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Mile-a-minute Murphy
Awesome story about some guy in the 19th Century who raced trains for fun - hard as nails!!!
Read on: http://www.bikereader.com/contributors/woodland/...
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Those were wild days back then at the turn of the 20th Century.
Motor cars were extremely rare and the bicycle was king. Cheaper to run than a horse, they took off like wildfire to the extent that they were a major craze. Massive crowds of tens of thousands would turn up to watch at velodrome races, where the riders were literally the fastest men on earth at that time. Six day board track races were all the rage, drawing the biggest crouds of all. I'm not talking stage races here. Think: six 24 solos end to end.
And interestingly, at a time in America when having the wrong skin colour and giving the impression of having aspirations 'above your station' could get you hung from a tree by a noose, the fastest bicycle racer in the world was a negro by the name of Major Taylor.
The first black American professional sports star was a cyclist.
The first sporting event held in Australia under electric lights was a women's cycling race. The race was held in the 1890's at a stadium at Hammond Park - this is the park opposite Bunnings (the old vita wheat factory) on Parramatta road, Ashfield.
It wasn't promoted as a sporting event, the women participating were most likely to have been dancers, so the crowds were drawn to watching the women ride around in underwear. No-one knows what happened to any of the athletes after the event.
Yes history throws up the unexpected at times.
I'd pay good money to see that!
not the only one who thinks that?
lycra .....underwear, whatever!
He's got nothing on Mulga Bill