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SHOWMAN
track on his own, he follows something faster than he normally would be. The effect seems to be mostly psychological. For pacing we used great long bicycles —multicycles we called them— with four or six or eight sets of pedals and saddles, a veteran racer in each saddle and the whole kaboodle tearing round the track with the combined power of four, six or eight pairs of legs— and the poor devil of a racer breaking his neck to stay right behind them, so he wouldn't 'lose his pace." Six contestants, each with his own set of pacers, would mean as many as fifty-four men on the track at once— and quite a spectacle they made when the thing got going good. That was why our outfit had to keep on hand a tremendous stable of well-known riders. There was a time when practically every first-class man in the country was under contract to us.
Women as well as men got into the cycle-races. The first six-day race ever held— the idea developing out of the old six-day, go-as-you-please walking races— put the Canadian champion, a fellow named Adams, trying to cover as many miles in six days as two girls, Louise Armaindo and Elsa von Blumen, could cover between them. Back then they were still using highwheeled machines— uncommonly tricky contraptions on unbanked tracks. But you could work up a respectable speed and go a long way even under those conditions. An old-timer named Terron once pushed a highwheeled bike three hundred thirty-nine miles in
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