Page:The fastest bicycle rider in the world - 1928 - Taylor.djvu/82

 he succeeded in doing. In passing the last twelfth, Gardiner swerved out about a foot off the pole, quick as a flash the 'Major' jumped through and won the race. I was in the same final, and was trailing Taylor, but I would not take the same chances he took under any circumstances.

"Major Tavlor has a wonderfully quick jump and when he finds an opening he manages to jump through it so quickly that it is impossible to close in on him. He has won a number of races this season in this manner but the majority of his races have been won in the cleanest possible manner, apparently without effort and by a pure burst of speed.

"The fact that most of the racing men hate him is anything but encouraging. Eddie Bald threatened to thrash him several times this season, but owing to interference he did not get a chance to disfigure the Major's black countenance.

"On August 16, at Green Bay, Wis., Taylor won all the professional races on the entire program and in a most decisive manner. During the entire season he has shown that he is blessed with an almost superhuman burst of speed. The Major cannot stand a race paced fast and jerky as well as Eddie Bald, who excels in this kind of a race, and the majority of defeats that Bald has administered to the Major has been in races of this class.

"Major Tavlor however, deserves a great amount of credit for the splendid manner in which he has ridden this season, as it has been done under the most discouraging circumstances. All the boys willingly acknowledge him to be the fastest rider on the track and also as a splendid fellow personally, but on account of his color they cannot stand to see him win over them. If it were possible to make him white all of the boys would gladly assist in the job, but try as they may I think it will be almost impossible to keep this little Negro boy, who came into the cycling world entirely unheralded, from winning the cycle championship of America for the season of 1898." After reading this comment of Howard Freeman's I composed the following verses: