THE “IRON MAN” OF CYCLING

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 61, 3 June 1927, Page 6

THE “IRON MAN” OF CYCLING

MCNAMARA’S HECTIC RIDE WINS GRUELLING SIX-DAY RACE Reggie McNamara, “Iron Man” of six-day cycle racing, and his Italian partner, Franco Georgetti, won the 42nd international grind in Madison Square Garden, New York. The Aus-tralian-Italian championship team repeated its victory of a year ago with a three-lap margin over Otto Petri and Tony Beckman, German-American entry, and Bobby Walthour and Freddie Spencer, American team, when New York’s semi-annual sleepless week closed at 11 p.m. The final sprint hour brought to a rather tame close a week of sensational riding during which the winning combination fought off all opposition with a lead that ranged from one to four laps. By his victory, McNamara tied the sixday record of Alfred Goulett, who

teamed to win 12 races during a spectacular career. The winners covered 2,340 miles and nine laps in the 146 hours of continuous riding. McNamara, encased in plaster and bandages from neck to waist and suffering from a broken rib received in an early spill, still had the courage and vitality to ride the field into the boards in the final hour. The race toward the close was devoid of the muscle-wrenching spills that marked the week of jamming. Each of the nine teams in at the end, however, bore evidence of smashing encounters with the boards.