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Show 'Mm Till BICYCLE: TlffiCK . . The story of success in any line al-, al-, tayg earries with it more or less interest, inter-est, and the harder the climb and the greater the number of obstacles over- ' come, proportionately the .greater charm in. the tale. Which leads to the . ' point , of this , tale, says a recent issue ot tha Bicycling World. Floyd A- McFarland, sometimes known- as "Long Mac," "Lanky McFarland," Mc-Farland," "Elongated San Josean," and a few other things ia, with the possible pos-sible exception of Nat Butler, who has long since lost most of the hairs on his head, but is still riding a bicycle with . the best of them, one of the most re- - markable bicycle riders in America to-'- . day.. Just how old McFarland is he wll never telL bnt he confidently admits ad-mits that he haa been riding since 1895, and during most of the time . has always al-ways been on hand at the box office to collect his share of the long green. But this fact has not as much bearing on - the . story as tha tale of his early struggles in the racing game, of the grind and the plug, and or the strivings and yearnings that were his while yet a would-be pedal pusher. . When Be Trained Hard. . When McFarland first broke into the game .he never tired of training, but time has since converted this like into intense hatred. "Mac's" chief reason - for not training continually is that he prefers the cushioned . chair or the tufted mattress. He pays little attention atten-tion to the prescribed diet and the sermons ser-mons on how an athlete should sleep, live and diet. He just makes it a rule to live and see that he enjoys life and " eats three effuare meals a day. ' It may I ' be remarkable, but the undisputed fact still remains that McFarland in his I long career has never suffered a ner-I ner-I vous breakdown or has had to call ia I the doctor for breaking training too soon. When one stops to consider, it is i remarkable that McFarland has so consistently con-sistently maintained his good form of riding. During his time, good men and plenty have come .to the front, made their spurt and died, but "Mac" still lives on. - - " . Hia Sfforta to Climb. - a raw-boned youngster Floyd Mc- , ' T Jtn4 was a member of the Garden .$r Wheelmen of San Jose, CaL, a club thatfstill is very much alive and one headed by Spoon er, made a short visit to San Jose to do some exhibition riding. rid-ing. McFarland hung around Spooner and asked for a chance to go East with him as a member of the team. - Spooner smiled like ."Mac" does sometimes new, and told him to go and get a reputation rep-utation first. "Huhl" grunted the local star, "I can beat anything on your team." He was given his chance that afternoon and from thirty yards McFarland woa the race with ease, and I never allowed the scratch men to tack onto his rear wheel After the race Spooner agreed to take "Mae" East, considering that he would pay back his expenses as fast as be made them. The San Jose lad went and proved to be the only winner on the team. - , At the close of the season McFarland returned to San Jose for the winter. While there Ziegler, that little fellow who togged in a yellow suit and seemed like a ball of fire while riding, happened hap-pened to pass through en his way home from Paris via the Orient. A match race was arranged. Ziegler. lad until the bell lap. On the stretch just aa "Mac" was sprinting around him a little yellow cur ran across the track and the pride of San Jose bit the dnst. Although Ziegler won the race he .confessed .con-fessed McFarland his superior and would not sign up for another contest. Haa "Palled" Champions. Since that time McFarland has been riding continually on American, European Euro-pean and Australian tracks, always get-! get-! ting a share of the cash. For the last ' ten years he has been a factor in the championship series, and although he has never won the title himself, he has determined on more than one occasion who would wear the plumes. - The wisest wis-est head that today directs a wheel, combined with a fast sprint that is somewhat of an enigma to all who see it, McFarland is one of the best all-around all-around riders living. He shares in the holding of some six-day hour records that have stood since 1900 and seem destined- never to be equalled or bettered. bet-tered. At present McFarland is riding as well as he ever did, if not better, and the fact that last season at Salt Lake City, in more than one or two or three instances, after pulling Lawson all the way he beat out such fast men as Downing, Samuelson, Fogler, Hollister, Pye, Clark, Bardgett and a dozen others, shows that his composition must be of the kind that time does not wither. . that v1 Probably, turned out more crack riders than any other club in the ' country. At that time people smiled at I the idea of a fellow whose muscles seemed almost too weak to hold together to-gether hia frail skeleton, "butting" into in-to the racing game. The top-notchers took little notice of "Mae" except to crack a joke at his expense. About that time McFarland got a paper route outside of San Joae, in which town he lived, and every morning morn-ing he had to ride a distance of fifteen odd miles with a heavy bag slung across his back. After carrying his papers McFarland paid a visit to the gymnasium gym-nasium and began figuring out a system of othletie training of his own. The result waa that in. the next club race Floyd won. Shortly after that he had always to be counted when road races were on the card. Shortly "be began winning on the San Jose tratk and before be-fore long he was the bicycle marvel of southern California, lLe was the pride of the town and the way his long legs, with piston-like regularity worked the j pedals awed the spectators. Among themselves the riders frequently remarked re-marked while "Mae" was training: "That long-connected cusa is actually - learning to ride a bicycle. ' ' Not long after that McFarland won the coast championship and established himself the king of California racing cyclists. King of California. - Ib both amateur and professional ranks he was . the king. And so the raw-boned San Josean, like the great t Alexander, decided to invade new i fields. About this time a racing team. I |