Evening star., 1940-09-23
Man on Microphone
Full Of Pep, but Fails
To En|ighten Fans
KiIiun and Ber9nu Hold
Lap Lead, According
To Latest Reports
BY BURTON HAWKINS.

washington has been introduced
to the spectacle of a six-day bicycle
race. now settled down to a steady
grind at Riverside Stadium, and
you'll pardon the people for being
lawn fete. This is a sport which
requires an education all its own,
and at first glance it appears it's
something like teaching calculus to
an Eskimo.
Circle-silly spectators, eyes whirl-
ing around like bargain basement
revolving door, seem bewildered by
it all The pedaling pack represents
a deep. dark mystery to most of
them. but some have sworn to solve
the intricacies of the industry. BY
the time the week is out there may
may be some folks who actually
understand it.
Most customers last night, and
there were quite few of them, re-
lied on the announcer for clues to
unravel the puzzle, but that wasn't
much help. Promoter Harry Men,
del, who doubled as announcer,
talked like he had consumed a din
ner of razor blades on toasted sand
paper, washed down with hydro
chloric acid.
Announcer Is Confusing.
His chatter sounded something
like this:
We'll, there goes blurumph koff
kaff inta thatWoW lap. Watch that
SnorgleboSSen fuse flabble boyohboy
if you wanta sniggle swat about the
race. EWaken botchy sprint snizz
whacken jam trying to take the
runcheyow.
That sort OF stuff, delivered in
highly eXcitable tones, adds much
to the bedlam. Harry was attempt
ing to outshout 12-piece band
most of the time, of course, with
the result most fans settled down
to wait for a blowout to create a
spill.
Frankly, we've never been quite
so confused. In the first place we
hadn't dressed correctly for the
affair One of the local sports
writer's. who prepped in Madison
Square Garden and who was teethed
OH bike races, wore knobby cap
at a jaunty angle and screamed,
Here he comes, watch that kid" at
proper intervals. sort of maintaining
the dignity of the press box.
pannia
We asked Reggie Mcnamara, the
Nj. Big of bikedom. when to get
excited and he understood. "Oh. it's
only natural to be confused. The
sport is new here, but give it a
couple days and the fans will be
cheering at the right times. Nobody
understands baseball the first time
they see it and it's the same way
with this sport. It's not as COM
plicated as it seems, though"
Mcnamara, an associate referee
here, hasn't pumped a bike for four
years. The last time he won race
was at Madison Square Garden in
March. 1882 He was 48 then and
teamed with Torchy Peden to give
the red-headed Canadian his first
victory in the sport. Reggie says
virtually every bone in his body was
broken when he was competing, his
right collarbone being fractured 10
times and his left four times.
Peden. says Mcnamara, now is
tops. with Heinz Vopel and EWald
Wissel, Germans. his chief con-
tenders for individual honors. Also
still dangerous but aging is Alfred
Letourner. They are the best men
in the business, according to Reggie,
and they're all entered hese.
The team OF Kllian and Charley
Bergna held lap lead over teams
of Vopel and Jules Audy and Peden
and Cesar Moretti at press time, but,
of course. the field had nearly SIX
days and six nights TO close that
gap.