The remarkable feat of riding a bicycle 200 miles over country roads in 15 hours, has never been accomplished until last Sunday, when Warren F. Taylor, of this town, covered the distance, breaking all previous records. He started from the rooms of the Norwood Cycle Club at 3 o’clock Sunday morning, accompanied by Roy Barrett, J. M. Foster and Forrest Bucknam on singles as pacemakers. The route lay through Canton, Stoughton, Easton, Taunton, and Attleboro to Wrentham and return, over which route the rider went twice in making his double century.
Taylor was without pacemakers on a considerable part of his journey. He stopped ten minutes in Wrentham for breakfast, and started at 6.15 for the return trip over the same roads. He stopped 2 minutes in Attleboro, 7 minutes in Taunton and 5 minutes in Stoughton, arriving in Norwood at 9.28, having made the last 11 miles without pacers, his actual riding time for the first hundred miles being 5 hours, 56 minutes, 80 seconds.
At 10.15 he left Norwood for his second hundred miles, paced by Hiram Barrows and Arthur Baker of Norwood and Beauregard of Stoughton. He arrived in Wrentham at 1.55, having stopped 8 minutes in Stoughton, 22 minutes in Taunton, and 8 minutes in Attleboro. Left Wrentham at 2.25, paced by Barrows and Partridge of Norwood, with 20 wheelmen as escort. Stopped at Attleboro 10 minutes, Taunton 17 minutes, Wayside Inn 4 minutes, Stoughton 10 minutes, arriving in Norwood at 0.04. Elapsed time, 15h. 4m. Actual riding time, 12h. 30m.
Barrows and Partridge are deserving of high praise for their helping pace, the former for the last 100 miles, the latter for the last 50 miles.
The receptions given to Taylor along the route were very gratifying and encouraging to him, and especially enthusiastic were tho people at Taunton and Stoughton, not mentioning tho Norwood folks, who, of course, were very demonstrative and proud of this now distinguished wheelman.
(All articles originally appeared in the Norwood Messenger unless otherwise noted)