An early version of Cyclocross? A still from ‘Runners versus Cyclists’ a 1925 Pathe film from Walsall.

My thanks to local author Clive Roberts, who’s spotted this curiosity on YouTube – a 1925 Pathe newsreel film of an early variant of cyclocross, with cyclists riding against cross country runners.

Since Pathe took the inspired decision to take their archive from a proprietary format and transfer it to YouTube from where I can embed films in blog posts and it’s much easier to share, it makes highlighting these films a lot easier. If only other archives were as sensible.

MACE, are you listening?

I’d like to know more about this film, and whether the event was a one-off of was a regular thing. I’m certainly surprised at the very modern, sleek design of the bikes – there’s some splendid metal there.

Anyone got any idea where the race happened, or maybe who who was involved?

Please do comment here or mail me: BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com. Cheers.