Page:The fastest bicycle rider in the world - 1928 - Taylor.djvu/99

 ever seen. The starters included Tom Butler, Nat Butler, Jimmie Bowler, Charlie McCarthy, and myself, all having qualified in the four preliminary heats. In the final Bowler and myself were so close together at the finish line that the judges declared it a dead heat although a number of the newspaper men declared positively that I had won.

It took two starts to get us away for the final heat and it was nip and tuck all the way. Bowler had the lead on the last lap and kept it into the stretch. “Fifty yards from the tape,” read a Chicago newspaper account of the race, “Major Taylor began a magnificent spurt. It looked as if Bowler was a sure winner, but the colored rider came with a great rush and passed him at the tape. The crowd yelled for both Bowler and Taylor, and some for a dead heat, according as the finish impressed them, but a dead heat was declared although it looked to many as if Major Taylor had fairly won the decision. The riders divided the purse, and tossed up for first place, which was won by Major Taylor, Nat Butler was third.”

I believe I won that race, but Chicago was Bowler’s home town. On top of that I had never received the benefit of a close decision. I offered to ride the race over again right on the spot, the winner to take both first and second money, and also the championship points, but Bowler refused. Much to the disappointment of the public.

Janesville, Wisconsin, was the scene of the next National Circuit Championship event in which I figured. Tom Butler defeated me in the one-mile title event, that being the first time I trailed anybody in a national championship race that year. Nat Butler was third in this championship, while Bowler, the Chicago man, who rode a dead heat with me the preceding week in Chicago, finished fourth, with Eddie Llewellyn fifth. However, I made up for that loss by winning the one-mile open and the five-mile handicap events, Tom Butler being second to me in the five-mile race, in which he startdstarted [sic] from the 25-yard mark, with Barney Oldfield, who later won undying fame as an automobile racer, third, and Dunbar fourth.

That made still another occasion in which I won two races on the same program, tossing in a second place for full measure.