Pedals

Reginald McNamara lay unconscious on a board track in Madison Square Garden. The judge's watch said quarter to eleven. In a quarter of an hour the six-day race would be over and McNamara, the iron man, whose muscles are stronger than bicycle chains and whose will is a spinning-wheel that never stops, would have shown once more that nobody can beat him. For five days, 23 3/4 hours, he had almost continuously led the field--then a crash at the corner, a spill over the handlebars, and he lay beside his partner, Linari. The Italian, his shoulder heavily bandaged, was barely able to remount his vehicle, but McNamara shook himself, got up, pedaled the last mile and won the race, 2,286 miles, 146 pedaling hours.