The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-03-20
SIX DAY BIKE RACE
IN new YORK RAzzED
FOR ITS LACK OF pep

BY FRANK G. MENKE
The six day bikers have gone from
Gotham parts.
Quite few Of the natives hope they
never come back.
There was much that was strange
and odd-even weird-in connection
with the contest" staged in Madison
| Square Garden, between March and
| IL, that some of the folks are not
merely suspicious. They are openly
insisting that "brother-in-law" stuff
was executed in the most fragrant
| fashion
AS race, the affair was more or
less of a joke. The boys dwaddelcd
along most Of the time hundreds of
miles back of the record. They seemed
like persons who had nowhere to go
and were not at all particular when
they arrived. At certain stages Of the
six day journey they were close to
1000. laps behind the mark made in
| 1914.
! Any yet the promoters yipped about
it being thrilling race.
4 Those furious sprints" and ter
rifle jams" which the hired press
agents of the race SO fervently de-
scribed, were little more than sprints
The boys were getting so slow moot
| Of the time that when they did speed
up to gait something on the order Of
the bikers who performed six eight
and ten years ago, 1t looked like a
terrific outbust Of speed" in conf
parison.
| Absent from Track.
Throughout the week, on scores OF
occasions, some of the riders-plus
their partners-were entirely absent
from the track There is always a
time allowance for the boys when they
bust a tire, or a jawbone, or leg,
or something fragile like that-but the
absentees generally absented them
selves for much longer time than
the rules seemed to permit.
Again and again Jams" were start
ed with the partner of one or two OF
the riders down in the Garden base
tment Did he rush wildly from his
rundown couch, beat 1t to the enclos'
lure and furiously ride to the aid OF
his partner? Nix! He just fingered
there In the sweet bliss of a refreshing
rundown. Why? Nobody knows
except the partner who probably might
have explained it this way:
"That jam doesn't mean anything
except to get the natives steamed UP
Won't last long. Boys gotta pull one
of those wild looking efforts II swiLe
lap so as to keep the sucF ! com
3 ing into the place"
!. Put Teams Ahead
t Quite early in the week one of these
3 liam" things started. When it wa
Y over nobody seemed to have stoleI
= any lap. But the management-or
}. rather, it's officials-said, yes, yes,
g coupla teams has done that very trick
' yes, sir, they did.
And they put the Brocco-DeRuyte
and the observation-disclosures combina
ton one turn of the track ahead o
the field. Why? Oh. simply because
J explained the officials, the other team
had made faulty pickups ueen on
2 partner relieved another and, there
fore, dear Messrs. Brocco and Derby
ter and Grenda and Mcnamara mus
o be credited with having galloped on
t lap faster than the pack.
+ But the smart folks explained
this way:
"The best teams in the race are tn
;, Goullet- Madden, the Egg-Eaton an
the Kaiser-Taylor combinations. Nov
l. that they are a lap behind everybod
0 will figure that one or the other outfi
9 will make numerous tries to get bac
S the lap. Thatll keep the crowd CON
It ing all week in the hope of seeing 'er
r do it,
e Interest Perks Up
p It's more or less history that up t
n the time the stolen lap" was awarde
the interest in the bikers was non
too keen. But it did perk up after
& ward. Just as predicted. the crowd
d poured into the Garden in the hop
n of seeing the sextet make an effo1
b to get back on even terms with tn
two teams which had ben awarde
the Stolen lap"
"a But as the week wore on, and tn
a. exhibition took on the appearance {
a. a ball game where the result wa
known in advance, the gallery dwell
ers began to break out with a ras
of RAGING" They began to sens
something. You can bunk box sea
holder at an athletic contest, or
high priced grand stand seat-but it
a tough thing to hoodwink CALLER
person.
They hooted and jeered The
howled their disapproval over tn
snail-like pace. They shrieked col
Gemnation upon certain riders VIII
10 strolled around the track with the