and the Middlemass brothers.
The Garden City Cyclers and San Jose Road Club will attend a clambake at Alviso to-morrow. Next Sunday the Road Club will also hold a five-mile race over the East San Jose course.
The regular bi-monthly meeting of the California Associated Cycling Clubs will be held next Saturday evening at the rooms of the Bay City Wheelmen, 441 Golden Gate avenue. All delegates are requested to be present.
