1912 Olympic Games Official Report Part 2

whole day, from 3 a. m. until 5 or 6 p. m., i. e., as long as therace continued. There were relays of 12 men each at the office,for the purpose of attending to the telephones, and they were keptat work the whole of the time. Close to each telephone lay specialprinted forms, on which the assistant who received the messages,wrote the name of the control station and the number of the competitoror competitors that had passed, together with the time ofpassing ; these forms were then given without delay to the secretarywho was entering the minutes for the telephone in question. Onceevery half hour the reports received were sent to the result-boards, tobe shown there, as already described. Everything acted most satisfactorily.It is hardly possible to give here a fully descriptive account of therace. The best and completest way for the reader to gain some ideaof the competition is to study the accompanying general protocol, theprotocol of the team competition, and the table showing the comparativeresults obtained by the various nations, all of which togetherwill show, as clearly as can be desired, the progress of the race fromthe start to the finish. Still, as this cycle race was the greatest competitionthat has ever taken place between the best cyclists in theworld, certain facts should be related, however, as being well worthyof special mention and study.If we examine the reports showing the times at which the competitorsarrived at the various control stations, we become simply astoundedat the way in which the winner, Lewis (South Africa), rodefrom the very beginning of the race. He started as No. 2 fromLiljeholmen (Stockholm) at 2.02 a. m. and at 3.00 a. m. the reportwas received that he had passed the control station at Södertälje,having traversed the 33 kilometres (ca. 2ox/, miles) in 57 minutes(cfr. the pace in the 100 kilometres’ race in London, in 1908, whenon a cycling-track, 24 miles, 1,450 yards — 40 kilometres — were coveredin the hour), and had then taken the lead, having passed the firststarter, the Frenchman, Rillon, just before reaching Södertälje. Thislead the South African retained to the end, as he did, too, the time-record in the race for this part of the journey. The next best timeto Södertälje, after Lewis’s, was that made by Richter (Russia), No. 38,and Brown (Canada), No. 65, both of whom did the distance in 58minutes. The best Swede along this part of the course was No. 3,Persson, with a time of 59 minutes, the same as was taken by No.48, Meredith and No. 74, Moss (both representing England), and No.108, Raita (Finland). The longest time taken for the distance (1 hr.16 min.) was made by some who held out to the finish, however.The favourites for the day were Meredith, the English champion,Raita (Finland), Brown (Canada), Racine (France), Loftes (U. S. A.)and, quite naturally, our own Morén, who had 10 times won the Swedishchampionship over this course.439