Page:The fastest bicycle rider in the world - 1928 - Taylor.djvu/140

 in two straight heats in a mile special match race for a purse of $500. The fight between these two great riders had been counted upon as being likely to produce some gilt-cdge sport, but the dusky-hued champion defeated the Jersey man in two successive heats in neither one of which did the finish measure in inches. The ‘Indoor King’ was simply outclassed both times.

“In the first mile heat Taylor followed Eaton to the last lap, until the turn into the home stretch when he came from behind with a perfect jump and beat his rival to the finishing line, the greater part of a length. In the second heat Eaton sat upright on his wheel about half way down on the home stretch when the dark streak flashed along side of him, the Major again crossing the tape two yards to the good, mid the storm of applause from the big crowd.”

After these two victories over Frank Kramer and Jay Eaton, I was now in my very best sprinting form, and, if anything, I was perhaps a shade better than usual because I felt stronger than ever, and therefore, could hold a sprint longer. I next went after a matched race with one of my greatest rivals of the day, Tom Cooper, whom I had long been anxious to meet in a match race. In fact I longed for a match with Cooper ever since I witnessed the great race between he and Eddie Bald two years previous at the League of American Wheelmen’s meet in Indianapolis, which Bald won.

Immediately after that Indianapolis match race between Cooper and Bald I challenged either of them in a match or that I would take on both of them in a three-cornered race. However, I was promptly turned down by Bald who still insisted on drawing the color line. He made no bones of stating that if he raced me it would hurt his social standing.

Cooper tried to evade meeting me in a match race using the color line as a dodge. However, the fact that he was champion under the N. C. A. auspices put him in an awkward position as I insisted on his meeting me. On top of that the purse of $1000 which was to go to the winner of our match race, proved to be very tempting to him. No doubt, my defy to Cooper would not have borne fruit were it not for the fact that the newspapers of the country got solidly behind me and demanded that Cooper race me or forfeit his title forthwith. That pressure caused Cooper to lower the bars he had set up against the color line and accept my defy.

When we met to make the final arrangements for the match I offered to put a side bet of $1000 with Cooper that we might make a real race of it but his manager refused to cover my money.

Down in my heart I knew that Cooper had taken a leading part in having me fined $500 for my alleged infraction of the racing code in 1899. Cooper was treasurer of the American Cyclists’ Racing Union