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By John Garland (1949)
First published in British "Cycling" in late 1949
World sprinting today presents a remarkable picture. The Commonwealth dominates the situation. In the professional ranks, an Englishman, Reg Harris, progresses from one grand success to another. Among the amateurs, an Australian Sid Patterson, reigns supreme.
It is a situation so staggering that on the continent they are still reeling from the blow.
Harris they know and accept; he gave them good warning of likely thing to come and although perhaps in their hearts they thought it could never happen, it did – and England had its first world professional sprint champion.
Yet, still he was from only just over the sea and raced more abroad that at home.
Patterson, however, has stupefied them. Nearly 30 years ago Bob Spears won a world title for Australia – the professional sprint. Other Australians had meanwhile, made impressions: Opperman, on the road, Strom and Arnold on the track. In 1932 "Dunc" Grey won an Olympic 1,000 metre time trial title. But there seems no likelihood of an Australian winning a world title just now.
Patterson they knew of a pursuit rider; and there was faith (misplaced) in Messina, Grandini and Dupont. Bazzano was Australia’s sprinter; he was fourth in the Olympic race and had gone back home to retire.
Patterson also went back and returned to Europe in June. He sprinted a lot in the summer, but gave no sign of really mastering Schandorff, Heid, Bannister and the Frenchmen. Until Copenhagen.
There he not only mastered them, he slaughtered them, and came back to England for the Meeting of Champions to show us the manner in which he had done so.
It was at this meeting in September that we at home saw for the first time a real giant in every sense of the word, among amateur sprinting.
It was a rapid transformation.
Sid Patterson came to Britain for the Olympics as a late selection. He started racing as a schoolboy early in the war, but he was really only just beginning to mature when the Australians chose the men to come here. As I have already said, Bazzano was the sprint choice; Patterson came as a sprint reserve and to ride in the time trial and the 4,000 metres team pursuit.
In the former he finished sixth with a time of 1min. 16.7 sec.; he was in the Australian team which went out to Uruguay in the quarter-finals.
Staying for the world’s championships in Amsterdam he was eliminated by our own Alan Bannister in the eighth-finals of the sprint and went out to J. Dupont the French Olympic kilometre champion in the quarter-finals of the 4,000metre pursuit. (As an aside it is interesting to note that Patterson beat K. E. Anderson of Denmark, the 1949 world pursuit champion in the eighth-finals!)
Won Popularity After the world series in Amsterdam he returned to England and partnered by his countryman, Russell Mockridge won several madison races. It was this type of racing that won for Patterson his popularity with the track racing crowds. Under hard sprinting conditions, such as is found in a madison, Patterson was supreme. In one race he won every sprint, no one being able to match the strength and speed shown by the Australian, while of his partner it was said that he went farther and faster than anyone had ever seen at Herne Hill in this type of race.
When he returned to Australia at the completion of the English season it was the height of the Australian track season. He did not waste any time in getting down to racing and won every Australian national title; the mile, five mile, 1,000 metre time trial, and the 1,000 metre sprint. He also broke the Australian 1,000 metre unpaced standing start time trial record with a ride of 1 min. 13 2/5 secs. He followed these wins up with a very successful trip to New Zealand.
This has, of course, been Patterson’s best year. He arrived in England in June in time to ride at the Pyramid R.C. meeting on the new fallowfield track at Manchester. His improvement upon 1948 can, perhaps, be gauged by the fact that despite little opportunity for training on the boat coming over, he finished third to Bellenger and Logney of France, with Alan Bannister fourth. Third to a national champion and a Grand Prix of Paris winner, with another national champion fourth in his first sprint event after six weeks of travel!
His other rides in England included the Grand Prix of the City of Manchester in which he finished second to Jackie Heid, the Polytechnic C. C. International omnium, in which he was second to Dave Ricketts, with Messina of Italy then world pursuit champion, third and Eastman, champion of South Africa, fourth. He had another second to Heid in the De Laune Diamond Jubilee sprint and won easily, with Heid, a madison at the same meeting.
The second Pyramid R. C. Meeting at Manchester provided Patterson with more success. Again he partnered Heid he won a madison, despite a crash early in the race. As a team they took second place to Bellenger and Lognay in the 1,000 metre double-harness pursuit. Patterson scored a notable "double" at the "Followfield Games" winning the 550 yds scratch from Heid and Bannister and the 4,000 metre individual pursuit form Cyril Cartwright.
This was Patterson’s preliminary training before leaving for Copenhagen a few weeks before the championships: he was entered for the pursuit and the sprint and though he was obviously on the up grade as a sprinter he seemed to have a better chance in the pursuit race. Once in Denmark, however, he found tremendous sprinting form and he was persuaded to concentrate on this. How wise it proved to be!
In his races for the world title, Patterson was the victor over Kasslin, Finland, and Welt, Austria in his heat; Rants of Denmark in the eighth-final, Verdeun, France in the quarter-final; Lognay, the Grand Prix of Paris winner, in the semi-final; and Bellenger, champion of France in the finals. From the eight-finals all races were decided over the best of three matches, but Patterson needed only two in each case.
The reason for his coming to Europe this year is largely due to a band of enthusiasts in Australia who had faith in his ability to win a world’s title. Patterson was not sent by the Australian Amateur Cycling Association, but by a subscription fund organised by Leo Keating, Nick Grey and (an old favourite) Hubert Opperman, who formed a committee to raise the necessary funds to send the burly, laughing Patterson to the Championships.
The required amount of money was raised by running a meeting at the Melbourne Board Track for this purpose, while another gift of £25 was given to him from the Victorian Amateur Cyclists’ Union, just as he was leaving.
Of the man Patterson himself, he is little out of the ordinary. He started racing when he was 13 years of age and won his first event, a 25 mile road race, one year later. In the same year he had his first track success, a win in an open handicap.
The Patterson of today is 22 years old, stands 5 ft. 11 in. In height and is burly, weighing 14 st. 7 lbs. He drinks a little, does not smoke and has no food fads.
For training he relies solely on his racing which covers nearly the whole of the year. The reason for this is that the road and track season in Australia do not run together. During our English summer and the Australian winter they hold their road races, usually of the place-to-place type and during the summer (which has just started) they hold their track meetings. It is, therefore, not surprising that he does little training as such. The past two years have, of course, been all track racing.
In England last year he concentrated on madison and other types of "hard" races to enable him to reach peak fitness in time for Copenhagen, and of the three months prior to the title races the first two were given over to this type of racing and the last to putting the edge on his speed for his "jump".
Patterson’s plans for the future have changed since the world's championships. He will now only remain amateur until after the next world series; then he will enter the paid ranks. He will not, as previously planned, remain amateur until the XV Olympiad to be held in Helsinki. Ó Rolf Lunsmann, 2000 How you can help Feedback
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