Leonard Meredith - International Career

International Career

Meredith won his first world championship at Crystal Palace in London in 1904, beating the nine starters - four of them British - in the 100 km motor-paced event. He set off straight into the lead, passing five kilometres in 4m 49, 10 km in 9m 20s, 20 km in 18m 31s, and 30 km in 27m 30s. By then he was leading by five laps. He completed 50 km in 45m 15s and 80 km in 1h 15m 5s. Then his pacing motorcycle broke down and Meredith hit the track's banking and fell. He rolled across the track, turning somersaults. He got back to his feet, blood running, shouted for another bike and another pacer and finished the race 7m 19s faster than the world amateur record.

He became an Olympic gold medallist in the 1908 Games, also held in London, on the 660-yard track at White City. He rode in the team pursuit with Ernie Payne, Ben Jones and Clarence Kingsbury. It was the first time the event had been held in the Olympic Games. In the tandem race he was eliminated in the semi-final. He reached the final of the 20 km race but did not finish.

He was part of the team which won the silver medal in the Team road race. In the individual road race he finished fourth.

Eight years later he participated in the individual road race, finishing 18th.

He won seven motor world motor-paced championships, in London in 1904, Antwerp in 1905, Paris in 1907, Leipzig in 1908, Copenhagen in 1909, Rome in 1911 and Berlin in 1913.

The world track champion, Bill Bailey, said of him:

He was one of the most versatile riders I ever saw, winning races from a quarter-mile to six hours. Usually when thinking of motor-paced riders, we regard them as specialists who, once they have adopted the little front wheel, reversed forks and big gears are somehow never able to show good form in normal competition. Meredith was an exception. He mixed his racing most successfully and, in 1910, when he had already been world champion five times, astounded the cycling world by becoming the first rider ever to beat five hours for an unpaced out-and-home 100 on the road.

And of the world championship in Copenhagen, he said:

The championships were at Ordrup track, and we were staying at Charlottenlund by the sea, and had to walk a mile or so through the forest to get to the track. We could speak no Danish and the staff at the small pension where we were staying spoke no English. But on the day of the championships, just as we were leaving for the track, they lined up and made it known that they wanted 'tips'. We were annoyed at this, since we were not leaving for several days. Not until later did we realise the tips they wanted concerned the bike races, for the Totalisator was already a feature of Danish racing.