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Show i ' ' J I . . W " o o il o-- jL.J.vj Welsh Hict Was Best Man in His Class for a Lens: Time Jimmy Michaels, who died on the 3teamer La Savoie,, was the man who made the middle distance cycle racing game popular in this country. WheT he came to America Mlch:iela was without with-out doubt. the best middle dtstance man in the world and shared with Eddie Bald, the champion sprinter, the throne of the cycling world. It waa btoie the days of motor pace and Michaels had In hla string about thirty-five pacemakers, among them the. fastest men 1n this country, who In the main used tandems to pace the Welsh midget.- Michaels had them trained to a stata of perfection perfec-tion never seen here befora and tha changea of.paoe which hey made wera worth going miles trx see. It waa due to thia team of pacemakers that Michaels defeated all tha men in thia country. " - Foor several years Michaels made at j lccst $30,000 a yea;r and was the greatest great-est drawing card In cycledom. He waa I very small, weighing only about 100 pounds, and when the strain began to teil on him and he commenced to go back he decided to entsr the l'st of Jockeys. "Father Bill" Daly took hold of him but although he got his Kcensc I and had several mounts he did not get j far beyond the exercise boy stare and ! was never a success. He then went j back to cycle racing but never attained I his old time form, and while riding In j Berlin received a fall which put him j wrong In the head and eventually I caused his death. The writer once met Michaels at a , table In a New York hotel in company ! with Eddie BalS, Harry Elkea and Tod . Sloan. ' Sloan and Michaels were nearly duplicatea in size and build but the similarity ended there. Sloan could not bear to talk about anything but himself, him-self, while the little Welshman, who waa I just aa prominent in bis own line and . making Just as much money. -waa no-, no-, tlceably silent and disinclined to brag over his victories. At that time those four men were at the very head of their 1 various classes but all have gone back. Bald has given up the cycling game after af-ter losing his speed. E!kes, the greatest great-est American middle distance man of his time, was killed at Charles River park in a motor paced race and Sloan has lost his llcenss as a Jockey. |