Kolarz Polski, Vol 1, No 6
Articles in this issue
- Communiqués Nos. 9, 10 and 11 of the Z.P.T.K. board: regulations and programme for the 1926 Polish track championship at the W.T.C. Dynasy track in Warsaw on 27 June, and for the 214.2 km road championship over the Struga–Nieporęt–Jabłonna circuit on 29 June. Also records the admission of the Lwów sections Ż.K.S. „Hasmonea” and „Jutrzenka”, a one-day suspension for W. Karle of W.T.C. and a 10 zł fine for J. Placek of Ł.K.S., and the postponement of the Kraków–Zakopane race to 11 July.
- Editorial arguing that Poles are gifted at founding well-conceived sporting organisations but fail at the daily clerical drudgery that keeps them alive, so committee work is left half-done. It urges club officers to treat an accepted mandate as a soldier's post and to stand aside for others if they will not do the work.
- Signed article by „Fes.” on discipline and the authority of race judges, arguing that incompetent officials and „dilettante” club presidents let brutal riding take hold. Its case study is the 1925 world championship at Amsterdam, where German crossing tactics went unpunished, the Dane Jensen's chop nearly killed the Englishman Alden (fractured skull wound and broken collarbone), and even the gentlemanly Swiss Kaufmann ended up baulking Schilles in the final.
- Preview of the 1926 Polish championships signed „Miłośnik”, weighing Warsaw's Szymczyk, Podgórski and Majewski of W.T.C. against the provincial men — last year's champion Łazarski, A. Szmidt of Łódź and Garley — and predicting a final of Szymczyk, Podgórski, Łazarski and Szmidt. For the road title it names Mieczysław Lange of Poznań, Ziembicki of Brześć, Miller of Łódź, Szenrok of Pabjanice, Hóchsman of Kraków and Ignatowicz of Lwów.
- Signed „Pomian”, a rebuttal of the report on the 13 June Dynasy season opening carried in the Ilustrowany Kurjer Sportowy of 14 June, edited by Marjan Raszke, which accused the old riders of envy and of trying to rob the deserving of victory. The writer explains Józef Lange's tempo-setting long-distance tactics and defends the forty-year record of the Warsaw Cyclists' Society.
- Domestic chronicle covering the W.T.C. season opening at Dynasy on 13 June (44 starters; wins to Szymczyk, Platte and Lange) and the 20 June meeting where Podgórski took the Warsaw championship from Szymczyk by a quarter of a wheel and Lange set a Polish record behind motors. Further reports from Włocławek, Mława, Lublin, Łódź (Miler's Łódź voivodeship title), Pabjanice (Szenrok), Kraków, Trzebinia, Borek Fałęcki, Częstochowa, Sosnowiec, Brześć nad Bugiem (Ziembicki's 100 km in 3h 11m 10s) and Przemyśl.
- A reminiscence signed „Pomian” of a May morning club run of thirty-odd touring cyclists out of a still-sleeping Warsaw, past King Zygmunt's column and the Old Town, through Żoliborz, the Kaskada and the lime avenue to Bielany and the former Camaldolese monastery, bound for Modlin. It is a defence of touring and quiet riding against the young racers' appetite for combat.
- Editor's note explaining that this enlarged number is issued as Nos. 6 and 7 to make good a missing May issue, announcing Al. Choczner of Kraków, Jasna 2, as the paper's correspondent for the Kraków voivodeship, and warning subscribers that copies will stop unless arrears are settled.
- Foreign chronicle dominated by a stage-by-stage account of the Giro d'Italia, Girardengo's announced last ride: Piemontesi's opening wins, Mussolini's prize money reported by the Gazzetta dello Sport, Girardengo's abandonment on the Foggia–Sulmona stage, Binda's stage victories and Brunero's overall win in 137h 55m 59s. Also Herne Hill in London (Pryor beating the German champion Oszmela), the 32nd Bordeaux–Paris won by the Belgian A. Benoit, the Holland–Germany match at Cologne, and the entry lists for the Milan world championships, where the Italian press names the Poles Łazarski and Szymczyk.
- Report from Paris of 6 June on the French professional championship at the Parc des Princes, with heats, repechages, quarter-finals and semi-finals for Michard, Poulain, Cugnot, Peyrode, Faucheux, Devoissoux, Couderc, Rohrbach and Schilles. Fritscher was disqualified and Rohrbach fined for foul riding in heat V; Maurice Schilles took the tricolour jersey from Michard in the deciding match, with Poulain third.
- Letter from Jan Szczawiński replying to J.W.'s article „Przemysł Rowerowy Polski Zagrożony” in No. 3, arguing that riders buy foreign machines because importers' agents grant six months' credit while Polish makers sell almost only for cash or demand 50% down. He proposes six-month instalments with 2% monthly discount charges to revive the home bicycle industry.