Page:The fastest bicycle rider in the world - 1928 - Taylor.djvu/143

 banking and on the famous northeast turn of the oval he dashed down on the pole again which gave him the lead and he pedalled like a fiend for the last two hundred yards.

“Kimble, the speedy Kentuckian, set sail after him, but there were not revolutions enough in his wheel to bring him anywhere near Taylor, who had gotten in that famous jump of his and he was never headed. Major Taylor finished by three open lengths, with Al Newhouse second, and Owen Kimble third. The time was 4:28 3/5.

“Major Taylor was scratch man in the first of the two-mile handicap event, and also first in the final. 1In the first heat he caught the foremost rider, Lew Gorden, who had a handicap of one hundred yards before the first lap was completed. Taylor, however, failed to qualify in the half-mile championship, by Kimble getting the jump on him in the last eighth of a mile and finishing a length ahead. Kimble made a runaway of the final of this event winning by a dozen lengths.”

My set-back in the half-mile championship race made me more determined to win the two-mile handicap in which I started from scratch. 1 won this race after one of the most sensational rides I ever made; that was immensely pleasing to the public, and I received a splendid ovation.