The 1902 Los Angeles to Santa Monica Road Race
It was the dawn of a new era. The great annual bicycle race between Los Angeles and Santa Monica was about to pushed to the side, off the road. But first there was this one final hurrah.
Handicapping took place on the 3rd, with the prize list ranging from a diamond locket to dress suits to cycling suits, tires and other bike components to a ping pong set, gramophones, watches, and rifles announced on the same day as well. In all eighty-five wheelmen entered. First to head out, with an eight minute lead were H. H. Wheeler, Orville Grace, Bonnie Edwards and Ernest Clutterbach. Last to head out, the scratch men, were "Frenchy" Florentine, F. Y. Pearne, and Guy West. The race would start the same as the 1901 race, at Main and Jefferson, heading out along Jefferson to Western, Adams, Arlington, Washington, go through Palms and on to the finish on Utah in Santa Monica.
On race morning, the riders were greeted by "a fine, cool morning, a good course and a barrel of enthusiasm." When it was done "all previous time records for the course were broken and the place prize was won by a youngster..." When "little Fred Weston" woke to the sun "his mother told him he was going to win... and the game youngster pinned his faith to that prediction." This was the first race Weston had ever entered and, given a 7 1/2-minute handicap suggested that the handicapper, W. L. Loos (and probably most everyone else) did not hold much hope for the boy's chances. With a finishing time of 47:52, I suspect no one underestimated him again. "I don't know how I did it. I just plugged along and let out a little whenever any of them started after me."
The fastest time for the day was posted by Florentine, who beat the record time he set the previous year (43:47) by more than a minute, racing the length of the course in 42:35, a "really phenomenal time."
The usual yell announced the approach of the race leader. Everyone not already focused along the distant road, turned to see a single "dirty figure of a very hard-working wheelman" who was "coming along fast... with plenty of space to spare." When Florentine came in, the twentieth rider across the line, it was apparent "that with the handicaps of the others he had either set a new time record or at least equaled the old one."
"An attack on the North Beach bath-house followed the hard work, and everybody had a bath while the judges were figuring out the arithmetic." It is rather ironic that this final year was among the races most successful - "it is doubtful if a larger crowd every attended any sporting function than that which took in the race yesterday."
Following Weston home for second place was Clutterbach with a time of 48:23, and for third Harry Lightcap (6:30 handicap) with a time of 46:56. Florentine's fellow scratch men followed him with the second and third fastest times - Guy West in 42:54, and F. Y. Pearne in 43:50.
At this point I am not sure why the race was discontinued after 1902, though it was not long before the great annual 4th of July Los Angles to Santa Monica Bicycle Race became the great annual 4th of July Los Angeles to Santa Monica Automobile Race.
It is interesting to note that this was not only one of the first "big" races in the state, but in the world - remember the first was run in1891. Paris-Roubaix was first run in 1896, Milan-San Remo in 1907, the Ronde van Vlaanderen in 1913, Paris-Brussels in 1893, and the oldest of the European Classics, Liege-Bastogne-Liege in 1892. Of the well known races in Europe only Milano-Torino is older, first being run in 1876.
Handicapping took place on the 3rd, with the prize list ranging from a diamond locket to dress suits to cycling suits, tires and other bike components to a ping pong set, gramophones, watches, and rifles announced on the same day as well. In all eighty-five wheelmen entered. First to head out, with an eight minute lead were H. H. Wheeler, Orville Grace, Bonnie Edwards and Ernest Clutterbach. Last to head out, the scratch men, were "Frenchy" Florentine, F. Y. Pearne, and Guy West. The race would start the same as the 1901 race, at Main and Jefferson, heading out along Jefferson to Western, Adams, Arlington, Washington, go through Palms and on to the finish on Utah in Santa Monica.
On race morning, the riders were greeted by "a fine, cool morning, a good course and a barrel of enthusiasm." When it was done "all previous time records for the course were broken and the place prize was won by a youngster..." When "little Fred Weston" woke to the sun "his mother told him he was going to win... and the game youngster pinned his faith to that prediction." This was the first race Weston had ever entered and, given a 7 1/2-minute handicap suggested that the handicapper, W. L. Loos (and probably most everyone else) did not hold much hope for the boy's chances. With a finishing time of 47:52, I suspect no one underestimated him again. "I don't know how I did it. I just plugged along and let out a little whenever any of them started after me."
The fastest time for the day was posted by Florentine, who beat the record time he set the previous year (43:47) by more than a minute, racing the length of the course in 42:35, a "really phenomenal time."
The usual yell announced the approach of the race leader. Everyone not already focused along the distant road, turned to see a single "dirty figure of a very hard-working wheelman" who was "coming along fast... with plenty of space to spare." When Florentine came in, the twentieth rider across the line, it was apparent "that with the handicaps of the others he had either set a new time record or at least equaled the old one."
"An attack on the North Beach bath-house followed the hard work, and everybody had a bath while the judges were figuring out the arithmetic." It is rather ironic that this final year was among the races most successful - "it is doubtful if a larger crowd every attended any sporting function than that which took in the race yesterday."
Following Weston home for second place was Clutterbach with a time of 48:23, and for third Harry Lightcap (6:30 handicap) with a time of 46:56. Florentine's fellow scratch men followed him with the second and third fastest times - Guy West in 42:54, and F. Y. Pearne in 43:50.
At this point I am not sure why the race was discontinued after 1902, though it was not long before the great annual 4th of July Los Angles to Santa Monica Bicycle Race became the great annual 4th of July Los Angeles to Santa Monica Automobile Race.
It is interesting to note that this was not only one of the first "big" races in the state, but in the world - remember the first was run in1891. Paris-Roubaix was first run in 1896, Milan-San Remo in 1907, the Ronde van Vlaanderen in 1913, Paris-Brussels in 1893, and the oldest of the European Classics, Liege-Bastogne-Liege in 1892. Of the well known races in Europe only Milano-Torino is older, first being run in 1876.
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