Democratic Sentinel, Volume 21, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 June 1897 — SMEDLEY IS THE VICTOR. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

SMEDLEY IS THE VICTOR.

Win* the Chicago Road Race of th* Associated Cycling Ciub>. William D. Smedley, picked by the experts as the slowest rider among 498 contestants in the eleventh Chicago road race, won with a mile of daylight between him and his closest pursuer. Time. 1:07:04 2-5. He ran so far in advance of the flying host that he robbed even the second and third men of much of their honors. Henry O'Brien captured the time prize, his figure being 1:03:08. He broke the record for the Wheeling course, which is a fraction under twenty-five miles. Smedley is 51 years old. His training has been going on for only two weeks. He worked so hard during the race that he was dead —physically—at the end, and had barely enough breath left to tell the jam which brought him congra.ulations to carry the good news to his wife. There have been eleven Chicago road races. The.v have all been well centered, and some of them have produced

wonderful performances. The race grew out of a hare aud hound chase on the old style high, or ordinary, wheel* back in 1886, That was ou Thanksgiving Day, however, instead of Memorial Day, which has been the date of the race every year since. In the next year, 1887, cycling interest in Chicago grew marvelously. There were several fellows in the hare and hound chase of the year before who had speed ambitions. They came together early in the spring and talked about a repetition of the chase, but decided that a genuine road race would be better »]>ort. The first Pullman road race, as the event was then called, was the result. It was run on Memorial Day over the Pullman course every year after until 1894. Then it was transferred to the North Side and changed in nume to the Chicago road race. It almost invariably happens that the rider who wins the race is an unknown. He is usually some fleet fellow whose speed is underrated by the handicapper and who has the luck in not being thrown in any of the many collisions that occur along the course. With the winner of the time prize, however,• it is differnt. He is usually a rider of experience whose speed is known ami has often been proved.

W. D. SMEDLEY.