Page:The fastest bicycle rider in the world - 1928 - Taylor.djvu/73



One of my first tests on the Grand Circuit in 1898 came at the Asbury Park (N. J.) track. The final heat found the five following riders who were the leaders in the battle for the championship crown:—Tom Cooper, Eddie Bald, Orlando Stevens, Arthur Gardiner and myself, opposing each other in this championship event. I won the final heat but great as that victory was in itself, it remains in my memory merely as an accident to one of my greatest achievements on the track.

As I stepped from the train at Asbury Park the afternoon preceding this race I was met by appointment by Arthur A. Zimmerman, the ex-champion of the bicycling world, the hero of all boyhood, as well as my own ever since I was able to read the newspaper. Five years had elapsed since I saw the great Zimmerman. In my capacity of errand boy for “Birdie” Munger in his Indianapolis home in 1893, I was privileged with a personal introduction to Zimmerman who at the moment was riding on the top wave of his wonderful career. He praised me for my having won a road race in Indianapolis as a boy of 13, tidings of which I later learned were furnished him by my good friend, Mr. Munger, who in after years became my manager.

At dinner that night my joy knew no bounds when Mr. Zimmerman requested that I share the guest’s place at the dinner table with him. I wore the gold medal which I had won in the above mentioned road race of my boyhood days and it frequently evoked compliments from Mr. Zimmerman. In the course of the dinner Mr. Zimmerman questioned Mr. Munger closely on my bicycling achievements. Mr. Munger said, “I have told Major Taylor that if he refrained from using liquor and cigarettes, and continued to live a clean life I would make him the fastest bicycle rider in the world.” Mr. Zimmerman replied that I had a long way to go before I could hope to acquire those laurels, but he added, “Mr. Munger is an excellent advisor and if he tells me you have the makings of a champion in you, I feel sure you will scale the heights some day.”

Through the intervening years Mr. Zimmerman’s path and mine had never crossed. However, he kept close tabs on my race track activities and invited me to be his house guest as soon as he learned of my entry in the Asbury Park mile championship race. Incidentally, Mr. Zimmerman was to be starter of the title race.

While the riders were limbering up on the track on the forenoon of the race day, Mr. Zimmerman approached me. He told me