Waterbury Democrat., 1901-04-08
GREAT BICYCLE SEASON.
It Is Believed That This will Be the
 Best Racing Year Yet Witnessed.

sfAF It Is Believed That This will Be the
 Best Racing Year Yet Witnessed. There will be veritable feast for the admirers of cycle racing this sea son. So great has grown the popu- larlty of the sport that many tracks that formerly promoted four or five meets during the season have made arrangements to hold weekly meets. In fact, there are dozen tracks where from twenty to thirty meets are sched- uled and the estimated value of the prizes to be awarded amateurs and professionals during the coming season is more than $3O0O0O.
 There is little chance of any Of the promoters losing money. Never before has cycling been more popular than it is to-day and there is every indica- tion in the air of a tremendous boom in the sport. This was proven by the thousands of riders who appeared on the roads at the first breath of spring. Another thing that insures the fnan- cial success of the various meets Is the large number of high-class perform CTS and the excellent system of gov ernment for the sport adopted by the National Cycle association. Under this system men advertised to be pres sent will lave to fulfill their contracts or suffer sever discipline.
 Another good thing is that the pseudo-amateur will be Q nuisance Of the past. There will be no masquer- ading in false colors and the profes- sionals will be forced to conduct them selves as snortsmen.
 The season will open at the Charles River park track with q match race between Nelson, Walthour and Stin- son. Two weeks later the regular Sun- day meets at the Vailsburg track (Newark) and at HilPs Grove track (Providence) will begin on May IS. The regular season of weekly meets will be inaugurated at Charles River park and Brockton.
 Decoration day will, however, be the opening day for most of the new Coli scum and other tracks. On this date the tracks at Manhattan Beach, Provi- dence, Revere, Mass, Albany, Syra- cuse, Rochester, Pittsburg, Cleveland, Toledo, Dayton. Washington and Will mington are already scheduled to open.
 The grand circuit, which will in- clude all the championship events, will begin shortly after July and last for about eight weeks, during which time there will probably be five days of racing weekly.
 The rule barring out men from championship events who have not beaten 2:10 for, mile will keep the fields clear of poor performers and the arrangements for the heats, whereby but two men will contest the final. will make practically every contest a match race between the two best men. The field of sprinters will be the best since the invention of the wheel Tn includes Major Taylor, the cham pion of 1900; Tom. Cooper, cham pion of 1899; Earl Riser w s. Fenn, amateur champion of 1900; Frank Kramer, amateur champion of 1898 and 1899 X F Newhouse. Owen s. Kimb1e, Howard Freeman, John Lake, e. H. Gollett, E. c. Hausman, A. Rutz. Bob Naftilour, N. A. Mcfarland and many more. 73 ;; 'ssss g.y < ss.ss sss
 The middle distance list includes the ever popular "JimmyH Michael, Archie IcEachern, ". c. Stinson, F. A. Nc Farland, Harry Elkese. John Nelson, Arthur Ross, Albert Champion, Ray Duer, Jim Moran, F. U. Caldwell, John Lake and q score of others
 To this forlni liable list of cracks who will follow the circuit can be added the foreign sprinters Jacquelin, Of France, the present champion of the world; Momo, the champion of Italy; Ellegard, the great Dane, and Arend, champion of Germany.
 The European representatives in the middle distance events will be Arthur Chase, A. E. Walters, Edward Taylore and others that Chairman Batche1der of the N. A. Q. is now negotiating with in Europe
 The season will open at Vailsburg on May 19, when W. s. Tenn, last years champion, and Frank Kramer. the amateur champion of the two pre- vious years, will meet in one-lnile match race, best two in three heats.
 Jimmy Michael, Harry Bikes and F. J. Caldwell will arrive at Philadel- phia from Atlanta to-day and take up their training quarters at Woodside park, where McEachern. Johnny Zim- merman, Charles Church and num- Der of others are already working.
 The Charles River Park training camp includes Stinson,. champion: Moran, Walthour, Oscar Babcock. ssWill" Babcock q dark horse amateur; Hufley, Watson Coleman and an army Of amateurs.
 Johnny Nelson will arrive at the park this week
 A new park will soon be established at Springfield Mass, where Manager Henshaw has provided three motors for all who may desire pace.