The Fast Track to Success: Herne Hill and the Cuca Cocoa Challenge Cup

Colby Winters, Spring 2024

The sport of cycling is a relatively modern activity that began in Europe in the mid-19th century and soon spread throughout the UK and western world with the first race in England taking place in 1868. While these early machines were extremely slow in speed, they were perceived by the general public to pose a danger to the riders, those around them, and the general peace and tranquility of life. Because of this, the public resented cycling and its culture of hooliganism but at the same time the popularity of the sport as a form of entertainment was growing. By 1878 the public disdain was so great that a change to the Highways Act was proposed that would make cycling illegal. While this never was accepted, the threat of a ban forced early cycling clubs and event organizers to find alternate venues without police leading to circuits or tracks of varying surfaces that were faster and more spectator friendly. Some of these purpose built enclosed venues commonly drew crowds of over 15,000 spectators and soon even included the Royal Agricultural Hall and Royal Aquarium. Nonetheless, by the 1890s over 300 cycling clubs existed in London alone and the public authority was still not interested in cooperation with cyclists so the National Cycling Union outlawed mass-start racing on public roads in 1890. 

With the ban of road racing, tracks or paths were more important than ever and needed to support the high speeds of racing with smooth surfaces and banked turns. George Hiller brought just this vision of a first class track to local investors, the Peacock Brothers, and opened the Herne Hill Velodrome on April 16, 1891 on the London County Fairgrounds about 8 miles south of central London. Within the year, records were being broken and a 24 hour record was set at 326 miles by Montague Holbien at Herne Hill, bringing it significant publicity.

As a young and popular venue, Hiller organized the legendary first edition of the Cuca Cocoa Challenge Cup with chocolate and cocoa manufacturers Root & Co. the following year. This race would soon come to be an early monument in British track cycling history being won three consecutive times by cycling superstar, Frank Shorland. Shorland’s success at the Cuca Cocoa Challenge series at Herne Hill Velodrome cemented Shorland and Herne Hill as key figures in the history of British track cycling.

Hiller’s work to make this race a reality by partnering with Root & Co. was significant because it was the first major headline race that Herne Hill hosted which was likely only possible because of the collaboration. The original pamphlet advertising this race can be seen in the carousel below as the “Cuca Cocoa Challenge Cup”. This primary source from July 1892 shows the prized and valuable Cuca Cup that was valued at 100 guineas and weighing in at 206 oz of solid silver as well as other advertisements, race rules, entries, and current records. The race offered prize money and prizes to participants and winners with the winner earning 10 pounds 10 shillings and after 3 wins, they won the Cup. This was significant and likely several weeks or months of wages alone but the cup was worth months if not well over a year's worth of salary for these amateur racers. This pamphlet also shows Shorland and describes his prowess on the road but questions if he will be able to succeed on the track. Also shown is a print of the bicycle he will use which is a geared ordinary with pneumatic tires, something invented just half a decade prior. This document shows the Cuca Cocoa Challenge Cup at the end of the pamphlet making sure to recognize the namesake, Root & Co. who are the sole proprietors of Cuca Cocoa and Chocolate. The source “First Cuca Cocoa Challenge” confirms this mutually beneficial relationship as Shorland endorsed Cuca chocolate claiming it helps him in training and racing, further promoting the products to other cyclists.

The public turnout to the start of the race on that Friday evening in July was immense and saw between 3000 and 5000 people as stated by Bicycling News and an unknown article which claims roughly one third of the crowd was ladies(See carousel: “Cuca Cocoa Cycling Challenge Cup”). Most of these ladies stayed throughout the night because their male escorts were too enthralled in the race. On Saturday, the audience grew to almost 10,000 strong (See carousel: “Th Cuca Race”). This crowd was for good reason as Shoreland rode strong and was cheerful and showed no sign of dissolution during and after the immense physical effort that was his 24 hour record of 413 miles 1215 yards (see carousel: “The 24 Hours Path Race”). One of the most enjoyable accounts of this win was from Northern Wheeler in which they state “The length of these wonderful rides is only equalled by the length of his neck, which will never be stretched because it is already long enough. He won the Cuca Cup by a neck – six miles in length.” (see carousel: “Frank W Shorland Brief Biography”).  The official record for the 24 hours was awarded to him by the National Cyclists’ Union as shown by the letter from the secretary of records committee, Percy Nix, and the records posted in Cycling at the end of 1892 as shown in the carousel.

