Page:The fastest bicycle rider in the world - 1928 - Taylor.djvu/102

 caused his defeat as the two Butlers crowded him so closely he was exhausted.

“On his last lap-and-a-half Nat Butler suddenly jumped ahead of his brother Tom with Taylor closely following. Tom Butler held the lead for the first half of the final lap but dropped out and finished fifth. The cleverness of the sacrifice was apparent at a glance. Taylor exhausted by his long lead, could not catch Nat Butler while that clever rider sprinted over the tape as fresh as a daisy with a full wheel to spare with McCarthy third.”

In the one-mile open race, Tom Butler won the first heat and Llewellyn was second with Phillips third, the time being 2:40 4/5. I won the second heat in 2:41 3/5 with Dunbar second, Harley Davison third. Nat Butler won the third heat with McLeod second the time being 2:08 2/5. The fourth heat was won by McCarthy in 2:08 2/5 with Gibson second. I won the final heat in 2:06 3/5 with Tom Butler second and Charlie McCarthy third. This was an especially closely contested race, as the fast time will indicate. There were no pacemakers used but there was plenty of team work. I believe that my good judgment rather than my speed, enabled me to win this race. From the outset I was determined that the other riders would slip nothing over on me as I had a very vivid recollection of the pocket they had driven me into in the two-mile championship race just finished.

Close as were the two-mile championship and one-mile open events, the national one-mile championship race excelled them. It was arranged in advance that only the winners of each heat would ride in the final. I was fortunate enough to land my heat and then in that hair-raising final I led the field across the tape winning by a wheel’s length from Nat Butler with Harry Gibson third. The time was 2:00 2/5, the last quarter being clocked in 26 2/5 seconds which was the fastest quarter ever ridden on the Ottumwa track.

Tom Butler won the first heat, George Llewellyn second with Dunbar third, the time being 2:43 2/5. The second heat was won by Nat Butler with Wood second, time being 2:26 4/5. I won the third heat with McLeod second, and Phillips third, time being 2:26 4/5. Gibson won the fourth heat with McLeod second and Shook third, time 2:29. Harley Davison led the field home in the fifth heat with Lavin second and the time was 2:57.

“Dunbar paced the final heat,”” reads a clipping from an Ottumwa daily. “Tom Butler jumped away at a hair-raising clip. He held the pace, which was hot from the start for eight laps, after which the race was between Major Taylor and Nat Butler, the Major making a great jump at the last lap.”