Page:The fastest bicycle rider in the world - 1928 - Taylor.djvu/169



Returning to my home in Worcester, Massachusetts following my success on the Montreal track I set to work training in earnest for my championship match with Willie Fenn, the amateur champion of the country. I had but one week in which to prepare for this all-important event as the winner was to be designated as the champion match rider of the country. Two prizes were hung up for the event, a gold medal and a purse of $500.

I was reluctant about this match. It seemed to me that I was giving away considerable odds when I signed up to face Fenn. It had required an entire season of strenuous training and bitterly contested races to gain for me the professional championship title that year. In my race with Fenn I stood to lose my laurels at one fell swoop.

On the other hand Fenn won his national amateur championship title in a single event which was held at Buffalo. I figured that in case I defeated Fenn his reputation would not suffer, for a professional is assumed to be superior to an amateur with a somewhat similar rating. However, if Fenn defeated me that was something else again. Much was printed concerning my attitude toward the race, which was exactly the same as the one taken by me in Montreal a year previous under almost similar circumstances. The nub of my feelings in the undertaking was that if Fenn led me over the tape it would mean the end of my racing career.

However, I signed the agreement to face Fenn on the Hartford track, which was considered his home oval. Incidentally I considered Fenn one of the most remarkable riders in the world. He had his own particular style of racing and I realized that the one who won our match race would turn the trick in one of the most fiercely contested events ever held on an American track. The fact that I was in excellent physical condition and my knowledge of the fine points of the game, such as generalship and track tactics, gave me confidence that I could lead Fenn to the tape. Offsetting my knowledge of track strategy was the fact that Fenn was a powerful and very fast rider and I knew that I would have to be at my best to defeat him.

Hartford bicycle fans always claimed Fenn as one of their own. He was extremely popular in that city. I also had a number of very good friends in that city and there was much speculation on the eve of the much discussed race as to who would win, the amateur champion of the country or the professional champion of the country.

It was stipulated that the first heat would be paced, the second