While the racing was the main source of fame for Shorland, his personality certainly helped. The Northern Wheeler also stated “He is a genial, hearty and jolly fellow, with a pair of merry eyes that seem to dance polkas with fun. … His name is Frank, but he isn’t; for he is a champion “Kidder.”.  With his success, he quickly grew very popular among peers in the sport and Cycling reported on an incident at the London County Banquet when Shorland was awarded his prize, the hero of the Cuca Cup was lifted onto the shoulders of the crowd and cheered as “The Conquering Hero” for quite some time(see carousel: “An Incident at the London County Banquet”).

The 1893 race saw similar results with Shorland winning the race with an incredible 426 miles and 440 yards. Unfortunately not much information was able to be found about this race because the 1893 edition of Cycling was too fragile for me to be able to handle and was not found in the main F.W. Shorland scrapbook.

The 1894 race saw a tremendous amount of coverage and fame for Herne Hill and Frank Shorland as the previous two victories meant that Shorland had the change to win for a third time, thereby becoming the owner of the Cuca Cocoa Challenge Cup. With fans pouring in by the thousands, estimated to 80,000 attendees throughout the 24 hours at the underprepared Herne Hill Velodrome, the crowd began cheering the moment Shorland stepped out of his tent and they did not stop cheering for the 24 hours that followed(see carousel: “The Cuca 24” and “Cycling 460 Miles at 19 Miles an Hour”). After the racers lined up in their white, color speckled garments with lamps already lit although broad daylight, the race began furiously. The first few hours were madness with most riders recognizing this was not the right way to pace a 24 hour race but at the two hour mark, Shorland battled his rival Peterson for the following several hours until he broke the 100 mile record time and took his first break at 1:45 am. About 6:30 in the morning Shorland took his second break of 8 minutes but soon returned near 8 am after passing two other competitors who were fading. With a slowing pace into the morning and afternoon, the crowd was entertained by a band until the final excitement. The last hour became “One continuous grand reception of Shorland” with people on tops of roofs and haystacks of every building in the surrounding farms cheering Shorland into his new world record, just over 3 miles ahead of the previous record. This was a moment of pride for Londoners and England as the previous record was not held by an Englishman.

The impact of this race was written into history by the magazines, journals, and records that it produced. Accounts of the race were found written in russian and french and were continuously written about for years to come. Some articles, including one written by Shorland himself, describe the glory of this race and this golden era for cycling. 

As shown through these primary sources, the Cuca Cocoa Challenge Cup and Frank Shorland certainly impacted the success of the Herne Hill Velodrome allowing it to become a national icon for the sport of track cycling. The fame these characters brought to the velodrome preserved its significance in the minds of many forever and allowed it to survive the late Victorian era contributing to many more world records, the Good Friday Meeting, 1948 Olympics, the test track for Grame Obree, the home track of Mark Cavandish and so much more. Today, Frank Shorland is a name synonymous with the golden days of amateur track cycling and provides necessary context to understanding the culture of early British track cycling.

Bibliography

Wellings, Mark. Ride! Ride! Ride!: Herne Hill Velodrome and the Story of British Track Cycling. Icon Books Ltd, 2016.

Scrapbook, 1888-1926, MSS.328/N16/4/1, Papers of Frank W. Shorland, National Cycle Archive, Modern Records Centre, https://mrc-describe.epexio.com/records/NCA/1/73/1

Cycling, 1892, 1892, MSS.328/NL/CYC/1c-d, National Cycle Archive Journals, National Cycle Archive, Modern Records Centre, https://mrc-describe.epexio.com/records/NCA/4/11/67/2 

Cycling, 1894, 1894, MSS.328/NL/CYC/1e-f, National Cycle Archive Journals, National Cycle Archive, Modern Records Centre, https://mrc-describe.epexio.com/records/NCA/4/11/67/3 

Photograph of Frank Shorland, 8 October 1892, COPY 1/410/34, Records of the Copyright Office, The National Archives, Kew, https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C9253062 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thank you to the organizations and individuals that allowed this research to be conducted including the University of Alabama in Huntsville Honors College, the study abroad office, the UAH Archives, Special Collections, and Digital Collections, Modern Records Center, AIFS, and many other individuals along the way. 

This study abroad research project is supported by funding from the University of Alabama in Huntsville Honors College.