Page:The fastest bicycle rider in the world - 1928 - Taylor.djvu/137

 interest, Frank Kramer is expected to clean up the whole bunch. Jay Eaton, the board track king, is a close observer and has ridden with many of these stars for years, and speaks by the book on cycle racing matters, and he gives as his best opinion that Frank Kramer will surely win the sprint championship of America, this year, 1900.”

Despite the fact that most of the sports editors of the country picked Frank Kramer to win the American sprint championship in 1900, I made up my mind that he would not. As the season opened I felt physically fit and was confident that I would once more top the field of the sprint stars of the country before the 1900 season closed.

The field was one of the greatest that ever set out to win the championship as the 1900 season dawned. ‘There was Tom Cooper, who won the N. C. A. championship in 1899, myself, who won the L. A. W. title the same year, Earl Kiser, Cooper’s closest competitor, Eddie Bald, the former champion for three years, Orlando Stevens, Frank Kramer, former amateur L. A. W. champion, Jimmie Moran, who also held the amateur honors under the L. A. W.; Floyd MacFarland, Al Newhouse, Howard Freeman, Hardy Downing, Tom Butler, Nat Butler and Frank Butler, the famous trio of brothers from Boston, Watson Coleman, Arthur Gardiner and Owen Kimble, and a host of other good men.

No less an authority than Jay Eaton, the board-track king, who was one of the closest observers of bicycle riders, picked Frank Kramer to win the laurels that season. Eaton’s opinion in this case was highly regarded especially since he had ridden with many of the stars who were to participate in the mad scramble for the sprinting honors that season.

When I failed to win the first race of the 1900 season some of my closest followers started nodding their heads. ‘They knew the controversy surrounding my being dropped by the L. A. W., and my subsequent reinstatement by the N. C. A. upon my payment of a fine of $500 had not only worried me but also caused me to let up in my off season training. ‘This inactivity caused my weight to increase eight pounds, and that was the reason I was unable to finish better than third in the premier race of that season, June 23, 1900, on the historic Manhattan Beach track. I won my preliminary heat and also placed in the semi-final heat. I led the way in the final heat and was well down the home stretch before I started to fade. Jay Eaton was at my rear wheel and we were pushing like mad for the finish line when Johnnie Fisher of Chicago burst into first place about twenty yards from the tape to win by a length over Eaton who beat me by half a wheel,

That was the first time in my career that I had failed to win the