73

Chicago Evening Post 17/5/93.

WILL BE A HOT RACE.

Cyclists and Cowboys to Ride from
Chadron, Neb., to Chicago.

ABOUT 500 MILES TO COVER.

First Great Road Race Between Horses
and Men on Record-They Will
Start June 1.

On June 13 will start from Chadron,
Neb., one of the most unique and interesting
cycling races. Two men mounted on
bicycles and two men mounted on horses
will run over the country roads that lie between
the Nebraska town and Chicago, and
the sport promises to be hot and full of
strategy for at least a good bit of the distance.
This affair has come about through
a scheme of the Hon. William F. Cody,
otherwise known as "Buffalo Bill," to have
run from Chadron a race between cowboys
on horses. It was announced some time
ago that two hardy cowboys would start
from Chadron on June 13, mounted on their
favorite horses, and make a race for life
across the great stretch of country between
the starting point and this city. Of course
the affair would be attended with great
eclat on the finish of the race in Chicago,
but the pesky wheelmen promise to take
the edge off the plan by making the pace
for the cowboys, and, as a matter of course,
beating them badly. Buffalo Bill cannot
prevent the two Nebraskan cyclists
from starting at the same time and
on the same road with the cowboys
even if he has the desire to do so, which is
by no means probable. The cyclists have
an idea that they can the boots off the
wild men of the plains, and if the enthusiasm
that is now being worked up about the
race out in Chadron is any voucher, the
wheelmen will give the horsemen such a
chase as they never before knew the like of.

The distance to be ridden over is about
500 miles, a few miles of which are in Nebraska
and the balance in the states of
Iowa and Illinois. The country roads in the
latter two commonwealths are, as a general
rule, in very fair condition in the month of
June, and if the cyclists are at all in condition
they can leave the cowboys so far behind
that the whole affair will be forgotten
before the horsemen can get into town.
Such, at least, is the opinion of local wheelmen
who have been consulted about it.
The average road rider over average roads
can do ten miles an hour nicely. This will
be the average running and will include
stops. But giving the cyclists an
extra day for rest and idling
they can assuredly do the 500 miles
in six days. Such riding as this would kill
any horse in the world in one day. General
Miles, of the Department of the Missouri,
who knows something of the capacity
of horses for road work, laughs at the idea
of any animal, however well fitted for such
travel doing 100 miles in twelve hours.
How easily is it done by wheelmen is demonstrated
by the existence of hundreds of
"century," or 100-mile, clubs scattered all
over the country. The race will not be a
relay race. The cowboys are to use the
same horses, and the two wheelmen who
start from Chadron will finish the ride
themselves. But even should the cowboys
desire to take relays of horses they cannot
hope to catch the cyclists, for one man is
worth a dozen horses.

The race will be full of interest, at least
for cyclists, who will make bets on the event
not on the possibility of the cowboys
winning, but on the number of miles the
cyclists will beat them. This is the first
time that horses and men have been
matched on the road and the experiment
will go far toward showing the superiority
of the one over the other as couriers of war.
The cyclists have written to A. G. Spalding
& Bro. for Victor wheels on which they
propose to make the trip.