The Wheelmen. - San Francisco Chronicle, 27 Apr 1891
The Wheelmen.
The preparations for the road race of the Alameda Bicycle Club are being pushed toward completion. The list of prizes will soon be known. They will probably consist of three medals for the time prizes and cycling sundries for the place prizes.
The list of officials is being prepared, and only the best available will be selected.
Reports from different places would seem to indicate that the entry will be a liberal one.
On Sunday morning many riders go down to the triangle for a practice spin and to become familiar with the course. The Alameda Bicycle Club will have a strong safety team in the race, and it will be interesting to see them pitted against the crack ordinary team of the Garden City Wheelmen of San Jose. The latter club will probably be represented by J. and H. Smith, Lipsett, Larder and the flying Needham. It is not known what riders will carry the colors of the Bay City Wheelmen, but Stoddard, Marshall, Hodgkins and English will prove quite formidable.
The Stockton contingent, being in training for the league races, will probably come down to test the men they will have to meet in the championships.
Captain Plummer and Thomas H. Doane of the Bay City Wheelmen were over in Alameda county yesterday, scouring the county over for a new route for a club run, and, as a result of the trip, the Captain announces a run for next Sunday, May 31, to Laundry Farm and return. The club will leave the foot of Market street on the 9:15 o'clock creek route boat, and from Broadway a leisurely pace will be kept up until the new hotel at Laundry Farm is reached. Here a special dinner has been ordered to be ready at 11:30 o'clock. After a rest and stroll about the grounds the run will continue along the base of the hills, and so on through East Oakland to the station.
A. L. Wulff, president of the Oak Leaf Wheelmen, accompanied by Mr. Bidwell of Stockton, was in town yesterday. He reports all arrangements at the track for the league meet on the 4th of July progressing splendidly. The club in Stockton are increasing their membership very materially, and are making a great many improvements in their club quarters.
The entry lists for the road race of the Alameda Bicycle Club are now out. The race, which is to be twenty-five miles, will be over the same course as the twenty-five-mile race of the Bay City Wheelmen - that is, the San Leandro triangle. The event will come off on Decoration day, May 30th.
Ralph M. Thompson, ex-chief consul, was in the city during the week buying a stock of wheels for his establishment in Santa Cruz. The long experience of himself and partner, C. W. Hammer, as riders, should act as a good guide for them in selecting their wheels for sale.
A. E. J. Nye and a party of unattached wheelmen rode to Camp Taylor yesterday.
Oswald Granicher, secretary-treasurer of the California Division, League of American Wheelmen, and friends, members of the new club, the Cyclists of San Jose, went over on the 8 o'clock boat to Tiburon, there taking the train to San Rafael. They intended to wheel from San Rafael to Santa Rosa.
There ought to be plenty of room in San Jose for two clubs. Its perfectly level, smooth roads certainly offer every inducement for a man to become a "bicycle rider."
E. E. Stoddard, Bay City Wheelmen, and friend wheeled away to San Leandro yesterday.
Edwin Mohrig (Bay City Wheelmen) and Mr. Osborn wheeled from San Jose, via Saratoga, to Santa Cruz. This is a most beautiful trip. Up the mountains from Saratoga five mlles is rather a long climb, but the magnificent scenery down the other side to Boulder creek (fourteen miles), and so on to Santa Cruz, well repays one for almost any effort to reach there. A return can be made via Soquel and Hotel de Redwood to San Jose. It is rather too long a trip to go from the city to Santa Cruz in one day, but can be most comfortably made by stopping overnight at Saratoga Springs, and so on the next day to Santa Cruz.
Messrs. Plummer and Wetmore of the Bay Citys were the first to my knowledge to make the trip in one day, they going down one day last June. However I wouldn't advise anyone to try it unless they are pretty well hardened up.
The wheelmen who make country trips always feel sorry for the men who persist in riding in the park on such beautiful days as yesterday. Why don't they get the full enjoyment of their wheels by wandering through the country, to return refreshed and ready for another week's work at bench or desk?
