Page:The fastest bicycle rider in the world - 1928 - Taylor.djvu/114

 That style of racing suited me to perfection, so with a great burst of speed I bolted for the tape, and flashed across it more than a full length ahead of Tom Butler. In the meantime there was a great fight on between Nat Butler and McLeod and the French rider, D’Outrion, who by a mighty effort in the home stretch nosed out Nat Butler and Angus McLeod for third position. But I had actually won. How the great throng did roar. I was elated with my victory and especially because it was a clean cut and decisive triumph with a margin wide enough to forestall any cause for complaint on the part of my opponents whom I had turned back. They were the cream of the cycling world. It was indeed a glorious thrill.

I shall never forget the thunderous applause that greeted me as I rode my victorious lap of honor around the track with a huge bouquet of roses. It was the first time that I had triumphed on foreign soil, and I thrilled as I heard the band strike up the “Star Spangled Banner.” My national anthem took on a new meaning for me from that moment. I never felt so proud to be an American before, and indeed, I felt even more American at that moment than I had ever felt in America. This was the most impressive moment of my young life, and I was a mighty happy boy when I saw my trainer crate my bicycles that evening for I was still three months under twenty-one years of age when I won that world’s championship and gold medal.

During that joyous demonstration there was but one regret in my mind—that my manager, Mr. Munger, could not be present to actually witness his remarkable prophecy, “the fastest bicycle rider in the world,” become a wonderful reality in such a spectacular manner. I considered my great championship success a big victory for him as well, not only for his confidence in me as a rider, but also on account of his high ideals and true sportsmanship for which he stood.

In my successes at the International Meet in Montreal I once more performed what among bicycle riders is considered a remarkable feat—winning two firsts on the same day, after having been “gypped” out of a first place in a race on the preceding day at the same track. That made two first places and one second place for me in the same program, an unusual feat particularly in view of the fact that one of my victories was a world’s one-mile professional championship. The second victory was in the two-mile open event while the much discussed first place I lost at Montreal was in the half-mile open event in which the judges ruled I finished second, whereas the crowd of 18,000 figured I had won first place in this race also.